Sheffield Local Involvement Network

Sheffield LINk had a stall at this very interesting and well attended open event held at the Sheffield United Football Stadium on October 14. It gave us the opportunity to find out about the concerns of the BME (Black & Minority Ethnic) communities regarding health and social care and to let them know more about the LINk. We were also able to distribute our LINk leaflets, which have recently been translated into Urdu, Arabic and Somali and a number of people have expressed an interest in becoming members.

Richard Webb addresses the BME Network

Key speaker at the meeting was Richard Webb, the Executive Director for Communities at Sheffield City Council (above). Richard emphasized the need to strengthen the partnership between the Council and the Network in order to achieve better outcomes for BME communities across a range of issues including health and social care.

Sheffield LINk already has ties with the BME Network through Mubarak Ismail who is a LINk Governing Board member and Vice Chair of the Sheffield BME Network. Over the coming weeks we will be looking at how to encourage more people from the BME communities to join LINk and get actively involved in influencing the planning and delivery of health and social care.

Delegates visiting Sheffield LINk's stall

The appointment of Zakaria Musah as the new BME Network Development Officer and the possibility of setting up a joint LINk/BME Network Social Care Group should help to improve equality of treatment and access to services for people from the BME communities.