Everybody knows Sefton has few rivals for the title of most beautiful British coastline.

The 22 miles spanning between Southport and Seaforth are some of the most iconic, idyllic and important stretches of coastline in the UK and are home to a menagerie of fauna and flora.

But it takes a lot of work to make the coastline the sandy success it is.

The Green Sefton coast and countryside division are supported by hundreds of volunteers called the Friends of Sefton Coast, who give up their time throughout the year to keep the coastline beautiful.

Through the 2018 Year Of The Volunteer, an incredible 2,300 people volunteered 5,200 hours of their time over 76 clean-up events that saw thousands of bags of rubbish cleared from our coastline.

From beach cleans to buckthorne bashing, there’s always plenty to get your teeth into on the Sefton Coast and Green Sefton are always looking for more people to get involved.

To find out about the list of events and activities between January and March 2019, or to get involved, check out the Friends of Sefton Coast Calendar.

To register as a FOSC volunteer, click here

Woodvale Community Association is running a free course for anyone wanting to learn new skills and increase confidence at the same time.

The six-week BOOST course starts on Thursday, January 17 and will run every Thursday between 12noon and 2.30pm with the last day being Thursday, February 21.

As part of BOOST, people will be able to attain an accredited level 2 first aid course completed over one day as well as producing a CV, developing team working and communication skills.

The course is based at the centre in Ainsdale. To book on, contact Sarah 01704 573084.

Children have already exceeded the maximum recommended sugar intake for an 18 year old by the time they reach their tenth birthday, according to Public Health England (PHE). This is based on their total sugar consumption from the age of 2.

This figure comes as a new Change4Life campaign launches today (2 January 2019), supporting families to cut back on sugar and to help tackle growing rates of childhood obesity.

While children’s sugar intakes have declined slightly in recent years, they are still consuming around eight excess sugar cubes each day, equivalent to around 2,800 excess sugar cubes per year.

To help parents manage this, Change4Life is encouraging them to ‘Make a swap when you next shop’. Making simple everyday swaps can reduce children’s sugar intake from some products (yoghurts, drinks and breakfast cereals) by half – while giving them healthier versions of the foods and drinks they enjoy.

Parents can try swapping:

• a higher-sugar yoghurt (for example split-pot) for a lower sugar one, to halve their sugar intake from six cubes of sugar to three
• a sugary juice drink for a no-added sugar juice drink, to cut back from two cubes to half a cube
• a higher-sugar breakfast cereal (such as a frosted or chocolate cereal) for a lower sugar cereal, to cut back from three cubes to half a cube per bowl

While some foods and drinks remain high in sugar, many companies have reformulated products such as yoghurts, breakfast cereals and juice drinks, meaning these swaps are a good place for families to start.

Making these swaps every day could remove around 2,500 sugar cubes per year from a child’s diet, but swapping chocolate, puddings, sweets, cakes and pastries for healthier options such as malt loaf, sugar-free jellies, lower-sugar custards and rice puddings would reduce their intake even more.

Severe obesity in 10 to 11 year olds has now reached an all-time high. Overweight or obese children are more likely to be overweight or obese as adults, increasing their risk of heart disease and some cancers, while more young people than ever are developing Type 2 diabetes. Excess sugar can also lead to painful tooth decay, bullying and low self-esteem in childhood.

Dr Alison Tedstone, Chief Nutritionist at PHE, said:

Children are consuming too much sugar, but parents can take action now to prevent this building up over the years.

To make this easier for busy families, Change4Life is offering a straightforward solution – by making simple swaps each day, children can have healthier versions of everyday foods and drinks, while significantly reducing their sugar intake.

Families are encouraged to look for the Change4Life ‘Good Choice’ badge in shops, download the free Food Scanner app or search Change4Life to help them find lower sugar options.

Popular brands – including Nestlé Shredded Wheat, Nestlé Low Sugar Oat Cheerios, Petits Filous and Soreen (malt loaf) – will display the ‘Good Choice’ badge online, in-store and throughout their advertising, to help parents find healthier options.

Customers can also find healthier options in supporting supermarkets including Asda and Aldi, as well as in Londis and Budgens convenience stores.

With a third of children leaving primary school overweight or obese, tackling obesity requires wider action and is not just limited to individual efforts from parents. PHE is working with the food industry to remove 20% of sugar from the products contributing the most to children’s sugar intakes by 2020.

