The voluntary and community sector (VCS) plays a vital role in enabling vulnerable people to keep their independence, keep well and participate in activities to retain their quality of life, have respect and feel valued. The VCS delivers many ‘preventative’ services which could be anything that you use, visit, look up/google, read, attend and so on that help you or the person you support to stay healthy, safe and independent, and therefore not need more ‘formal’ support and care services.

Preventative services could involve:

• Provision of information and advice
• Practical support in the home
• Assistance with welfare benefits
• ‘Good neighbour’ schemes
• More specialist input, for example support for people with autism, sight loss or at risk of homelessness

Our Adult Services team is currently working with over 30 VCS and housing organisations, some of which are funded by us, others not, to plan how preventative services will look in future. We're also planning to seek the views of people who use, or may use, preventative services and those of their carers.

The aim of this review is to make sure we're commissioning the right outcomes for the right people, which will make the biggest difference to individuals (and to council and health budgets).

So, we’d like to ask a few questions about your experience of preventative services and how you think we could make them as good as they can be. Click on the 'How to get involved' tab to take part.

If you need a printed or large text version of this questionnaire please contact us at tellus@shropshire.gov.uk