Local residents asked for struggles and successes in making healthy lifestyle choices

Simon Wootton, Chief Officer, NHS Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale Clinical Commissioning Group

Residents of Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale are being asked to share their struggles and successes in making healthy lifestyle choices, as the Greater Manchester region prepares to take responsibility for a £6 billion health and social care budget.

The questions coincide with the launch of the Taking Charge Together campaign, earlier this month, and people’s answers will help to shape health and social care plans across Greater Manchester, for the next five years.

People can join a conversation about everything from exercise to mental health by visiting www.takingchargetogether.org.uk and filling in a quick survey, or by attending a community roadshow event being hosted by Key 103.

The roadshow event, set to visit many Greater Manchester boroughs, will be rolling into Rochdale (Rochdale Town Centre, Close to Smith Street) on Wednesday 9 March, between 10am and 4pm.

Simon Wootton, Chief Officer for NHS Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), said: “This is a fantastic opportunity for local people to discover more about, and really help to build, the future of our borough’s healthcare services.

“We’d really encourage people to get involved in this campaign. Whether it’s popping down to the roadshow event or filling in a quick online survey, your contribution is valuable and will help us to deliver the greatest and fastest improvements in health and wellbeing.”

The Rochdale roadshow event will also be used as an opportunity to have conversations about Rochdale Borough’s Locality Plan - the plan which explains how the borough’s visions for health and wellbeing fit into the Greater Manchester picture.

Rochdale Borough’s Locality Plan maps out local health and social care priorities such as targeting and supporting children and adults at risk before problems set in, strengthening community engagements and ownership of health and wellbeing, building more opportunities for community and peer support, developing new solutions and support mechanisms alongside public services and integrating the commissioning of health, care and wellbeing so that services meet all the needs of the person.

People who want to find out more about the borough’s Locality Plan, but can’t make it to the roadshow event, will have the opportunity to attend a series of drop-in sessions, hosted by the CCG and Rochdale Borough Council, held throughout March.

At the sessions, supported by Healthwatch Rochdale, and listed below, HMR residents will have the chance to meet the health and social care leaders behind the Locality Plan, whilst making comments, posing questions and joining in with discussions about the future of local health and social care services.