Oxfordshire County Council : Social Care Provider Engagement

Oxfordshire County Council’s Public Health team are working on the strategic roll out of making every contact count (MECC) by supporting organisations and services across Oxfordshire to embed MECC in their everyday work.

Would you/your staff like to be more confident talking about health with the people you support?

Would you/your staff like to support people to make positive changes to their health and wellbeing?

If so, MECC training could be the answer!

MECC is about utilising the day-to-day interactions we have with others to help people make positive changes to their physical and mental health and access the support they need.

MECC training is available to support staff to gain the skills and confidence needed to have conversations with others about health and wellbeing and then signpost to support services. Public Health are calling all organisations and services that have contact with the public to undertake MECC training. The training is designed to support staff to make the most of their everyday conversations and respond appropriately to cues for issues that come up in conversations and may be affecting people’s wellbeing such as money worries, finding a job, mental health and changes to lifestyle such as healthy eating or stopping smoking.

A MECC interaction takes a matter of minutes and is not intended to add to existing busy workloads, rather it is structured to fit into and complement existing conversations.

The nationwide MECC initiative is led by NHS England and Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (formerly known as Public Health England).

There are various MECC training models to choose from:

• An e-learning MECC module (approximately one hour) provided by NHS England
• An online face-to-face MECC practice training session on Microsoft Teams with a MECC trainer (approximately two to three hours)
• MECC train-the-trainer courses for those who are interested in cascading training to their own team and would like to become a MECC trainer. These consist of four two-hour online interactive sessions. You’ll become a member of the MECC trainer network and be invited to other CPD and behaviour change focussed events. Organisations who are willing to cascade MECC training to their staff are encouraged to undertake the MECC train-the-trainer course.

The MECC training on offer in Oxfordshire is accredited by the national CPD accreditation body and the Health Education England (HEE) Behavioural Insights team (HEE has recently merged with NHS England).

To book a place on the MECC training, please email bobicb.personalisedcaretraining@nhs.net. To book a place on the MECC train-the-trainer course, please email clare.hodsdon@nhs.net. Depending on numbers, bespoke sessions can also be arranged for your team.

If you’d like to find out more about MECC in general, please email Imogen Coningsby in Oxfordshire County Council’s Public Health team.

The Oxfordshire Library Service provides direct access to reading, information, ICT and digital resources, as well as delivering impactful work in the areas of literacy, social and digital inclusion, health and wellbeing, and lifelong learning.

The current cost of living crisis, the ageing population, post-pandemic child development issues, and the digital inclusion agenda all point to libraries being busier than ever in the coming years.

The Oxfordshire Library Service wants to work with organisations in the areas of health and/or wellbeing by inviting them to hold a drop-in or event at one of the 44 libraries in Oxfordshire. Previously, the library service have had organisations such as Oxfordshire Mind and Active Oxfordshire come in to talk about mental health and wellbeing and physical activity. The service is keen to expand this offer by welcoming other organisations including voluntary and community sector organisations to come into the library and host a display, stand, drop-in or live event. This could be on a one-off or recurring basis.

If your organisation would be interested, or if you can think of another organisation which might like to take up this opportunity, please contact: Simon.Lay@Oxfordshire.gov.uk – Operations Manager, Library Branch Network