Woodspring Locality Partnership (LP) serves a population of 131,000 living in a large rural area of North Somerset that includes the towns of Clevedon, Portishead and Nailsea with 20% aged 65 and over.
This provides an exciting opportunity for local health and care organisations serving Woodspring to come together to re-think re-design and reinvigorate the way services are delivered to improve the health and care of the people it serves. The aim is to increase the number of years people live in good health making Woodspring a healthy, safe and positive place to live.
In order to ensure that we reflect our population we aim to have effective patient, carer, staff and public involvement embedded in our work and in our planning processes.
There are 6 GP practices serving the population of Woodspring across three different groups of practices. Tyntesfield Medical Group and Mendip Vale Medical Practice are large multi-site practives and Primary Care Networks (PCNs) in their own right. The third PCN, Gordano Valley, is comprised of four smaller GP practices to the North of the Locality.
Woodspring locality covers a large rural area of North Somerset, and includes the towns of Clevedon, Pill, Portishead and Nailsea. The registered population is currently just over 131,000. 20% of the population is aged over 65 and there is a much lower percentage of people aged 0-4 and 15-44 than the national average.
Woodspring has the highest rate of frailty across BNSSG, with many of these frail patients living independently in their own homes. This poses higher demands on health and social care services, particularly in rural areas of Woodspring that are unable to access domiciliary care and where social isolation is an issue. This can be further exacerbated by poor public transportation links.
In Woodspring, there are a large number of care homes, particularly concentrated in Clevedon, and an increasing number of retirement and dementia friendly residences across the locality.
There are some small Traveller Communities within the locality.
Newer developed towns such as Portishead to the North of the locality have a growing number of families.
We work together to improve wellbeing and good health for our local population through integrated, person-centred care that looks beyond illness and empowers people to live healthy, independent, and dignified lives.
In doing this, we seek to improve outcomes for our population as a whole.
We use data and needs-based approaches to mobilise and enable other offers (e.g. social groups, social prescribing) to support people so they know they have more options to get the help they need.
Our shared values
Inclusive
Honest and Transparent
Ambitious
Community-focused
Collaborative
Our shared vision
People will be empowered to live healthy, independent and dignified lives
Our community can access what they need, when they need it, and understand how to access it
Services are experienced by our population in an integrated, joined up way, with organisations working collaboratively to enable this
Wherever people are in their lives they get as a good as quality of life as possible with the best outcome
Woodspring Locality Partnership Board consists of representatives from the member organisations. Below you will find a profile of each member of the Board.
Dr Sarah Pepper, Chair of Woodspring Locality Partnership
Dr Sarah Pepper acts as the Chair of Woodspring Locality Partnership. She wears many hats but is first and foremost a GP. A job which she has loved (and still does) for over 25 years. Partner of Tyntesfield Medical Group and Clinical Director of their Primary Care Network, she sees the role of chair as a way of helping the board shape the future provision of services within the Woodspring area. While the Locality Partnership is in its infancy, her priorities as chair, will be on establishing trust between the partner organisations, enabling collaboration on projects which it is ultimately hoped will improve the Wellbeing and health of the community we all serve.
She also plays a mean game of squash and has a husband who collects taxidermy!
David Moss, Woodspring Locality Partnership, Delivery Director
David Moss brings 20 years’ experience of hospitals, general practice, commissioning and most recently in integrating services. David sees Locality Partnerships as a chance to establish Woodspring communities as a default setting for keeping people well. Through working collaboratively, considering the whole population needs, and breaking down individual service silos, services can provide proactive & effective support to people. In Woodspring there is a strong infrastructure across the towns and villages that hold a wealth of assets and information across communities. How the Locality Partnership support people to know how and where to connect to their communities will enhance our populations wellbeing and health outcomes.
David played rugby nationally and is still avidly involved with the game, occasionally putting his boots on!
Georgie Bigg retired from a successful career in banking where, following local, regional and national roles she specialised in identifying and investing in high growth small businesses and leadership coaching. Her volunteering started at this time, supporting an educational charity as a Business Adviser to help young people develop their business skills before leaving education.
Following ‘retirement’, Georgie has furthered her interest in health and social care working for Voluntary Action North Somerset representing and developing the voluntary sector. She has a wide knowledge of support networks in North Somerset, designed to assist the most vulnerable. Georgie wants to make sure all sectors of the community have the chance to have their say on health and social care.
Her interests include the environment which she believes can have a significant impact on our health and wellbeing. She is currently Chair of CPRE (Campaign to Protect Rural England) Avonside, Director of the West of England Rural Network and a Parish Councillor.
Fiona is the Chief Officer for Citizens Advice North Somerset (CANS), an established and well-regarded local independent North Somerset based charity providing free, impartial and confidential advice across the spectrum of social welfare issues to many thousands of local residents each year. Using the wealth of our data and client stories, and our local and national networks, we aim to get to the root of issues, influence decision makers and campaign for change. CANS works in partnership with many local and national partners including North Somerset Council, Town and Parish Councils, Alliance Homes, Curo Housing Association, Voluntary Action North Somerset, The Legal Aid Agency, Macmillan Cancer Support, Money and Pension Service, Department for Work and Pensions, Bristol Wessex Water, Pier Health PCN and the locality partnerships.
