LOCAL Area Coordinators have been employed to improve the lives of people living in some of the most deprived parts of the county.

Three full time roles have been created in Trowbridge, Melksham and Westbury, who will be responsible for helping up to 80 people within the community to improve their lives.

Funding for Local Area Coordinator roles has been granted by a £355,880 pot to provide two years of support in the community.

A further £562,944 has been secured for six more local area coordinators in Chippenham, Calne, Wootton basset Salisbury, Warminster and Amesbury

Their role will include helping people at the end of their life or with complex life situations as well as supporting those with disabilities, drug related issues and tackling anti social behaviour.

Vicky Lofts, of the Local Area Coordination team, said: “There is large health inequality across our populaiton. Those living most deprived areas having significantly poorer health than those in the least deprived areas. The variation of preventable deaths various enormously, those living in most deprived have almost double the preventable mortality of those living in the least deprived areas.

"So the universal services do very well in the affluent groups but in the most deprived groups we are not doing well and we need to do more for those folks to help them have a longer healthier life.”

Councillors welcomed the new scheme but questioned how the service would integrate with other services while expressing concerns that vulnerable people should not be allowed to slip through the cracks of care on offer. They were told that the service would aim to support people not already getting help from other services providing similar support and would help people live .