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Somerset Health and Wellbeing Advisory Network
Helping you to help others
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Covid case rates remain high in our county and have slightly increased this week. With reduced mitigations in place in the community, following the return to ‘Plan A’ measures this week, we are likely to see continued high case rates. Rates are particularly high in the school age population, and our highest rates are amongst our primary age students. Most children and young people who are infected with Omicron will have mild symptoms or are asymptomatic. Hospitalisation for severe Covid illness remains highest in older age groups and the unvaccinated.
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Prevention remains key and we must remember the effective infection prevention and control measures we can all maintain to help slow the rates of transmission in our communities. These basic measures will help slow the transmission of many seasonal illnesses and have a positive impact on reducing sickness levels and business continuity, they include; good hand and respiratory hygiene for everyone, maintaining appropriate cleaning regimes, keeping occupied spaces well ventilated, and following public health advice on testing and managing confirmed cases of Covid-19.
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School-Aged Immunisation Programme
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Over 60% of Somerset’s young people aged 12 to 15 have had their first Covid vaccine since rollout began in September. The second vaccination for 12–15-year-olds is now available to book via the national booking service and is also available at many walk-in local vaccination centres.
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There will also be an in-school offer beginning in February to allow SAINT to complete flu vaccinations this month. Parents and carers may find visiting their local vaccination centre is a faster option for vaccinating 12-15 year olds.
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Vaccination Clinics In Somerset
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Bridgwater Town Hall, High St, TA6 3BL
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Friday 28th Jan: 9am - 10pm - Late Opening - Walk in
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Fridays in Feb: 9am - 5pm
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Haynes Motor Museum, Sparkford, Yeovil, BA22 7LH
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Shape Mendip, Shepton Mallet, BA4 5BT
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Sat 29th & Sun 30th Jan: 10am - 3pm
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Clarks Village, The Grange, Farm Rd, Street BA16 0BQ, access through Clarks village: Grange Car Park 2. Follow the path to the right-hand side of Clarks Village entrance
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Sunday 30th Jan:10am - 4pm
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Firepool, Canal Road, Taunton, TA1 1PQ
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Cheese and Grain, Market Yard, Justice Lane, Frome BA11 1BE
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Dillington House, Illminster, TA19 9DT
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This Weeks' Covid Catch up Film
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Clinton clarifies the changes in national guidance from Plan B, back to Plan A. Please share this widely with your networks.
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Downloadable Flyer
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If you work with people experiencing homelessness you may find it useful to download this editable PDF which directs service users to information from Groundswell about staying well in winter, as well as providing information on how to access the Covid-19 vaccination.
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MenACWY Vaccinations
In the UK, teenagers are eligible for the meningococcal ACWY vaccine as part of the national immunisation programme, and the MenB vaccine is offered to infants. Cases of meningococcal disease due to all strains have remained substantially lower than pre-Covid-19 years in infants, toddlers and young children. SAINT will be delivering the meningococcal ACWY vaccine programme in schools in Somerset during the summer term, as they do every year.
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Teenagers and young adults are urged to look out for signs and symptoms and check that they have received all routine vaccinations.
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For more information and support please share the link below.
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Help Towards Childcare Costs
Thousands of families in the South West are eligible to get up to £2,000 a year to help with the cost of childcare.
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The tax-free childcare 20% top-up, is available for children aged up to 11 or 17 if the child has a disability. It provides eligible working families with up to £500 every three months (or £1,000 for disabled children) towards the cost of holiday clubs, before and after-school clubs, childminders, nurseries, and other accredited childcare schemes.
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Emotional Wellbeing
Stress and pressures are being felt throughout many sectors so please share the services available that can help.
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Visit the emotional health and well-being hub and search via your role/organisation (simply type ‘education’ or ‘school’) or how you are feeling, to view relevant support resources that are available in Somerset.
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Dad Matter’s Coordinator
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Due to the success of the Dad Matters programme Home-Start UK are looking for a co-ordinator to join the team to develop local universal and targeted interventions for dads in the perinatal period. The successful candidate will work closely with colleagues from Parent Infant Mental Health Services and with colleagues from Maternity, Health Visiting, and Children’s Services and with a wide range of dads and dads-to-be. They will develop Dad Matters volunteering opportunities in both areas, facilitate and co-facilitate sessions with dads and develop links with other VCSE and community groups.
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Closing date: 23rd February at 12:00pm
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Support with transport to medical appointments and vaccination sites, for first, second or booster jabs is available through Somerset Community Transport.
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The Covid helpline can provide advice on the service and many others and is available from 8.00am to 6.00pm every day, including weekends 0300 790 6275. For the deaf, hard of hearing or speech-impaired, contact can be made via SMS text: 07862 122246.
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Vaccination Buddy Programme
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Vaccination Buddies continue to offer 1-2-1 telephone support to people who are worried or unsure about having the vaccine. This is a free service and has excellent feedback from service users. When speaking to your community, please continue to sign post anyone who may feel vaccine hesitant to this excellent resource.
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We want to hear from you
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As community leaders, your insights are valuable to us, which is why we have set up a function on the site to enable you to send information directly to us. This could be feedback you are receiving from your community, ideas on different ways to engage, issues you are spotting locally and anything that will help us to reduce barriers to adopting measures that protect us from Covid.
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Resources and Further Information:
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The Somerset Local Outbreak Management Plan outlines how we, the council, will work with the NHS Test and Trace Service, PHE, the NHS and other partners to ensure a whole system approach to preventing and managing local outbreaks. This can be found here.
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