In May 2018, PHE published progress against the first-year sugar reduction ambition of 5%, which showed an average 2% reduction in sugar across categories for retailers and manufacturers.

While breakfast cereals, yoghurts and fromage frais were among the categories meeting or exceeding the 5% ambition, some products in these categories are still high in sugar – this is why Change4Life is making it easier for parents to find lower-sugar options.

Treasure Sefton, a mental health group associated with Sefton in Mind and Sefton CVS, is calling for wellbeing services with a focus on positive mental health across the borough to submit a poster to be displayed at an exhibition at Southport Community Centre on Thursday 7 February 2019 in support of Time to Talk Day.

Treasure Sefton aims to celebrate Sefton through creative activity and mindfulness and the exhibition will showcase the services in Sefton that contribute to the wellbeing of the region.

Services and groups in Sefton are invited to design an A3 poster that promote their service, what it does, and how it helps to improve the lives of those who live and work in Sefton.

This poster should include the service name, the location served, and the best place to find information about the service. It can be created using any means including drawing, painting, collage or digital design.

This is a brilliant opportunity to engage service users and staff, either through a collaborative piece of work or a competition.

Please accompany your poster with a short text that formally describes the service and its aims, and includes your address, contact details, opening hours, and means of accessing the service (self referral, GP referral etc).  You can email this to treasuresefton@seftoncvs.org.uk

The deadline for entries is noon on Monday, 4 February. Hard copies can be handed in to Treasure Sefton, c/o Sefton CVS, Southport Community Centre, Norwood Road, Southport or they can be scanned and emailed to: treasuresefton@seftoncvs.org.uk

Work is set to begin on the first phase of a potential 600km key network of cycling and walking routes across the Liverpool City Region.

Metro Mayor, Steve Rotheram, and the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority ratified the £8.3m funding for the first 55km phase of the network– including a Sefton route– at a recent meeting.

The 15km route between Southport and Seaforth will link into a wider strategic cycling route into Liverpool City Centre. The route links major growth areas with new areas of housing and completes the Sefton Coastal cycle route.

The proposed 600km cycling and walking network is based on upgrades to around 31 key routes across the Liverpool City Region over the next 10 years.

The network will be planned on a whole city region basis, both improving links to the public transport network and between residential areas, employment, training and retail sites.

Meanwhile, work is already underway on bidding for funding for the next phase of the network with the launch of a questionnaire on people’s cycling and walking habits to help shape what a wider network would look like. It can be accessed here.

Two thirds of all journeys in the city region are less than five kilometres but half of those are made by car. Through the Local Journeys Strategy, Steve Rotheram and the Combined Authority recognise that getting the infrastructure right is key to encouraging people out of their cars, particularly for shorter journeys.

The cycling and walking network is one of the first actions bringing the Local Journeys Strategy to life.

Making places walking and cycling-friendly not only reduces congestion, improves air quality and brings significant health benefits, it also has wider economic benefits – boosting inward investment and attracting new talent by helping create the places that people want to live and work in.

Cllr Ian Moncur, Sefton Council’s Cabinet Member for Health and Wellbeing, said:
“This route will mark the beginning of a much-awaited era of clean travel in Sefton that will give our residents better access to walking and cycling opportunities, cleaner air and an infrastructure that supports alternative travel.”

The programme will also see the management of new wood and grassland areas and the planting of trees alongside the routes.

In addition, the funding will support a new pilot project by Liverpool John Moores University, trialling innovative methods of collecting cycle and walking trip data and the development of a cycling app and journey planner.

The LCR Transport Partnership was successfully awarded £8.3m ERDF Sustainable Urban Development (SUD) funding for the first phase of the cycling and walking network, with the LCR Combined Authority giving approval to draw down this funding. Match funding for the project is being sought from the

Transforming Cities Fund and other contributions will come from the LCR CA’s constituent local authorities.

*Please note, Living Well Sefton will be closed for the festive season between 12noon Thursday, 20 December and 5pm Tuesday, 1 January 2019.

Sefton CVS has produced a dedicated Christmas Services web page with information about local VCF sector services, events and activities available to Sefton residents during the holiday period.

