Hammersmith & Fulham Council has set up the H&F Hive to help local groups and individuals raise funds for community projects. It’s part of crowdfunding platform, Spacehive. In addition to raising money from friends and neighbours, projects can make a pitch for a share of the £200,000 which H&F Council has made available to support great initiatives. The H&F Hive opens up opportunities to anyone in the borough who has an idea that could make a real difference to the local community.

Projects must fit into one of six categories:

• Sport and play
• Parks and gardens
• Art and culture
• Buildings
• Food and farming
• Streets and infrastructure.

If you have ideas for a community garden, an art project with local children, a community café in the disused hut in the local park, an outing for elderly residents, or bringing people from different cultures or age groups together through poetry or sport, take a look at the H&F Hive to see how you could make it happen.

If you want to talk through your idea first, contact Cat Priddey, Community Engagement Officer at H&F Council. Tel: 020 8753 1770, email: cat.priddey@lbf.gov.uk

In June, the Mayor of London formally announced a competition for a new ‘London Borough of Culture’. In it’s bid to be London Borough of Culture for either 2019 or 2020, Hammersmith & Fulham recently created an arts strategy aimed at bolstering cultural provision in the borough, and ensuring that everyone, regardless of background, has access to the arts.

How Can You Help?
Hammersmith & Fulham will go live with their bid on Friday 3 November and you can help in the following ways:

1. Share your ideas
   From 3 November, go online at www.hfculture.london and answer our questionnaires
   Come to one of our consultation events (dates on www.lbhf.gov.uk)
   Email us at arts@lbhf.gov.uk
2. Back the Bid – From 3 November
   Register your support at www.hfculture.london
   Share on social media, using the hashtags
   #mylocalculture and
   #hfculture
   Request a poster from info@hfculture.london
3. Share With Your Networks
   Use the H&F Culture brand on your communications
   Encourage others to back the bid

For more information please click here

We have today published a new strategy for how we’ll engage with the public to help make us a strong, independent regulator that is always on the side of people using care services.
We engaged lots of people, including people who use services, organisations that represent them and our staff in its creation.

We heard the following challenges:

• CQC can’t do this alone and in some cases, are not best placed to do so – we should leverage what others do well in the system.
• People, and organisations, do not always know what happens when they share views and experiences of care with us.
• The public struggle to find the information they need about care services. They are not always seeing our ratings.
• People do not always know what changes their feedback or participation has led to.
• The “public” are not a homogeneous group – they are diverse and have many needs. Over the next five years, these needs and the way people use health and care services will change.

We will address these challenges by:

• Working with organisations that represent people who use services to help improve the quality of care.
• Encouraging people to share their views and experiences of care with us, improving the way we use this information and reporting on the action we take.
• Producing and promoting simple, clear and concise information for the public that explains what good care looks like and supports people to make decisions about services.
• Improving the way we work by involving and engaging the public in our policies, plans and processes.

Thank you to those who helped us to develop our new strategy. We look forward to working with you to turn it into reality over the coming years.

You can download the summary version of the strategy here.

The strategy is also available in Easy Read and Large Print.

You can also read the strategy in Bengali, Chinese, Gujurati, Polish, Punjabi and Urdu..

New CQC research reveals lack of awareness over right to choose where to give birth

New research commissioned by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) has found that more women must be made aware of their right to choose their birth hospital.

The research, which surveyed over 1,000 women who had given birth in England in the last three years, found that 40% either weren’t aware or didn’t feel they had a choice about their birth hospital.

Of those who choose their hospital 53% stated  this was a ‘very important’ decision, however 57% spent less than an hour choosing theirs, suggesting a lack of awareness about the amount of information that is available to help make an informed choice.

The CQC is encouraging all expectant parents to understand their right to choose where to give birth and to use CQC inspection reports in order to help make an informed, considered decision.

Heidi Smoult, Deputy Chief Inspector at the Care Quality Commission, explains: “Pregnancy is a very exciting time but it can also be daunting and many women can feel at their most vulnerable. Women have the option to have a hospital, birthing centre or home birth.

It’s vital that all women know they have a choice over where they give birth. It’s a big decision and while advice from family and friends can be useful, it’s important that expectant parents know there’s free independent information available to help them.

Our inspection reports provide detailed scrutiny of all aspects of maternity care – we urge all prospective parents to do their research to help ensure they have the best possible birth experience.”

The CQC found the top influencing factors effecting where women choose to give birth were the hospital being close to home (65%), followed by hospital cleanliness and safety (55%), a good reputation (39%) and caring staff (36%). CQC inspection reports include detailed information asking these key questions and the research found that of those who did use the inspection reports 95% found them helpful in informing their birth choice decision.

The research also found a third (34%) of mums spent less than an hour choosing the type of birth they want and making a birth plan, and 15% didn’t do this at all.

As part of the campaign the CQC also wants new parents to share their experiences of maternity services. Heidi continues: “We really want to hear about women’s real-life experiences as this information supports our monitoring, inspecting and rating of services and helps us provide the most up-to-date and comprehensive picture of the current quality of maternity care being provided at a local level across the country. We urge new parents to help other parents by sharing their experiences with us.”

The CQC is responsible for inspecting all hospitals, including private hospitals, GP practice, dentists, care homes and home care in England. Its maternity service inspections include all services for women that relate to pregnancy, including ante and post-natal services, labour wards, birth centres or units and theatres providing obstetric related surgery.

Each inspection answers five key questions: Is the service safe? Is it effective? Are the staff caring and responsive to people’s needs and is the service well led?

For more information about the CQC’s campaign and to find out how to share your experiences please visit www.cqc.org.yk/yourbirthplan

We are excited to announce that we are now enrolling new members for our White City Theatre Youth Theatre, which is now based at the BUSH THEATRE on Uxbridge Road. If you are aged 11 – 18 years old and enjoy drama and having fun then our theatre group is perfect for you!

The group meets every Monday (during term time) Juniors – aged 9-11 years – 4.15-5.30, seniors 11-18 years 5.45 – 7.30pm at the Bush Theatre, 7 Uxbridge Road, Shepherds Bush, W12 8LJ

The club has links with theatre professionals, writers, and filmmakers, and frequently collaborates with professional theatres, which gives our members the opportunity to experience and learn about many aspects of theatre and filmmaking, in performance and backstage as well as offering work experience to those who are interested in a career in the Arts or studying drama for GCSE or A level.  We also organise regular trips to local and West End Theatre productions, which in the past have been fully funded by our sponsors.

So please join us on Monday 11th September from 4pm until 6pm for our enrollment day to register. Or if you cant attend enrollment contact us on either: info@whitecitytheatre.com or 07808 952690 to book your place.

We are a not for profit CIC looking for enthusiastic and committed local members.  Our sessions are completely free of charge.