Fiona has spent the last 17 years in the not-for-profit legal advice sector (30 years in the legal advice sector), developing a wealth of experience in senior leadership, governance, risk management, income generation, strategy, people management and service delivery.
As a founding member and director of the North Somerset Wellbeing Collective, Fiona is committed to supporting work streams and initiatives that help improve the wellbeing and health of residents and communities within North Somerset through asset based community development, co-design and the 6 outcomes for communities.
In her spare time, Fiona loves being outdoors, spending time with her partner and Deano the dog, camping, hiking and open water swimming.
A senior healthcare manager with a passion for partnership working, service development and improving outcomes for the Woodspring population. Kirstie has over 18 years’ experience of international, national and local programme and project management, bringing a unique skill set that combines experience from a variety of industries with valuable NHS experience.
Kirstie has a strong background in partnership working and has been working in North Somerset Localities since 2018. She has a wide range of experience in change management and organisational transformation; lived experience co-production; strategic business planning and development; primary and community care; acute care; mental health; private healthcare; contracting and commissioning. Her proven success in building relationships with multi-disciplinary clinical teams to drive service improvements, inter-departmental and cross-organisational working, business growth, efficiency and profitability is well suited to integrated Locality working.
Kirstie has worked as a Healthcare Assistant in Acute Hospitals looking after surgical and cardiac patients, and cared for older patients during a placement in a Nursing Home which has further enhanced her understanding of the challenges of delivering front line care.
As a Woodspring resident, Kirstie enjoys coastal living, and the proximity to nature, taking every opportunity to get out and about with her husband and 7 year old daughter. She loves hiking and spending time with family and friends and is an avid Welsh rugby fan
Karen Hathway -GP Partner Clevedon Medical Centre and Clinical Director Gordano valley PCN
An experienced GP partner who has a passion for collaborative working and organisational development. Karen has worked in Clevedon for 17 years as a GP and previously led the North Somerset musculoskeletal team. She now also works as clinical director for Gordano valley PCN which includes Clevedon Medical Centre, Portishead Medical Group, Harbourside family practice and Heywood Family Practice. In this role she works with the practices and other stake holders to enable collaboration for the development and improvement of services for the local population.
Karen has a specialist interest in sports and musculoskeletal medicine and a keen passion for sport. She has competed in age group triathlon and continues to enjoy swimming and running regularly.
Samuel Hayward, Consultant in Public Health, North Somerset Council
Sam is a member of the Public Health and Regulatory Services Directorate Leadership Team at North Somerset Council. Through his work he seeks to improve population health outcomes and reduce health inequality. His portfolio includes leadership for substance misuse (drugs, alcohol, and tobacco) and for sexual health.
He leads on adult health and wellbeing including Primary Care commissioning (health checks, LARC and smoking cessation) and public health liaison to Adult Social Services. Clinical governance and academic public health are part of his work. He also provides input to the local Integrated Care System’s Population Health Improvement team and North Somersets two Localities. Sam has keen interests in collaboration, systems thinking and compassionate and inclusive leadership and previously completed the NHS Leadership Fellowship programme.
In his spare time, he enjoys walking, gardening, and keeping his two children distracted.
Dr Patel trained at Bristol University and came to the practice as a GP Partner in 2000. She has a particular interest in Paediatrics and Care of the Elderly. She is currently a Business Partner for the practice. She enjoys travelling and the theatre.
Dr Natasha Ward, Population Health Management and Wellbeing Lead
Dr Natasha Ward qualified from the University of Bristol in 2008 and has worked in the Greater Bristol and North Somerset areas since becoming a GP in 2014.
Since 2016 Dr Ward has been a partner at Harbourside Family Practice in Portishead.
Dr Ward holds a Fellowship in Medical Education at Bristol University teaching and training medical students from Universities in the South West of England. She has been providing GP training for Severn Deanery since 2018.
In 2021 Dr Ward became Deputy Clinical Director for Gordano Valley PCN. Her passion is for holistic, proactive, and preventative care with particular interest in public health, children and young people, wellbeing, and mental health.
Dr Ward has been the PHM and Wellbeing lead for Woodspring since 2021. She is actively involved in the Portishead Wellbeing Partnership and building resilient communities locally.
As Associate Director for Woodspring Locality Cath has oversight of Sirona community nursing and therapy services, and North Somerset Community Hospital – both the Minor Injuries Unit and Elton rehab in-patient unit, in addition to other teams supporting discharge from acute care.
Cath is a registered nurse by profession and has spent the last 28 years working within the community of North Somerset. She developed and led the North Somerset Bladder & Bowel specialist service, and this remains an area of significant interest. Cath still holds a role within a national charity driving excellence in bladder & bowel health through promoting education of health and social care professionals.
Cath lives with her husband and two rescue greyhounds. She has two grown up sons and three grandchildren and says that Granny times are fun times. Her favourite type of holiday is canal boating, and she is happiest with a tiller in her hand or working a lock.
