Friday, 15 August 2008

Today I went to the second meeting of the local Health Inequalities Fund.

Peter Wright of the PCT has been very brave in setting up these meetings, each to agree on expenditure against £5,000. He has been ably supported by Emma Gadsby of WBC. Over the two meetings I was a bit disappointed by the turnout from voluntary organisations. I think this was partly due to voluntary groups not understanding the opportunity (ie: we didn’t explain it very well) adn partly to the narrow focus of the meetings (“physical exercise for the over-45s in minority ethnic communities” and “smoking cessation in West Watford”).

But decisions have been taken - and the exercise has produced invaluable lessons for future similar initiatives. One lesson concerns the ignorance between the voluntary and statutory sectors: some voluntary organisations believe statutory agencies have money to burn and some statutory agencies believe the way to involve the voluntary sector is to let them attend public events. Peter, Emma and I must get together soon to exchange notes!