Information provided by North HIVE Hub
May 20, 2025
May 19, 2025
Wiltshire: Foster Care fortnight 12-25 May - roadshows and virtual sessions coming this week
If you're thinking about getting involved in fostering, pop along to see the team and find out how you can get involved.
This week they will be:
- Monday 19 May, 2.30pm - 5.30pm at Westbury Library
- Tuesday 20 May, 9am - 2pm at Melksham market
- Wednesday 21 May, 9am - 2pm at Marlborough market
- Thursday 22 May, 11am - 3pm at Salisbury High Street
- Friday 23 May, 9am - 1pm at Warminster market
- Saturday 24 May, 10am - 2pm at Tidworth Leisure Centre
- Sunday 25 May, 10am - 5pm at Chippenham Folk Festival, The Island Park
Alternatively contact the team via the website https://orlo.uk/gofeT for more information!
Information provided by Colerne and Lyneham HIVEs
Calne: Free 'First Aid Awareness' session at Calne Library - Thu 19 Jun
Please click image to enlarge
To follow the Wiltshire Council Family Hub, please click here
Information provided by Colerne & Lyneham HIVEs
Defence update - Your Offer - recognising your service
What Defence is doing to improve Service life and information on support and opportunities for you and your family.
The substantial range of benefits and allowances available in your Armed Forces Offer recognises the unique demands of military life and individual needs, at home and abroad.
Pay is the most well-recognised aspect of the Offer, but the breadth and complexity of everything that’s included within the Armed Forces employee package means it can be difficult to navigate and understand.
That’s why work is underway to help simplify the way we talk about ‘Your Offer’ – with Discover My Benefits being the place to go to find out what’s covered, what it’s worth, where to find out more and what you need to do.
What is Discover My Benefits?
Grantham Healthwatch Lincolnshire - Do you look after someone? Have your say as a carer on health and care in Lincolnshire
We want to hear from carers!
Do you provide unpaid care?
It could be care for a family member, partner, friend or neighbour who depends on you because of illness, disability, a mental health condition or frailty.
Carers play a vital but often invisible role in society, helping people to live safely and independently. But many carers face challenges in getting the support they need - both for themselves and for the person they care for.
Healthwatch Lincolnshire wants to hear your views in our Carer Survey 2025.
Information provided by Grantham HIVE
Grantham: Healthwatch Lincolnshire - Explaining your right to an NHS dentist
Grantham: family lives Community Connects
In North Lincs we deliver a peer support service for people who are experiencing emotional wellbeing problems, who may feel isolated, lonely, lack confidence and/or experience a sense of being out of control or powerlessness over their situation. They may feel disconnected from their community and feel unable to live life the way they had hoped to.
At Family Lives we recognise that everyone’s experience is unique to what is happening for them in their life and mind and that everyone will feel things at different degrees of severity over different periods of time.
Our team of Peer Support Workers all have lived experience and have a good understanding of what people are going through and coping with. We know what it feels like to feel you are alone and we understand that sometimes the worry and concern about the stigma associated with mental health can be overwhelming and can act as a barrier to seeking support. We also know how relieved and hopeful people can feel when they do reach out and realise that they are not alone, and support is available.
Our team will use their lived experience of mental health issues by offering emotional, practical and social support to enable people to regain balance in their life. We do this by offering a listening ear and understanding and developing positive peer relationships. We support people to find their own strengths and solutions, build their confidence and self-esteem including the confidence and skills to manage their home and finances. We help them to develop a toolkit and coping strategies on their journey to achieving better mental health, living life independently, pursuing social or vocational interests and achieving their aspirations, forging meaningful connections socially and with family, friends and within the community and live their life with purpose and emotionally and physically healthy and well.
We work closely with the Social Prescribing Service, Recovery Colleges and other community primary health care teams. We have good partnerships with local community services such as colleges, employment, benefit and housing teams, Refugee Council, Family Centres and so much more.
Our support services
At Family Lives we believe that our services are needed more than ever in the current crisis; we know that many individuals and families are experiencing even more challenges. This service provides a programme of support which, includes, face-to-face sessions in the home and community, phone and remote support, group work, social gatherings, signposting and support with accessing other services and activities.
We aim to deliver a friendly service in a manner that encourages participation and partnership and enables us to tailor our service to meet people’s unique needs. We appreciate it will change as we travel together but to begin with, we can offer the following types of support:
One to one individual support for between 2 – 3 months on a weekly or fortnightly basis.
Light touch individual support over a longer period of time 3 – 6 months as and when required but approximately every 3 to 4 weeks.
Group support will be available to everyone waiting for, accessing and following completion of their individual support on a fortnightly basis.
Care to Chat support via telephone or video support for those who are waiting for the service or are not quite ready to meet in person. Duration to be determined with the individuals accessing support.
Phone and online support, including signposting to the Family Lives helpline, email support and live chat and other services is available to everyone throughout the support and for people making general enquiries.
Facebook Group where people can engage and connect with each other in a safe space, offer and receive support, share and gain information about coping strategies, local community events and relevant helpful organisations.
The online support can be accessed along the individual support sessions and group work.
For more information at: family lives
Information provided by Grantham HIVE
Service Family Accommodation (SFA) Communications Update from DIO, 16 May 25
Early adopters of new online platform HomeHub
DIO in collaboration with Pinnacle, Amey and VIVO, have invited a small group of Personnel and families as early adopters of HomeHub – a new online platform for households to easily manage repairs, appointments and their SFA in general.
Early adopters include representatives from all three services and a mix of ranks and locations – with the aim of gaining a broad representation of our SFA community and estate.
