Harnessing Community Capacity to deliver great outcomes and savings Sian Lockwood OBE

What is Community Catalysts?  A social enterprise and Community Interest Company established in 2010  Works to harness the talents and imaginations of people and communities to provide high quality small scale local care and support services  Aims to make sure that people wherever they live have a real choice of great services and supports

Self directed support in Scotland  10 year strategy to grow self directed support published in November 2010  Social Care (Self-directed Support) (Scotland) Bill introduced in February 2012  Vision for social care where support is based around the citizen, not the service  Personal budgets and especially direct payments are just one mechanism to enable self directed support

Learning from (the mistakes made) in England  Focus on personal budgets and direct payments as the main mechanism to deliver self directed support  Most energy (and money) spent on getting the resource allocation system (RAS) right  Little attention paid until recently to ensuring ‘market diversity’  Targets for personal budgets has continued local authority focus on systems for delivering budgets

The vision In England Real choice and control for people who need care and support to enable them to live real lives

The reality?

Micro providers  Are local people providing support and services to other local people  Work on a very small scale (5 or fewer workers – paid or unpaid)  Are independent of any larger organisation  Can be run by anyone including people who use services, their families, community members, ex care workers

How do the providers work?  A range of business models: sole trader, partnership, small business, social enterprise, charity or voluntary organisation  Deliver on a continuum from fully voluntary at one end to fully commercial at the other.  May employ a small number of staff. Most directly deliver support themselves.  Full time or occasional - fitting in with other employment, personal, caring responsibilities or study.  Established or new and emerging  May not fit within the regulatory framework for care

What types of services do they provide? People buy support and services to help them to live their lives - many micro enterprises deliver services that fall outside health and social care such as:  Housing related support  Well being and health  Leisure and arts  Holidays and short breaks  Friendship or good neighbour  Drop in centres and lunch clubs  Advice and representation  Transport

What do micro providers offer people who need support and services?  Personal and tailored  Co-produced  Flexible and responsive to change  Choice of services that help people to live their lives and meet health and support needs  Help people to link to their community and build social capital  Help people to make their money go further  Route into work and volunteering

Community Catalysts and micro providers  We have developed a way to  Find  Engage  Support  Connect  Local people already running something in their area or those with a great new idea  We have worked with approx 28 councils and communities across the UK to help them support micro providers in their area

People and possibilities

Fife Shopping and Support Services  Formed by a group of staff who had previously worked in council Home Care Services for many years  Support older and disabled residents across Fife  Provide help with daily tasks such as:  Shopping  Pension Collection  Prescription Collection  Gift Collection  Post Office Visits  Bill Payments  Housework  Is a non-profit making social enterprise organisation  Work in both urban and rural locations

Fife Shopping and Support Services

MyBus  A new organisation running for approx 2 years  Provide a range of affordable, reliable, accessible transport services to groups and individuals unable to access suitable public transport.  Have five minibuses ranging from 8 to 16 seats (plus driver) all with access for people with mobility problems  Organise trips out to places of interest  Engaged in community projects  Recruit and train volunteers  Offer MiDAS training to local organisations  Believe that people come first, so build their service around the needs of the people, and the group

Insight for Carers  Launched in July 2010 with a vision of creating a holistic focal point for carers  Run by volunteers - primarily people with a learning disability, older people and the unemployed  Hosts Carers Surgeries, coffee mornings, Councillors surgeries, drop in sessions and an IT information hub  Now have approximately 100 customers per week  Many carers are also users of services and many are elderly. They often feel that their voices are unheard  The cafe offers support, an informal social network, and empowers volunteers to become less socially isolated and gain valuable work experience

Insight for Carers

Pulp Friction CIC  Jill Carter runs the enterprise with her daughter Jessie, who has learning disabilities  Jessie wanted to find work like her friends but Jill felt it was unlikely that this would happen so the pair set up Pulp Friction  Pulp Friction run cycle powered smoothie bar at community events  Work with young adults with learning disabilities to develop their social, independent and work readiness skills

Quotes from Pulp Friction “I’ve been with Pulp Friction for a year now and when I first started I wanted to build my confidence skills up more by serving the customers. I go to local places and other locations too helping out with the pedal powered smoothie bar” “I liked doing Pulp Friction, it was good meeting new people. It was helpful for me and I got a job” “ I like doing Pulp Friction, I do cleaning and put the rubbish in the bin. It has given me more confidence”

Funky Fitness and Fun  Set up by Carita who runs a drama group for people with a disability locally and knew people were looking for things to do with their friends.  Focuses on health and well being  Members decide the activities which include aerobics, kickboxing, tai chi, street dancing, belly dancing and visits from a nutritionist and dentist  One member Michael says ‘ ideas are not restricted by management’ as in council services!!

Funky Fitness and Fun

Ace of Spades  New service idea from a couple who have a passion for gardening and skills in delivering care services  Will offer older and disabled people including those with dementia support to garden  Older people who used to love to care for their own garden but can no longer do so  Carers wanting to maintain their garden, enable their loved one to keep active and gain some free time  Residential care homes wanting to make better use of garden maintenance budget whilst providing the people who live in the home with a hobby and a real interest in their surroundings

Saturday Night Social  Bob and Karen have enduring mental health issues and run the Saturday Night Social enterprise  Operates at weekends and in the evening at a local centre for people with enduring mental health issues  Bob and Karen realised that there were a number of services and groups available on week days, but there was nothing available at other times  Saturday Night Social offers people the opportunity to socialise, feel included, and have a low cost home cooked meal  The group is highly valued by the people who use it

The Adventure Service  Husband and wife partnership  Both have a background in social care and education and a wealth of experience in Person-Centred Planning  Have a passion for outdoor pursuits  Set up the Adventure Service to enable young adults with difficulties to achieve their potential through the great outdoors  Service offers something very different and is well used

Final message! “ If you do what you've always done, you'll get what you've always gotten ” Anthony Robbins

Questions  What more do you want to know about micro-enterprise?  Are there local/national priorities which micro-enterprise could help to address?  What are the challenges and concerns about working with micro-enterprise?

For further information Contact Sian Lockwood Follow us on