Whether you’re looking for an emergency contact over the Christmas period or would like information about local social activities or lunch clubs, the web page aims to provide useful information for groups and individuals across Sefton.

Click here to visit the Sefton CVS Christmas services web page, which includes information such as:

–  Sefton MBC Services 
–  GPs & Out-of-hours Health Care Services
–  Foodbanks
–  Homeless Shelters & Support Services
–  Christmas Meals, Social Activities and Lunch Clubs
–  Information, Support & Advice (Signposting, Helplines etc)

Wishing you all a happy Christmas and a healthy 2019!

With Christmas just around the corner, health experts in Sefton are urging local patients to prepare now to make sure they’re fully prepared should they become unwell in the holiday season.

NHS South Sefton Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and NHS Southport and Formby CCG are wanting to make sure as many of us as possible know the little steps to help the NHS help you such as stocking up on over the counter medicines and which services to use should we become unwell.

Dr Craig Gillespie, GP and acting chair of NHS South Sefton CCG, said: “No one wants to spend their Christmas holidays unwell.

“Ahead of the busy holiday period we’re urging you to make sure you’ve got fully stocked medicines cabinets at home: things like pain killers, cold remedies and tablets for tummy troubles. This will make a big difference if you or your family are unwell over the festive period.

“Remember that GPs won’t routinely prescribe over the counter medicines for minor illnesses so it is important to have these at home when you can.”

Medical help and advice will be available over the Christmas and New Year period, and you might find that the GP practice isn’t the best place for your need. Several pharmacies will be open over the holidays and a list of these can be found on the CCG websites.

Dr Rob Caudwell, GP and chair of NHS Southport and Formby CCG, said: “During the winter months and especially over the festive period, it is important we know where to go if we, or someone we know falls ill.

“You’ll find a chemist not far from home, even on Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day and all pharmacists can give you expert health advice and over the counter treatments for the most common illnesses and ailments without the need for an appointment.

“Other services will also be available if it is something more serious such as NHS 111, the walk-in centre and extra GP appointments of an evening and weekend.”

In Sefton more vulnerable patients can also use the Care at the Chemist scheme which is available in several pharmacies in the area.

Visit www.southseftonccg.nhs.uk/your-health-and-services / www.southportandformbyccg.nhs.uk/your-health-and-services  for more information on which services can help you in Sefton including pharmacy and walk-in centre opening times over the Christmas holidays. Continue reading “Help us help you to stay well this winter” →

NHS South Sefton Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) is inviting people to give their views and experiences about using and choosing different urgent care services when they need immediate or same day health advice or treatment.

The commissioner, which plans and buys the majority of healthcare for south Sefton residents, is encouraging people to get involved as part of a review of ‘urgent care’ services.

Urgent care includes services for physical and mental health problems ranging from pharmacies, GP practices, GP out of hours services, the NHS 111 phone line and website, walk-in centres, accident and emergency (A&E) departments and 999.

Between mid-December 2018 and January 2019 the CCG is asking people to complete a questionnaire about these services for adults, children and young people. The information gathered will be used to help develop proposals for how urgent care could look in the future.

Dr Craig Gillespie, GP and acting chair for NHS South Sefton CCG, said: “From our conversations with residents over the past few years we know that some find the current range of urgent care services difficult to choose from and confusing. Sometimes when people don’t know which service to choose they use accident and emergency, which puts extra pressure on hospitals, and means that people might have to wait longer for their treatment.

“This review is the first step towards making sure that our services really meet local needs, so we are encouraging as many people and NHS staff as possible to get involved and tell us what it’s like to use or work in these services and how they could be better and easier to choose from in the future.”

The review will also consider how new NHS national guidelines for urgent care services and the introduction of ‘Urgent Treatment Centres’ might be put into place in south Sefton.

NHS South Sefton CCG is carrying out its review with partners across north Merseyside as patients often use urgent care services across this wider area. So, the CCG is also encouraging residents in Southport and Formby who use urgent care services in north Merseyside to complete a survey.

Visit the NHS South Sefton CCG website to complete an online questionnaire or find out more www.southseftonccg.nhs.uk.

Healthwatch Sefton is helping us to make the questionnaire available to anyone who may find it difficult to take part online. So, for help to complete a questionnaire, request a paper version, or for another format call Freephone 0800 206 1304, email info@healthwatchsefton.co.uk or text 07434 810 438.