Your views on local healthcare services needed

Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care Board (ICB) Virtual Citizen's Panel.

The Virtual Citizen's Panel aims to ensure our local healthcare services meet the needs of our diverse community. The Virtual Ctizen's Panel is an initiative that allows members of the public to share their views with the NHS in Lancashire and South Cumbria through research groups, events, and online questionnaires. It provides a platform for residents to be heard and stay informed about the work being done in the region. This initiative complements ongoing face-to-face engagement efforts with community groups and helps gather valuable insights to improve and commission health and care services.

By joining the Virtual Citizen's Panel, you will have the opportunity to discuss your experiences of healthcare in Lancashire and South Cumbria. Your feedback will be instrumental in shaping services that reflect the needs and priorities of residents. Participants can choose which issues they wish to be contacted about, ensuring that involvement is both relevant and convenient.

The ICB will also continue to engage with the community through local groups, public events, and partnerships with organisations like Healthwatch and various voluntary and community organisations. Much of this happens in place-based partnerships and this ensures that everyone has the chance to contribute, whether online or in person.

The insights gathered from the Virtual Citizen's Panel play a crucial role in making health and care services in Lancashire and South Cumbria the best they can be. Involving local people in this process is essential, and the ICB is committed to listening and responding to your needs. You can find out more about how they do this on their website.To join the Virtual Citizen's Panel, please visit https://news.lancashireandsouthcumbria.nhs.uk/citizenspanel.

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Handyperson scheme

Do you need help with small jobs around your home?  Westmorland and Furness Council operate a Handyperson Scheme to help qualifying residents with jobs such as changing lightbulbs, putting up shelves, hanging curtains, installing handrails, small repairs such as unblocking sinks or replacing washers on taps, and fitting minor security measures such as door and window locks. All the work is carried out free of charge - you just provide the materials. 

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Westmorland and Furness Local Plan

Every person living and working in Westmorland and Furness is invited to join the conversation into how we can together make the area better now and in the future.

Westmorland and Furness Council is preparing its first Local Plan – which looks ahead 20 years from now and considers how many new homes and workplaces that our area needs to continue to thrive, while also protecting our local and historic character and special landscapes, green spaces and environment.

The council is kickstarting the process with a conversation about the places residents live, work and visit across the Local Plan area – the parts of Westmorland and Furness outside the Lake District and Yorkshire Dales national park areas.

A digital survey has gone live today and we are urging as many people as possible to let us know their views.

Conversations will also be happening at drop-in sessions all around Westmorland and Furness, starting in Kirkby Stephen on Wednesday, when people can talk to council officers to find out more about the process and contribute.

We will also be asking people to give us their views on the design of new development by helping to shape a Design Code for our area.

The Local Plan will allocate sites for housing and other developments, such as new employment sites and minerals and waste sites (e.g. quarries and recycling centres). We are asking people to put forward sites to be included within the new Local Plan.

It contains the policies that we use to guide and decide whether to grant planning permissions for new development.

And the plan seeks to make our area better by, for example, reducing the environmental impact of new development, building affordable housing, helping our wildlife and reducing flood risk, helping improve our infrastructure (including roads and cycleways, schools, drainage systems, facilities for recycling/waste management and community facilities) and identifying the infrastructure needed to support development and shows how it will be accommodated and provided for.

The plan takes into account changes in our economy, population, society, towns, countryside and nature, movement around places, climate, and frequency of extreme weather event, heritage and communities. 

Join the conversation or find out details about the drop-in sessions at: www.westmorlandandfurness.gov.uk/localplan

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Community Involvement Initiative

Community Led Plan in partnership with Burton-in-Kendal Parish Council

Burton-in-Kendal Parish Council is looking to establish a Community Led Plan.

Community Led Plans are local, action-based plans which address a wide range of problems and opportunities facing communities. They can include social, economic and environmental issues and give everyone in the community a chance to get involved. Community Led Planning can create cohesive, empowered and active communities in which people can influence decisions that affect their area.

Community Led Plans encourage people to take responsibility for action which can be carried out locally, as well as identifying where further help is needed. They can include a series of themed action points across a range of topics such as health and wellbeing, public transport, traffic and environmental issues, community safety to name a few.

If done the right way active communities can influence decisions that affect their area. Often local authorities need good quality information and ‘evidence of need’. This is when Community Led Plans can help to do this and help to persuade local authorities to prioritise actions that will benefit your area.

Would you like to be involved?

We are looking for interested people to be part of a steering group along with the Parish Councillors to take this forward, the first step being a Community Needs Assessment.

We would like to hear from all age groups and areas of the community including business owners and other community group members.

If you are interested in and would like more information on how to become involved or have any questions, please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. by the 15th March 2024

Christine Davidson

Parish Clerk On behalf of Burton-in-Kendal Parish Council

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