WHEN it comes to offering a helping hand, village agent Sallyanne Bachelor has her fingers in many different pies.

The 59-year-old is part of the 'village agents' scheme, which provides helpers who make sure older and more vulnerable residents are getting access to the support and services they need.

In the Newent and Dymock areas, Sally's day often consists of knocking on doors, offering help and advice, and generally being a friendly face.

"I'm in my element when I'm doing this," said Sally, who has been with the scheme since it was piloted almost six years ago.

"I just love doing it."

Among her extensive list of 'clients', a somewhat misleading term because the bill is footed by Gloucestershire County Council and the NHS, are Sid Robbins and Peter Johnston, and both were full of praise for her.

Sid, 73, said: "When I moved here in 2007, I'd been in Gloucestershire Royal Hospital for more than six months and I came across the village agents when I joined a lunch club over at St Bart's in Newent.

"It's made a tremendous difference, it gets you out and about, they have lovely meals and Sally provides a lifeline for us."

He said among the activities run by Sally at the Tow Rivers housing unit where he is based in Western Way, Dymock, was a regular bingo night.

He said: "It's just a really nice thing to do."

Lifeline

And Sally often goes the extra mile for clients, sometimes taking them out shopping or running errands for them, which, according to Clare Huckett from the Gloucestershire Rural Community Council, is not a statutory duty.

She said: "Village agents offer support, but they also make sure people have access to the right benefits and services, that kind of thing.

"It has been very focused on older people who are socially isolated, getting them what they need."

She said the scheme was born out of a successful pilot using central government funding in 2006, and the slack was eventually taken up by the local authority and NHS.

Initially covering 96 parishes, the scheme now gets agents out to more than 200, mainly across the Forest and Cotswold areas of the county, but that is due to increase as the project works towards countywide coverage.

Clare said: "We are expanding, and by April we will have achieved full coverage, so we will be hiring.

"We've actually seen a real variety in the people who come forward to do it. They are contracted for 10 hours a week, so we've got people who have young children, some people who are retired, a lot of different people."

And for Sally, the face-time and help she offers clients is something which is as good for her as it is for them.

She said: "Sometimes I get home and I think to myself, 'it's a Monday, I have to do bingo, oh god'.

"But then when I get here I'm in my element. Sometimes I think I get more from them than they do from me."