NCAN Strategic Partnership
24 September 2014
Present
Dan Mobbs, Mancroft Advice Project (Chair)
Béatrice Humarau, North Norfolk ASTF Coordinator
Christopher Harvey, Police Contact and Control Room, Norfolk Constabulary
Cynthia Schears, Diss & Thetford CAB
Janka Rodziewicz, NCAN
Kate Kingdon, SCG
Kerrie Gallagher, South Norfolk Council
Liz Day, NCAN
Marie Reavey, Police Contact and Control Room, Norfolk Constabulary
Michelle De Oude, Community Relations and Equality Board (CREB)
Public Health, Norfolk County Council
Rob Cooper, Norfolk County Council
Ros Brown, NCLS
Thelma Wadsley, KLARS
Apologies (check)
Claire Collen, Voluntary Norfolk
Gill Abbott, South Norfolk Council
Jo Willingham, Age UK Norwich
Julia Challonder, Norfolk CAB
Julie Kemmy, Equal Lives
Lesley Penny, Breckland Advice Project
Lin Mathews, Age UK Norfolk
Rebecca Hall, Norfolk CAB
Sally Hoare, Broadland Council
Veronica Mitchell, Norfolk County Council
1. Minutes of last meeting and matters arising
1.1. Lesley reported that Shelter were in the process of setting up a new casework management system and she thought this will incorporate an outcomes measurement system. Lesley will keep us informed.
2. NCAN updates
2.1. Personnel
It was reported that Janka Rodziewicz had been appointed to the post of NCAN Strategy Manager, with a start date of 22 October.
2.2. Funding
a) An application had been made to the County Council for infrastructure funding but this had not been successful as NCAN did not fully meet all the criteria.
b) Ros reported that Rob Cooper was trying to arrange a meeting with key County Council officers with a view to facilitating a local authority consortium approach to funding NCAN and taking forward the Low Commission recommendations. It was hoped that if local authority funding could be secured, some additional funding would be forthcoming from the Big Lottery and other funders.
c) the current Big Lottery funding for NCAN was due to come to an end imminently (the end of September). Norwich Consolidated Charities had committed a full six month’s funding to support the project until the end of March next year.
2.3. INTRAN project
· Ten members had signed up to the INTRAN pilot. It was reported that each organisation in the consortium would pay £200 (instead of the usual £2,000 membership fee).
· The pilot is supported by CREB and was felt to be an important initiative in terms of providing access to justice. As well as providing affordable access to translation and interpretation services, the pilot would aim to review the provision of translation and interpretation services across the County.
· The next stage will be to identify development needs through consultation and to set up training sessions to assist participating organisations to access the services.
2.4. County Rehabilitation of Offenders Board
· It was reported that the Rehabilitation Board had produced a new website and that this will be linked with the NCAN website.
· At a recent meeting the issue of delays in sorting out benefit appeals was raised, and the implications for clients with no other source of income in terms of increasing the likelihood of re-offending. The Board had agreed to invite someone from DWP to a subsequent meeting to address these issues. This is particularly problematic for migrant workers who have no provision for short term funding while benefit applications are processed. It had also come to light that this issue was causing bed blocking in hospitals, with health professionals reluctant to discharge patients without any money.
3. ASTF Updates
3.1. It was reported that Liz and Ros had met with Broadland Council representatives (Jill Penn and Leigh Booth) to discuss how they might link in with the six ASTF projects (Broadland is the only district that did not apply for ASTF funding), and it was hoped a Broadland representative will attend future meetings of ASTF Coordinators.
3.2. Béatrice reported on the North Norfolk Advice Network. Some of the partners had made progress investigating alternative delivery channels, e.g. Skype. They had good engagement with North Norfolk CCG and Béatrice had recently attended a service providers meeting looking in particular at the implications of the Care Act for the local advice sector.
3.3. Cynthia Schears reported on the South Norfolk Advice Project.
· They had appointed a Coordinator, Caroline Mackinson, who was due to start in post the following day.
· Work is underway to transform the Diss CAB office into an advice hub, with a new training room, video conferencing and new phones.
· They had set up a Skype link providing outreach to three rural areas. Two touchscreen information kiosks were being piloted.
