How Do I Get My Views Heard?
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In order to move towards a fully equal society it is important that the views of Third Sector Equalities groups (and the people they support) are heard.
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Bath & North East Somerset Council |
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Your Local or Parish Council |
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The Primary Care Trust (Health) |
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The Police |
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Fire and Rescue Services |
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Other Voluntary and Community Sector/Third Sector Groups |
These are just some of the people who need to know what equalities groups think so that the services provided in Bath & North East Somerset meet the needs of the equalities communities you support.
How Can We Tell Them Our Views?
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How Do We Tell Our Local or Parish Council What We Think/Need? |
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How Do We Tell Fire and Rescue Services What We Think/ Need? |
Specialist Equalities Forums/Networks
There are a number of forums specifically to support particular equalities communities to get their voices heard:
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Community Equalities Forum – for all 6 Equalities Strands groups and run by Bath Racial Equality Council (BREC). |
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Equality Bath & North East Somerset – a voice for disabled people run by Bath People First |
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Faith Forum – for all faith groups. The Faith Forum Community website is hosted by Bath & North East Somerset Council |
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Children and Young People’s Network – for Children and Young People’s groups – run by Bath Area Play Project (BAPP) |
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The Local Involvement Network (LINK) is set up to ask local people what they think about local health and social care services and provide a chance to suggest ideas to help improve services - B&NES LINk website |
Other Third Sector/ Voluntary and Community Sector Forums
There are other forums you could join where a range of groups from across the sector come together to look at issues that we want to comment on or where we want to see action taken.
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Voluntary Sector Forum –The Voluntary Sector Forum (run by CVS NW) is the formally structured body and meeting which allows all Voluntary and Community Sector /Third Sector groups delivering services within / to Bath and North East Somerset to come together to discuss issues affecting the sector. It is the formal voting body for the sector. VSF website (This Forum is funded from the ChangeUp programme and delivered through West of England Consortium member organisations. ChangeUp is a government initiative, managed by Capacitybuilders, to strengthen the voluntary, community and social enterprise sectors by encouraging and enabling the delivery of effective infrastructure services). |
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The Care Forum runs the following networks/forums for groups wanting to be involved in health & social care issues: Mental Health Network; Health and Social Care Network; Older People’s Network - The Care Forum website. |
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The Volunteer
Centre Bath & North East Somerset runs the
Volunteer Managers Network -
Volunteer Centre website. |
How Do We Tell Our Local or Parish Council What We Think/Need?
You can go to your local or parish council meeting to say what you think. A meeting of the council must be open to both the press and the public. Many local councils set aside a period before or after or in the middle of the meeting when the public can ask questions or even make statements.
For more information on Parish councils, how they operate and what they do go to the Avon Local Councils Association website: http://www.avonlca.org.uk and click on Public Information.
Finding out about Local or Parish Council Meetings. Contact details for the local and parish councils in B&NES are listed on the Bath & North East Somerset Council website. Click on the link for ‘Council & Democracy’ on the left of the Home Page and then the link for ‘Elected Representatives.
How Do We Comment on Public Consultations?
Another way of getting your voice heard is to comment on formal consultations held by the council or the PCT etc.
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Bath & North East Somerset Council main website www.bathnes.gov.uk has a section on the front page called ‘Have Your Say’. If you click on the links in that section it will tell you which consultations are taking place and how you can comment on them. |
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The Local
Involvement Network is set up to help your views
feed into public consultations on health and social
care issues
B&NES LINk website |
How Do We Tell the Police What We Think/Need?
You could attend a PACT (Partners and Communities Together) meeting. These are listed on the main Bath & North East Somerset Council Website www.bathnes.gov.uk – go to the main front page and click on the letter ‘P’ in the alphabet list. The Pact meetings are listed there.
PACT meetings are open to everyone living or spending time in a neighbourhood. Members of the public can raise issues and vote on which issues should be priority. A panel of key partners and stakeholders (people with an interest / responsibility in these matters) will then be asked to take action and report back to the next meeting. At the meeting you will hear how to get in touch with your local Neighbourhood Beat Manager (NBM) or PCSO.
You can send comments on issues of concern to you directly through the Police website : www.avonandsomersetpolice.uk And if you can’t attend a Pact Meeting you can register views for your area there. There is a link to the Bath & North East Somerset Area. For the purpose of making a comment the area is divided into Bath, Radstock and Keynsham. Your comment will go straight to your local neighbourhood policing team.
The police website has full access for BSL users, deaf, deafened, hard of hearing and speech impaired people. It also has information in a range of different languages and a Diversity Section.
How Do We Tell Fire and Rescue Services What We Think/ Need?
You could write to:
Brigade Headquarters
Temple Back, Bristol, BS1 6EU
0117 926 2061
You could contact them online: Go to www.avonfire.gov.uk Under the ‘Contact Us’ section there is a form on which you can fill out comments. This website also has an accessible Deaf Community Fire Safety section containing fire safety videos in British Sign Language and information about the Emergency SMS Text number for Deaf people.
There is also an Equalities and Diversity Section which you can access by clicking the ‘About Us’ tab.