Social Inclusion

The Social Inclusion team has a central role to work in partnership with colleagues within the PCT and across the local health economy to ensure that the challenges of social exclusion are acknowledged and actions to address these are integrated into current and future service development and re-design plans and initiatives.
Work to tackle social exclusion includes identifying known inequalities in relation to provision and access to services, facilities available and the determinants of good health.
The team has a leadership role in setting local targets in partnership with existing public services as well as facilitating targeted action with key groups. Current priorities focus on older people, people from minority ethnic communities, gay and bisexual men and teenage pregnancy. These population groups experience health inequalities that are recognised both at a national and local level.

The team comprises:

Angela Hardman - Specialist in Public Health (Team Lead)

In her role, Angela leads the social inclusion team in the strategic development and implementation of the social inclusion agenda.

In addition, Angela leads public health policy development and implementation in relation to Sexual Health and HIV & AIDs; she leads on specific areas of public health surveillance and population screening, in particular in relation to breast and cervical screening; and, also supports policy and strategy development in relation to refugee and asylum seekers.

Shabir Abdul - Race Equality [Inclusion and Partnership Manager]

Shabir leads in the development, implementation and evaluation of the PCT’s Race Equality Scheme. A major programme of work has involved and will continue to involve mainstreaming race equality through race equality impact assessment workshops.
Shabir is also supporting to further develop equality, diversity and inclusion. An Equality and Diversity Board is being established to enable strategic development of the equality strands, in particular, Disability and Gender Equality Schemes. Local stakeholders/partner organisations, including the voluntary sector, will have a key role on the Board to spearhead delivery of the equality and diversity agenda. The Board will also have a crucial role in the development of a Single Equality Scheme (SES). Previous work on race equality will be used as the benchmark for other equality strands which will include race, religion and belief, gender, sexuality, disability and age.
Shabir manages two linkworkers including over the telephone interpreting service for PCT staff and Contractor services.

Ilyas Adam & Yasmin Manjra – Ethnic Minority Service Development Officers

Ilyas and Yasmin’s work is based with GP Practices. They provide a culturally appropriate interpreter service (gender specific) to help patients when communicating with healthcare professionals, as well as maintaining cultural awareness with those professionals. They also assist minority ethnic patients to access a wide range of healthcare information and various related services. Ilyas and Yasmin assist practices in contacting patients not attending appointments and explaining to them the importance of keeping appointments for such things as diabetes check-ups, immunisation and cytology screening.
Ilyas and Yasmin are currently organising health education sessions to educate patients on a wide range of health conditions.

Kalsoom Akhtar – Senior Health Promotion Specialist (Mental Health)

Kalsoom takes the strategic lead on mental health promotion across the borough. She leads in developing partnerships at a strategic level, developing links into national and local initiatives and oversees the implementation of mental health promotion strategy across a range of settings and population groups.

Ruth Molloy – Senior Health Promotion Specialist (Older People)

Ruth’s role is to take a strategic lead on the promotion of health for older people in Bolton. She is an older people’s champion and ensures that their needs are addressed within broader policies.
Currently Ruth manages the Ageing Well programme which is delivered in partnership with Age Concern Bolton. This programme trains older volunteers to deliver health and well being initiatives to other older people.
Along with her colleagues in the Social Inclusion team Ruth is involved in Equality and Diversity issues in the PCT, particularly around Age. Along with Age Concern Bolton, Ruth has developed Age Awareness training for health and social care staff. This is an innovative initiative that has facilitated older people to design and deliver this training.
Ruth also takes the lead on Standard Eight of the National Service Framework for Older People. This standard looks at the promotion of health and well being for older people and aims to meet the national milestones set. Along with this group Ruth has led on the development of a Health Promotion Strategy for Older People which was launched in March 2006. (LINK)

Christine Crook – Health Promotion Project Worker (Older People)

Christine’s role is to support the promotion of health for older people in Bolton. Currently, Christine works with existing partners to support the continuation and development of established work, in particular the Ageing Well Programme. The Ageing Well Programme supports existing Senior Health Mentors in delivering health promotion initiatives to groups of older people within their communities.

Andrew Mulholland – Senior Health Promotion Specialist – Sexual Health

Andrew’s role has a specific focus on addressing social exclusion faced by gay and bisexual men in relation to their sexual and wider health needs and leads a number of multi agency initiatives which aim to tackle homophobic hate crimes and homophobic bullying in schools. He manages and supports ongoing community development work with gay and bisexual men in Bolton. In addition, Andrew supports the continuing development and implementation of the sexual health strategy for Bolton.