Voluntary Sector Team
Wellbeing – how has it got better in the voluntary sector?
The Care Forum voluntary sector team enhanced people’s wellbeing by enabling voluntary and community sector organisation and individuals to participate fully and equally in the design, delivery and improvement of services. How did we do this in 2010/11?
Through our newsletters, ebulletins, elected representatives and network meetings, we ensured that our members received high quality support and had their voices heard by commissioners in the NHS and local councils.
Many of our members were worried about the impact of changes and cuts to voluntary sector services, the effect they would have on service users and how the sector could continue to deliver good quality services. In such uncertain times the networks enabled organisations to air concerns, share information, support each other and communicate with the statutory sector. After a meeting of the older people’s voluntary sector services networks, members were clear about how they had been supported: “Good to hear organisations sharing views on how to tackle the difficulties.”
"Holy moly, I enjoyed everything! Very info packed meeting" was the view of a Bristol member who attended a mental health network meeting on early intervention, suicide and self harm with speakers from the statutory and voluntary sectors.
Our ebulletins were appreciated: "As ever this is the most useful email I ever get!", said a B&NES member; and a voluntary sector regional manager recorded that, "The newsletter and information sheets are really useful synopses".
External evaluation by the Regional Youth Work Unit confirmed our members’ positive assessments: "The Care Forum has answered questions about many subjects for us... The reports or links that came through guided us to have the information there for our executive members to keep us on the right track. A good all round team of people to keep us informed.”
Evaluation of our work with voluntary sector reps – who sit on multi-agency partnerships to bring a voluntary sector perspective and then report back through The Care Forum’s meetings and publications – demonstrated that the statutory sector chairs of strategic planning groups were positive:
"One key issue is how to demonstrate outcomes and share practice – we couldn’t do that without the voluntary sector."
"Our rep has brought a positive approach [...]. She also speaks for the sector as a whole as far as possible."
In South Gloucestershire, following each network meeting we started to send our reps a well-received issues page outlining the main points raised by voluntary sector organisations. This added to our reps’ ability to reflect voluntary sector views in the strategic meetings that they attend: “Great for voluntary sector reps. They will be able to provide a quick but informative update with information like this”.
In line with The Care Forum’s new strategic plan, we developed new strands of work in 2010/11, such as a series of events on personalisation including a training session, a forum for providers of carer services in B&NES, and regional work for the Department of Health. For the latter we hosted a ‘square table’ meeting and a voluntary sector providers’ reference group to consider the strategies for children with life-limiting conditions and their families over the next decade. The local learning reports of these meetings published the common concerns including key working, care pathways, communication, and transition from children to adult’s services. The comments on the need for key workers are an example of the strong messages sent from the south west to the Department of Health and to local commissioners:
‘A key worker or single point of contact could provide information, support, liaise with professionals and help families obtain the services they need and want. This service needs to be developed and funded.'
‘If I’d had one from the early days, it would have helped. It would be nice to be able to phone someone up and ask a question and to be listened to and understood. It’s been nice to come today.’
The Care Forum’s strategic plan commits us to ‘pilot innovative services, disseminate their findings and stimulate their sustainability’. The New Routes social prescribing pilot has done just this. Recognised as a national innovation model, based at The Care Forum with desks in GP practices, the project ended its pilot phase in March 2011.
New Routes
New Routes was set up to assist socially isolated people, via a referral from their GP, to access opportunities within their local communities using the New Routes signposting and handholding service. The service aims to improve participants’ health and wellbeing, build upon the personalisation agenda, reduce repeat visits to the GP, facilitate cross-sector working and identify any gaps that may exist in current local services. The University of Bath evaluated the outcomes. The two New Routes co-ordinators worked with local voluntary and community organisations to identify services and activities: one befriending organisation accepted referrals of New Routes clients but also benefited from a New Routes client becoming a volunteer with its service. Local service providers have also worked with New Routes to identify and set up new services in the gaps in local provision: the pilot Breathing Space arts group was set up by two community artists for New Routes clients. The New Routes steering group was also a good example of cross-sector working with representatives from the medical profession, community development, libraries, the university, the volunteer centre, and B&NES Council.
By the end of the pilot two co-ordinators had taken 90 referrals from GPs and other professionals in Keynsham. Each of the clients who consented to a first assessment with New Routes, and then agreed to proceed with the service, was offered suggestions about different voluntary, community and social enterprise sector organisations that they could engage with. A third went on to engage with between one and four different types of activities. The most popular were volunteering, befriending, walking groups, and arts groups. Another third did not engage with New Routes, and the remaining third were cases that required a more flexible approach to timing and for whom outcomes are not yet known. Of those clients who did engage, they reported feeling less socially isolated and more confident about engaging in their local communities through their involvement with New Routes.
Ivy, aged 82, is widowed and losing her vision. Though she presents as upbeat, she is feeling scared and alone. Her changed circumstances have left her feeling lost and bored. The New Routes Co-ordinator made two referrals to Chew Valley and Keynsham Befrienders service for her to meet or go out with a befriender, and to Vision Plus to provide Ivy with equipment and access to a social group with transport provided. The co-ordinator also made an application to The Blind Society for a holiday for Ivy.
As we move out of the pilot phase and into the third year of the project, we are clearer about who the service benefits and who we are unable to reach. People who are housebound with mobility problems are difficult to help because of the lack of transport infrastructure locally. People who would not go out for other reasons were also beyond the remit of the project which did not have the capacity to provide on-going support and home visits. We also discovered that people may need our input for longer than we originally planned. It takes people a long time to change social habits and we found that some clients needed our input for longer and more intensively than anticipated. These identified needs have prompted us to recruit volunteers with the time and skills to support clients to attend their chosen activities.
