A COMMUNITY support service which has been available in eight areas in Wiltshire is being restructured and expanded to provide wider support across the whole county.
The Local Area Co-ordinator service was set up three years ago and covered Melksham, Trowbridge, Westbury and Dilton Marsh, Calne, Chippenham, Royal Wootton Bassett and Cricklade, Warminster and Salisbury.
The new service will be called the Prevention and Wellbeing Team and cover the whole of Wiltshire focusing on supporting people in a strengths-based way, helping to develop and strengthen their networks and engage with community-based support where appropriate.
The new service will be in place from October and the council has expanded the team to 14 staff who will be supporting residents across the whole county
Cllr Jane Davies, Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care said: “There has been careful evaluation of the impact of our local area co-ordinators and the positive work they do in our communities.
“We recognise the value of this type of community-based support and believe it is important that all Wiltshire residents can access this. To allow more residents to receive similar support, the positive learning will be taken forward by a new team that takes many elements of the Local Area Coordinator approach whilst streamlining the process to allow all Wiltshire residents access to the service.
“Any individual receiving support within the current service will receive information about what support is available to them after the change, and we will minimise disruption to their support during this process. We will continue working with people at the community level so we can ensure more people can access good support when they need it.”
