Southwark Council - July 4 assembly focus on health

[Community Cohesion]

Hello all,

Our next full council assembly is on the horizon and I'm keen to gather your views once again for its themed debate. This time the focus will be on 'health in Southwark'.

It will take place on Wednesday July 4 at Southwark College (Bermondsey Site). The campus is located off Jamaica Road and is less than 5 minutes walk from Bermondsey underground station.

Buses: 1, P12, 47, 188, 225, 381

Address

Bermondsey Centre

Keetons Road

London, SE16 4EE

It's now become an established part of our community engagament practice to seek the opinions of residents in advance of these public debates, so that councillors are better informed of 'the word on the street'.

Opinions and responses posted in discussion forums like this, or emailed directly to me, will be incorporated into a dossier of community views that will be circulated to all councillors before the assembly.

Here's a couple of starter questions:

What one thing could you do to improve your personal health and well-being?

What one thing could your local community do to improve health and well-being in your area?

I realise that these are two fairly general questions so, in terms of specifics, Southwark's four main health priorities at the moment are:

Prevention or reduction of alcohol related misuse

Living and coping with mental illness

Working with families to improve health and wellbeing

Healthy weight and exercise

With these in mind:

How can we best tackle alcohol misuse?

How can we better respond to the needs of people with mental illnesses?

How can we support families to improve their levels of health and wellbeing, especially the young?

How can we promote healthy weight and exercise?

We want to hear your responses to these questions and there's a number of ways in which you can let us know. You can post them here or you can email your comments to [email protected] or call me on my direct line to have a chat. The number is 020 7525 5645.

Your views have become an important source of information for councillors and are becoming frequently referred to in the course of the public debate. Have a look at the community views summary from the previous themed debate to get an idea of how we record your feedback:

http://moderngov.southwark.gov.uk/mgConvert2PDF.aspx?ID=27702

Play your part

There's other tangible ways in which you can play a part in local democracy and decision-making. For example, all who live and work in the borough are welcome to raise questions and take deputations to council assemblies. There are a limited number of deputations that can be accepted at each meeting so it's best to request a slot as soon as possible.

To raise a question or request a deputation slot, please contact the constitutional team on 020 7525 7225

or [email protected]

Members of the public are also welcome to attend council assembly. A ticketing system will operate and it's advisable to arrive in good time for the start of the meeting at 7pm as space is limited in the public gallery. The assembly will be preceded by an hour-long informal session from 6pm with a variety of stalls, presentations, and performances on the theme of 'health in Southwark'.

Council assembly is the full meeting of all the ward councillors in Southwark, which takes place seven times a year.

Michael Cleere

community cohesion co-ordinator