Health and Wellbeing News, Events and Opportunities – April 2025
April 8, 2025
Welcome to Cumbria CVS’s Health and Wellbeing News, Events and Opportunities for April ’25. This page will be updated regularly, so we are delighted you have landed here today and hope that you will keep coming back for updates during the month.
To catch up on our News, Events & Opportunities from March 2025, click here
Lots of the News, Events and Opportunities information will also be appearing in our regular Health and Wellbeing Bulletin. This Bulletin is sent out to all current members of our two Networks: Action for Health and the Mental Health Provider Forum. If you have found this page useful why not join either or both Networks by following these links:
News – we will be using this as an opportunity to pick out particularly important/interesting articles from our most recent Bulletin and/or highlighting information that might be time sensitive.
Events – we will be using this as an opportunity to highlight events of interest to organisations interested in health and care issues including Network events. Most of these will be local Cumbria events but some maybe regional.
Opportunities – we will be using this to highlight health and care focused funding and project opportunities, representative roles and working groups you might want to get involved in and much more. These will focus on Cumbria but may also include regional opportunities.
If you’ve seen something you think we should be sharing, let us know! Email us:
Clare Edwards claree@cumbriacvs.org.uk
Holly Ferguson hollyf@cumbriacvs.org.uk
Sarah Penn sarah.penn@cumbriacvs.org.uk
WESTMORLAND AND FURNESS area – Council strategy for temporary accommodation
The Council has now agreed a new plan to tackle rising costs associated with providing emergency accommodation for people experiencing homelessness.
The new Temporary Accommodation Strategy was agreed by Members which sets out a clear plan to address the increasing demand for temporary accommodation, to ensure that people across Westmorland and Furness have access to safe, suitable, and affordable housing while they are assisted to find a longer-term solution.
https://www.westmorlandandfurness.gov.uk/news/2025/new-council-strategy-temporary-accommodation
CUMBERLAND COUNCIL area – More NEWS for the Council Health Determinants Research Collaboration
Newsletter highlights:
- April Webinars
- Free training on offer
You can view the newsletter here
Cumberland’s Health Determinants Research Team, are hosting a series of online information sessions, working in collaboration with Cumberland council. This session will provide valuable insights into our aim to improving health outcomes in the community.
Cumberland Council’s vision is to put health and wellbeing into the heart of everything we do. Our research plan will help Cumberland Council gather proof of how to make this happen and assess projects that can improve health factors in the area. It supports the Council’s main goal in their plan of boosting health and wellbeing, tackling inequalities, and providing great public services. The plan will be delivered in accordance with the Cumberland Approach.
Click here for more information.
CUMBERLAND CONCIL area – Help for people to adapt their homes
Cumberland residents who need help to remain living independently in their homes will soon see the benefits of a new policy initiative agreed this week.
Cumberland Council’s Executive agreed a new Home Adaptation and Assistance Policy at its meeting in Carlisle on 27 March.
The initiative helps residents who have a disability make adaptations to their home so that they can remain independent and living at home for longer. Grants of up to £30k can be provided to residents through the government’s Disabled Facilities Grants scheme.
The changes also mean that residents will get the same service and offer wherever they live in Cumberland.
Central to the plans is the creation of a Cumberland Home Improvement Agency, providing a full end-to-end service, with a caseworker to guide residents through the various stages from application to design and management of the work.
There are also plans to introduce a deferred payment loan scheme allowing people to top up their grant with an interest-free loan which is repaid once the property is sold or transferred such as through inheritance.
Click here for more information
SOUTH CUMBRIA area – Workshop 4 – Project Legacy ‘making it stick’
This is the last of our series of workshops delivered through the South Cumbria Mental Health Partnerships Project.
The project has brought together many third sector organisations delivering mental health services in the South Cumbria NHS area to develop ways that we can improve and develop ways to better connect with our statutory colleagues.
PLEASE NOTE – NEW workshop dates
Workshop 4 Project Legacy ‘making it stick’
Wednesday 7th May 2025
9.30am to 2.30pm (including a FREE lunch)
Swarthmoor Hall, Ulverston
A fully interactive session open to all third sector organisations delivering services for and in support of mental health and mental wellbeing in South Cumbria.
This Workshop will help us to:
- Review all the great work we have done so far
- discuss & develop a plan to keep the achievements, ideas and action going after our project comes to an end in June 2025
- understand the people and organisations who can offer support, capacity, energy and interest for our Legacy Plan
Supported by Charlotte Pace as independent facilitator
Click here to book onto the event.
EDEN DISTRICT area – Transport, isolation and befriending: Link and Think
A networking event for link workers and voluntary sector organisations in Kirkby Stephen and surrounding areas with a focus on transport, isolation and the power of befriending.