· The partnership is comprised of eight agencies and plans are afoot to expand this into a wider advice forum. They were looking at preventative activities, including working with Broadland Housing to set up a job club at Diss CAB and developing a financial capability project.
· They had specialist Welfare Rights and Debt advisors in post at both Diss and Thetford offices. Studies had been commissioned looking at developing a strategy for rural advice and how they might diversify their funding base.
3.4. Liz presented a report on behalf of Lesley Penny, the Coordinator for the Breckland Advice Project.
· Two of the three planned advice hubs were now operational (Dereham and Thetford), delivering general and specialist advice.
· A project plan had been circulated to partners comprising: outcomes and deliverables, scope, resource needs, reporting, roles and responsibilities, dependencies, implementation plans, risk, communication, evaluation and sustainability.
· Training had been undertaken on immigration awareness, use of NCAN referral system, and training META staff to deliver Gateway advice.
· Specialist debt and welfare advisers had been appointed and a Volunteer Coordinator for Thetford Advice hub.
· A mapping research project focussing on new ways of working and preventative strategies was being commissioned.
· Cynthia (Diss & Thetford CAB are also a partner in the Breckland project) added that they are in the process of opening the door to other advice agencies and developing two new brands/multiagency services: Breckland Advice Services and South Norfolk Advice Services.
3.5. Thelma reported that the King’s Lynn Advice Hub had just completed their first year report.
· Co-location had been achieved, but without one of the key partners, i.e. Norfolk CAB (Kings Lynn office) who were unable to relinquish their existing lease. Council officers had indicated that cuts in funding had led to unoccupied buildings, which could provide bigger premises for the Hub which would enable it to work towards bring in new partners.
· They are now in the process of putting together a five year strategy.
· Good engagement had been made with West Norfolk CCG & Kings Lynn Council.
3.6. Ros reported that NCLS had launched a new Free Legal Advice service in association with Connecting Advice in Great Yarmouth
3.7. It was reported that the Norwich Advice Partnership had recruited an Information and Resource Officer, James Weston, who was setting up a triage service based at Shelter.
· It was reported that the Norwich Advice Partnership were finding the day to day management of Big Lottery requirements and reporting very demanding, a concern that seems to be shared across the projects.
3.8. A Project Coordinators’ meeting was scheduled for 30 September. The agenda for this meeting will include sharing of resources and strategies around use of new technologies; sharing experience/strategies for funding specialist advisors beyond the end of ASTF projects; and planning an event in early 2015 to communicate process and learning achieved through ASTF projects to the broader advice sector.
4. Specialist Contract Group (SCG)
4.1. Monitoring outputs
Kate reported that the first year’s monitoring outputs show how Norwich-centric services are, with 30% of IAA from SCG organisations based in Norwich.
4.2. Digital by default
The monitoring figures showed that, of the 43,000 enquiries to advice services over a one year period, only 2,300 clients accessed services digitally, which brings into question the digital by default agenda, and in particular the barriers to access experienced by vulnerable groups.
While not obviating the need to develop online services, there was a strong case for continuing to champion the value of face to face and telephone access to IAA.
It was noted that 100,000 people in the County currently have no access to the internet or a computer.
4.3. Linking in with ASTF hubs
Plans are afoot to link in SCG providers with new hubs via ASTF projects.
4.4. New commissioning environment
· Kate reported on an NCVO webinar providing information about the commissioning environment that we may eventually be moving towards.
· This painted a long term picture that included reducing the scope of commissioners, outsourcing commissioning to the private sector, and setting up consortia of voluntary organisation who would then take on contracts. It was felt that this kind of scenario where the private sector would play such a pivotal role was not on the cards at present in Norfolk.
· However, it was agreed that the overall direction of travel does reinforce the strategic importance of the voluntary sector working more closely together; developing common systems, and becoming increasingly forensic about outputs and outcomes.
4.5. Early Help
· Kate reported back on an informal visit to an early help hub that has been established by South Norfolk District Council. Concern was expressed that personnel in the hub appeared to have no knowledge of NCAN or of Diss and Thetford CAB/South Norfolk Advice Project, and this may be indicative of the need to translate talk about integration with voluntary sector into more tangible actions.
