Update 20th June 2023

We had 110 responses to the survey and there was some really good feedback, so we will be busy working through your responses to make sure we pull out and capture your views and experiences. We will be in touch within the next couple of weeks to give you a summary of the key themes coming out of the survey, and next steps for using this to inform the work we do to develop the services and support in Southend.

We were really pleased to see that around half of you who participated left your contact details to stay updated and potentially get involved with further opportunities to help us develop our healthy lifestyles support moving forwards.

This is really helpful, and I just wanted to follow up and let you know about some opportunities to help us with the next steps:

1. Share your personal story – It is important for us to keep people and their experiences at the centre of the work we do, and using personal stories or experiences can really help. We can keep it anonymous, but if you have an experience you would like to share, get in touch by emailing nickyriches@southend.gov.uk and we can organise a telephone or face to face meeting to capture your story, or for you to send it in to us via email.

2. Attend a virtual drop in – we will be holding some virtual drop ins throughout the first week of July where we can have an informal chat about our review, what we have found and can hear directly about some of your ideas about how services can be developed. I have included the dates and times below. If you would like to attend any of these sessions and join for a coffee and a chat, please email strategiccommissioning@Southend.gov.uk and we will get an invitation sent to you! This will be done via video call on Microsoft Teams, so if you will find this difficult, let us know and we can arrange another way that is easier for you.

• Monday 3^rd July between 10-11am
• Tuesday 4^th July between 11am and 12pm
• Wednesday 5^th July between 4-5pm

3. Arrange to meet face to face – we know that digital isn’t for everyone, so want to come out to local communities to continue the conversation about healthy lifestyles services. We can do this either 1:1 or in small groups (refreshments provided of course!). If this is something you be interested in, please email strategiccommissioning@Southend.gov.uk to let us know and we will be in touch to discuss further details

4. Equality Impact Assessment – We know that certain groups of people find it more difficult to access our services, and it is important we understand these differences and the impact any changes to services can have on different people in Southend. If you experience barriers to accessing services relating to a disability, health condition, financial circumstances, cultural circumstances, caring responsibilities, age, gender, sexuality or religion – we would be interested having a further conversation to look at how we can remove these barriers.

To say a special thanks for putting yourself forward for any of the above opportunities, we will also be offering a £20 gift voucher to reimburse you for your time, as we know we are all super busy and we really appreciate your input.

We will be in touch in the next couple of weeks with some further information to make sure we keep you up to date on how this work is progressing and next steps!