The Good Neighbours Network (GNN) brings together more than 120 care groups run by local people across Hampshire, who offer practical and emotional help to those living in their neighbourhood. Each group is unique, and the tasks they help with vary from offering a lift to medical appointments to helping with shopping, as well as offering social activities such as lunch clubs and bike clubs. Staff from the GNN offer support in areas such as governance advice, fundraising and recruiting volunteers.

The leaders, co-ordinators and team members of these independent care groups come together to hear more about what is happening across the network and for mutual support. On this occasion they gathered to hear more about the Positive Energy Project, which is part of ‘Home and Well’ – a collaboration between GNN, Southern Gas Network and Citizens Advice Hampshire. It aims to deliver tailored energy support via a dedicated team of energy and engagement facilitators.

Energy adviser Stephen Dominy told delegates: “Since joining the project, we’ve already had the opportunity to meet with several groups and visit a number of events and we’re hugely impressed with the work that you all do. There’s a lot of knowledge, dedication and activity going on all across Hampshire.

“There’s an underlying desire to reach out to people, to find people that might otherwise slip through the net, to make a difference in your communities. You’re really practical. You provide lifts, lunch clubs, and some of you also provide gardening services. You notice the things that will make a difference to people in your community; things that are perhaps insignificant or small to many of us, but can have a big impact on the neighbours you are caring for.”

And colleague Siobhan Butt said: “With this Positive Energy Project, we want to give you the tools and information so you can add a further dimension to the time and effort you are already giving, to help your neighbours stay warm, save money and keep safe. So, we will help you notice the sort of things someone will be saying or doing if they are struggling with fuel poverty or carbon monoxide poisoning.”

Max Prangnell told delegates that the NHS was the third largest employer in the world, spending £160bn a year. The current government has unveiled plans for a 10-year reform of the NHS which aims to shift the health service from secondary to primary care (ie. from hospitals to more local places such as GP surgeries, clinics and pharmacies), from being reactive to being more preventative, and from analogue to digital.

He asked for reactions to those potential shifts, and delegates were able to comment on the plans as frontline users and patients in the NHS. Max and his colleagues at the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges will take those comments back to Sally Warren, who is leading the 10-year plan from within the Department of Health and Social Care.

Pam Hoskins, a trustee from Botley Neighbourcare, said: “It really does help us to meet together as care groups like this. You go away feeling much more motivated, and you can also talk to other groups about what they do.

“We have monthly lunch clubs in Botley for 40 or 50 people from our community, and we’d love to ask the Positive Energy people to speak there, especially as we head towards winter.”

Botley Neighbourcare has been running since the early 1990s, and offers transport to medical appointments as well as the monthly lunch club for those who may otherwise feel isolated.

And Jenny Barrett, co-ordinator of Compassionately Portsmouth, which is based in the city, said: “I’d be interested in the Positive Energy project. Most of what we offer is picking people up for medical appointments. We do ask how people are doing, but we don’t probe. But if we can offer information about how to save on fuel bills, that might be helpful.“

Bishop Jonathan harked back to the creation of the Good Neighbours Network, back in the 1970s. The founder Bee Kenchington and the then vicar of Swanmore saw there was a need and formed the first care group.

He said: “How wonderful that – 48 years later – people who are nervous about medical appointments have this network of love working alongside them, to support them in this. You, and the other 4,000 volunteers who help, are the unsung heroes who make this possible, part of what holds our society together."

And Karen Jordan, Good Neighbours Network leader, said: "‘It is always inspiring to spend time with such kind, thoughtful and giving people. Good Neighbours volunteers are simply the best!"