Link workers will learn more about the support available to people who are isolated, and what some of the barriers and challenges might be in Kirkby Stephen.
Voluntary sector/VCFSE organisations will be able to raise awareness of their services, and learn more about the role of link workers in supporting people to access them.
There will also be time and space to think about gaps and opportunities to work in partnership to improve things for people in and around Kirkby Stephen.
Click here to book onto the event.
COUNTYWIDE – New Mental Health First Aid courses for 2025
The course will equip Mental Health First Aiders with:
- The knowledge and skills to spot signs of a person experiencing poor mental health
- The confidence to be able to support themselves and others
- The support to feel empowered and motivated to carry out their role
- Access to the MHFAider Support App® with 24/7 digital support
- Access to exclusive resources, ongoing learning opportunities, and the benefit of joining England’s largest community of trained MHFAider
- A hardcopy workbook and a digital MHFA manual
- Become a MHFAider® yourself or upskill your staff and benefit from 3 years of MHFAider support that will help you to feel empowered and confident in this role.
There is also a refresher course for those who have undertaken their initial MHFA course 3 years prior and helps learners to:
- Renew their skills
- Update their knowledge of mental health support
- Practice applying the Mental Health First Aid action plan
There is a fee for these courses.
- Mental Health First Aid – 20th/21st May – Carlisle Youth Zone
- Mental Health First Aid – 23rd/24th June – Energus, Workington
- Mental Health First Aid Refresher – 3rd June – Online
NORTH CUMBRIA NHS area – AN OPPORTUNITY to express interest in delivering NEW service to support people ‘at risk of falling out of work due to their health’
A great opportunity for third sector/VCSE organisations to deliver a range of services to support people whose health is preventing them getting back into their workplace/role.
Can your organisation help deliver Person Centred early intervention and prevention?
We know that locally many people experience significant health issues that make remaining at work a real struggle. Some may have long periods of sickness, others experience multiple periods of sickness over time. Many of these people enjoy work and would want to or could return if provided with the right support.
We know that of the many people currently struggling to stay at work:
- 66% experience mental health and wellbeing issues (including anxiety & depression)
- 33% experience musculoskeletal issues (bones & joints)
Here in North Cumbria, we want to build a local support service to help people return to their work. Our aim is to deliver the service through a range of local organisations, to provide a truly person-centred model that helps tackle a range of bio-psychosocial needs.
This service needs to include the following:
- Health & lifestyle advice
- Mental health & wellbeing support
- Activity & exercise support
- Benefits & debt advice
- Employer liaison to support reasonable workplace adjustments
Please see below documents to find out more about this opportunity and an Expression of Interest of Form if you would like your organisation to be considered to become a part of the delivery.
Please return this form by email by no later than 5pm 17.04.2025
The form should be clearly marked N Cumbria Health & Growth Accelerator EOI and sent to the following email addresses:
Click here to access the forms.
CUMBERLAND area – Paternal Wellbeing Project
Healthwatch Cumberland have launched our Paternal Wellbeing Project ‘How are you today, Dad?’ and we would love your support and to know your thoughts.
Becoming a new parent can for many, be a time of stress and anxiety. Traditionally and for many valid reasons, we see a great deal of attention, care and information directed towards the parent who gave birth from both care providers and families, but what about the partners?
Changes relating to lifestyle, finances, emotions, relationships, trauma and a huge feeling of responsibility, will no doubt impact on how they can feel throughout this period. For many reasons such as being too busy, too tired or fear of being labelled selfish, partners may keep their feelings hidden. We aim to change this by providing a platform for them to speak up.
What we want to do:
By encouraging and empowering partners to share their stories and experiences we hope to highlight the challenges that they face, how having honest conversations can help and what provision there is out there for those who need it.
How you can help:
We want to understand partners’ experiences of becoming a new parent by asking them to fill out a short survey.
This survey will allow us to create a clearer picture of experiences across Cumberland and help us identify any common themes.
Those who would like to have more time and space to recount their story in depth are welcome to carry out a case study with us, and can sign up for this by leaving their contact details on our website or just reaching out directly.
We would be very grateful if you could share our survey and website page with anyone who you think would be comfortable sharing their story.
We would also be willing to come along to your place of work, a support group or social space if you feel that it would be beneficial 😊
Thank you for helping us break the stigma around paternal support!
Click here for more information.
COUNTYWIDE – Great Big Green Week and Big Lunch
Zero Carbon Cumbria are working with both councils to support events in June. Westmorland and Furness area is supporting the Great Big Green Week by offering small grants for community events, while Cumberland Food Partnership are looking to fund Big Lunch community food gatherings.
More information and how to apply for both schemes can be found Great Big Green Week – Zero Carbon Cumbria – Carbon reduction action across the county.