· Cynthia observed that the whole purpose of early help was to reach vulnerable families before crisis, and therefore information and advice should play a central role.
· Although Kerry said that the CAB had been engaged in discussions, and that the idea of the hub is very much a work-in-progress, Cynthia suggested that CAB needed to be more involved..
· The Diss hub was a flagship pilot arising from a Health and Wellbeing Board workshop on early health. It was important that any gaps in engagement with the advice sector were urgently redressed.
· It was agreed that Cynthia would attend subsequent planning meetings, and that she would have a mandate to talk on behalf of NCAN about the role of the advice sector as a whole.
· Rob Cooper reported that GP practices in Diss had been engaged in the project and that Stonham had been brought in as contracted provider. He made the observation that making the connections for this model of working takes time.
· It was felt that sharing experience and knowledge of these pilots could lead to developing a model of early health for Norfolk, and could inform other initiatives, for example plans for an early help hub in Kings Lynn.
ACTION: CYNTHIA AND KERRY TO REPORT BACK ON PROGRESS.
4.6. Common Referral System security issues
· Kate asked for clarification about concerns that had been raised about the security of the NCAN common referral system data.
· Liz reported that Norfolk CAB had ceased using the system because of concerns raised by an IT volunteer about a technical inconsistency between the training system and the live system which had subsequently been resolved. At no time had there been any breach of confidential data.
· The IT volunteer had also made suggestions about improving the security of the system more generally. While NCAN welcomed the opportunity to review and improve the security of the system, it was hoped that Norfolk CAB might be able to recommence their use of the system while these issues were being investigated and improvements implemented.
5. Child Poverty Strategy
5.1. Dan reported that the County Council had put together a draft Child Poverty Strategy for presentation to the Health & Wellbeing Board, and he was seeking views from the Strategic Partnership about what priorities he should be promoting.
5.2. Part of the impetus behind the Strategy is the need to reduce expenditure and increase income, with the focus on achievable objectives.
5.3. Concerns were raised that often key strategies do not adequately take into account disabled children, people with mental health problems, BME backgrounds, etc, and that there was generally a need to better understand the needs of minority groups in order to provide the right intervention.
5.4. It was felt that increasing employability skills should feature in the Strategy, as well as advocacy to reduce isolation and structural disadvantages.
5.5. It was noted that the emphasis on employability, training, and also fuel poverty echoed the priorities mapped out in the South Norfolk Health and Wellbeing Strategy which contained sections on child poverty.
5.6. Dan agreed to share the draft strategy with the Partnership when it had reached a more developed form.
ACTION: DAN TO REPORT BACK WITH MORE DEVELOPED DRAFT
6. Improving Health & Wellbeing in Norfolk and Preventing Ill Health
6.1. Tim Winters, Head of Public Health Information at Norfolk County Council, talked through the appended Powerpoint presentation, outlining the County’s work on developing a performance monitoring framework of indicators, looking in particular at the cost implications of health interventions. A report including full datasets and analysis would be available presently.
6.2. Tim talked through the implications and findings that the various datasets pointed to and the cost implications of action/inaction, based on a Social Return on Investment model. He said he was available to assist NCAN members in relating their own outputs and outcomes to the indicators set out in this report and, generally, to help the sector make better use of existing datasets in making the case for advice as a health intervention.
6.3. Kerry reported that the work of South Norfolk Council’s Independent Living Team was to reduce demand on services, particularly in later life. As well as being a useful tool in putting bids together, it was also a source of inspiration for teams in clearly setting out the value of this work.
Michelle felt that the indicators do not adequately relate to groups at particular risk relating to certain life behaviour, e.g. people from the lesbian and gay community, people with mental health problems, smokers and drug takers. She observed that the prevalence of disability correlates with poverty levels, and that this also needs to be more fully taken into account. She suggested that further analysis could look at mapping indicators with appropriate interventions for particularly vulnerable groups, for example, the type of support needed to help disabled people or those with mental health problems get into work are very different. CREB were currently looking at how to address the dearth of evidence in this regard.