West Lancashire villagers to be given vote on ways to end loneliness and isolation

Are there people living unseen and lonely in places like Tarleton? (image: Google)

Lancashire County Council’s cabinet has agreed to contribute £10,000 towards the initiative, which will focus on villages and hamlets including Tarleton, Hesketh Bank and Hundred End. The remainder of the cash will come from the local NHS.

Based on the principle of so-called “participatory budgeting”, the scheme will see locals and representatives from voluntary groups and the public sector come together to form a steering group that will sift applications from relevant organisations and determine the proposals that will be put to the public vote.

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County Hall’s cabinet member for community and cultural services, Peter Buckley, told the recent meeting at which the authority’s financial contribution was approved: “We know that social isolation and loneliness is a problem in many areas, particularly in some of our more rural parishes, so it’ll be interesting to see the results of this pilot.”

It is hoped that the project will act as a template for other organisations that would like to engage in a similar process. The successful projects will be reviewed at three-month intervals over the course of the following year and Edge Hill University will evaluate the outcome of the overall initiative.

The scheme was born out of data highlighting what cabinet members were told is “a higher prevalence of older people and young adults living alone in the northern parishes of West Lancashire”.

It was also guided by the recommendations made in the Lancashire County Council Report, “Hidden from View: Tackling Social Isolation and Loneliness in Lancashire”, which was published back in 2016.

That document found that the “psychological aspects” of loneliness must be addressed to help people who are chronically lonely – as well as addressing any social isolation which they may also be experiencing. It also noted the obvious need to find and successfully engage with the lonely and isolated before they can be helped.

The Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care Board has put forward just over £7,700 for the northern parishes project, while West Lancashire Borough Council will offer support in terms of staff time and resources.

As well as the public sector organisations making cash and kind donations to the funding pot, West Lancashire Community Voluntary Service has also helped to develop the initiative.