Local leaders enlighten students about equal access to services

University of Northampton (UON) students enjoyed a day of learning and reflection this week about the importance of understanding and tackling unequal access to services.

The annual Health and Social Care Conference welcomed thought leaders from across the county to talk to students about always being mindful of the needs of different people when they are working with and supporting them.

For the afternoon, students had the chance to network with stakeholders for a careers fair, after the morning’s speakers:

• Gabriella von Beek, Operations Manager at Healthwatch North and West Northamptonshire. Gabriella covered how Healthwatch meets a broad spectrum of health and care requirements from the many communities in the county.
• Florence Ampofo Anim spoke about the difficulty of navigating differing healthcare provision from different NHS organisations for her son who has sickle cell disease.
• Mike Williams, who has a diagnosis of autism, outlined his personal story that has led him to working with local charity Enfold.
• Naomi James from Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust talked about the symptoms of Covid and how her team are working to raise awareness of it and Long Covid.

In the afternoon, students networked with stakeholders during a careers fair.

Gloria Kanku is a second year Health and Social Care Practice student and took the lead in creating and delivering the event, her second time as conference organiser. She says: “This was an excellent opportunity for my fellow students to know more about a pressing issue at the centre of a discipline they will soon practice in the real world.

“One of our speakers summed up perfectly what we wanted to achieve with our conference when they said to us ‘You are the future of health and social care! There are so many opportunities for you’. We all left the conference with the same feeling, not just for ourselves, but for the people we will soon advocate for and the opportunities to support them after we graduate.”

Find out more about Social Work and Social Care courses at University of Northampton.