Health Check Guide

What measures does your Community Council take to ensure that all sections of the community have their say in Village life? How do they pass information on to the whole community?

How do people in need of care, help and support within your community find out what organised services are available to assist them?

What do you do to welcome ALL new residents into the community life? How do they find out about your community and what is going on

What are the benefits for the village from Information Communication Technology – tourism, provision of email, local communications within the village and surrounding area, business, environmental, other ideas? What other innovative ways is ICT being used – perhaps SMS alerts, web cams etc..?

How do people find out about courses or help with Information Communication Technology? Is technology used in other ways - eg to support the fight against crime? Lost pets?

Does the domain name have the village name in it, eg www.bampton.org.uk?

Does the website have more than one point of contact?

Can you communicate to website owners by email?

How often is this email read?

How long does it take to reply to an email?

How do people in the village who are not on email contribute or get involved?

Does the community offer any training courses, informal one to one, or other support in how to use the Internet and Information Communication Technology? How are older people supported? Why?

If you were a resident of the village would you feel that technology and the website (if you have one) improves and promotes village life? Give examples, eg to help combat rural isolation, to improve tourism.

Is the site easy to navigate around? Are the colours within the site well themed and coordinated? Are the graphics clear and in keeping with the site and the village? Is the site visually impaired friendly?

How is the content gathered? Who decides what should go on the site? How often is the content updated? Weekly, monthly, yearly? When was the last time the site was updated?

Is the information on the site filtered through one individual or does everyone have access to posting information?

Does the site contain any of the following sub-categories? Village News, Shopping, History, Pensioners, Parents, Children, Maps/Directions of the Village, Photos, Movies, Genealogy Links, Health Services, Schools, Recreation and Sports, Chat Rooms, Local Facilities, Special Events Calendar, Transport, Telephone Directory, House/Family Directory, General Contact Information? NOTE These are all suggestions not essentials.

Does the village have a public Internet terminal?

Is the computer accessible to all and at useful times?

Do any of the local facilities have a public fax machine?

Do local businesses or business people allow use of their technology for the benefit of the village (scanner, digital camera, printers etc)?

Is the parish newsletter put together using technology?

Does the parish council use email to support its initiatives?

Are members of the surrounding area encouraged to join village projects?