Those participating will be contacted in the coming days with instructions on how to take part. From this month until August, they will have access to an early version of HomeHub where they can feedback their honest thoughts and experiences through surveys.
For those families supporting the development of HomeHub as early adopters, your help in gathering feedback will be invaluable in helping us refine the portal into a seamless and user-friendly platform that really meets the needs of our families. A finalised version of HomeHub will be rolled out to all SFA this year.
Summer safety reminders:
We understand that it can get very warm, and you may want to open windows wide to let in a cool breeze, but there is a risk of children or vulnerable adults falling from open windows and being injured if restrictors are not engaged.
It is important to check whether your window restrictors are operating correctly. Please contact Pinnacle immediately on 0800 031 8628 if your restrictors are not working or your windows can be opened more than 100mm when restrictors are engaged.
There have been a few incidences recently where access has been blocked to a boiler flue or electrics have been adjusted – causing damage to the properties and a safety risk to families and neighbours.
To ensure everyone remains safe, it is vital we can access your home to carry out these inspections and you do not interfere, alter or obstruct any gas or electric appliances, in particular boiler flues.
Flues are designed to take in air and then dispel harmful fumes outside homes via a second duct. Any interference could cause the appliance to malfunction or prevent boiler emissions being discharged outside the home, resulting in a serious health risk to the household. The flues are checked annually as part of the Landlord Gas Safety Inspections (LGSI).
Before undertaking any DIY projects, you should seek approval by submitting an enhancement request to Pinnacle to ensure the proposed works are safe.
Understanding the Afghan Resettlement Programme (ARP)
Defence has created an informative and transparent leaflet called ‘welcoming our new neighbours’ to help you understand more about our eligible Afghan allies, who have been relocated into our communities and SFA under the UK’s safe and legal ARP.
The new resource is attached for ease and outlines:
Improvements to the e-1132 form online system
Applying for your new SFA home can be both an exciting and daunting time. To make the process of applying easier, DIO will be updating the design of the e-1132 form today (Friday 16 May 2025) – making it simpler for you to navigate the online system and locate the information you need quickly.
On receipt of a new assignment order or if you are entitled to SFA, you must apply for your new home at your next duty station using the e-1132 form. You can access the online system here after logging into the Defence intranet.
DIO in collaboration with Pinnacle, Amey and VIVO, have invited a small group of Personnel and families as early adopters of HomeHub – a new online platform for households to easily manage repairs, appointments and their SFA in general.
Early adopters include representatives from all three services and a mix of ranks and locations – with the aim of gaining a broad representation of our SFA community and estate.
Those participating will be contacted in the coming days with instructions on how to take part. From this month until August, they will have access to an early version of HomeHub where they can feedback their honest thoughts and experiences through surveys.
For those families supporting the development of HomeHub as early adopters, your help in gathering feedback will be invaluable in helping us refine the portal into a seamless and user-friendly platform that really meets the needs of our families. A finalised version of HomeHub will be rolled out to all SFA this year.
Summer safety reminders:
- Window restrictors
We understand that it can get very warm, and you may want to open windows wide to let in a cool breeze, but there is a risk of children or vulnerable adults falling from open windows and being injured if restrictors are not engaged.
It is important to check whether your window restrictors are operating correctly. Please contact Pinnacle immediately on 0800 031 8628 if your restrictors are not working or your windows can be opened more than 100mm when restrictors are engaged.
- Gas and electrical safety
There have been a few incidences recently where access has been blocked to a boiler flue or electrics have been adjusted – causing damage to the properties and a safety risk to families and neighbours.
To ensure everyone remains safe, it is vital we can access your home to carry out these inspections and you do not interfere, alter or obstruct any gas or electric appliances, in particular boiler flues.
Flues are designed to take in air and then dispel harmful fumes outside homes via a second duct. Any interference could cause the appliance to malfunction or prevent boiler emissions being discharged outside the home, resulting in a serious health risk to the household. The flues are checked annually as part of the Landlord Gas Safety Inspections (LGSI).
Before undertaking any DIY projects, you should seek approval by submitting an enhancement request to Pinnacle to ensure the proposed works are safe.
Understanding the Afghan Resettlement Programme (ARP)
Defence has created an informative and transparent leaflet called ‘welcoming our new neighbours’ to help you understand more about our eligible Afghan allies, who have been relocated into our communities and SFA under the UK’s safe and legal ARP.
The new resource is attached for ease and outlines:
- Eligibility and the evidence-based migration process.
- Defence’s duty to support our Afghan allies in need, who risked their lives working alongside British Armed Forces during the campaign in Afghanistan.
- Answers to the most frequently asked questions and safety concerns of families.
- How families can support their integration into the community.
Click on the image to open the leaflet
Improvements to the e-1132 form online system
Applying for your new SFA home can be both an exciting and daunting time. To make the process of applying easier, DIO will be updating the design of the e-1132 form today (Friday 16 May 2025) – making it simpler for you to navigate the online system and locate the information you need quickly.
On receipt of a new assignment order or if you are entitled to SFA, you must apply for your new home at your next duty station using the e-1132 form. You can access the online system here after logging into the Defence intranet.
Department for Work and Pensions (including Jobcentre Plus) bank holiday arrangements for 26 May 2025
The Department for Work and Pensions (including Jobcentre Plus) office opening arrangements are different for the 26 May bank holiday.
England, Scotland and Wales:
On Monday 26 May offices and phone lines are closed.
To make sure people get their payment on a day when our offices are open, arrangements have been made to make some payments early.
If the expected payment date is Monday 26 May then benefits will be paid early on Friday 23 May. If the expected payment date is not shown, customers will get their money on their usual payment date.
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