Notes from North East Multiple Needs and Exclusion Forum on Tuesday 15th September 2015 at Castlegate Centre, Newcastle

Attendees:

Marnie Burden - Access to Housing, Nicola Gilroy – Changing Lives, Fiona Robson – North Tyneside Council, Tony Carruthers – Gateshead Council, Phil Conn – Oasis Aquila Housing, Alex Smith – Fulfilling Lives, Natalie Maidment – Clinks, Lindsay Henderson – Homeless Link, Nicola Wrightson – Changing Lives, Janette McMain – Darlington Borough Council, Natalie Bloomfield – Durham County Council, Katie Thursk – Durham County council, Debra Sheil – Newcastle City Council

Apologies:

Sharon Brown – YHNE, Nik Milnes – Community Campus 87 , Jill Thorpe – Foundation, Katie Upshall Davis – Crisis, Vicki Lyall – DASH project.

  1. Welcome and Introductions

Natalie Maidment welcomed everyone to the forum and explained that she and Lindsay Henderson would now be coordinating the North East Multiple Needs and Exclusion Forum. The MN&EF was created as a sub-group of the Regional Homelessness Forum. The main purpose of the group was to meet to share experiences and approaches as well as receiving monitoring reports about the funded projects. The funding for the projects has now ended and multiple needs work across the NE has grown. As Homeless Link and Clinks are part of the MEAM coalition they are able to offer resources to continue this forum.

  1. Overview and National Update

In 2008 4 National Charities (Homeless Link, Clinks, Drugscope and MIND) came together to try and improve outcomes for people with multiple needs. They estimated that around 60,000 people were living chaotic lifestyles and were stuck in a revolving door. There was a recognition that people with multiple needs tend to face more than one issue (substance misuse, offending behaviour, homelessness and mental health issues). The MEAM Coalition wanted to ensure that in every local area are supported by effective coordinated services which involve service users at the heart of their delivery.

The MEAM Approach was developed to provide a non-prescriptive framework for developing a coordinated approach in a local area. The approach is based on 7 elements from developing the partnership right through to sustainability. The MEAM Coalition also wants to influence national policy by gathering local voices of frontline workers and service users. The project,Voices from the front Line brings together policy officers from the 4 sectors and have produced a number of reports; the latest offering recommendations from policymakers. It is envisaged that the work of this group will feed in directly to the work of MEAM.

  1. What are the key strategic groups that you attend/are aware of that we could feed into?

Mental Health
Health and Wellbeing Boards
Mental Health North East
Healthwatch
Mental Health Panel (SHP)
Liaison and Diversion - NTW / Criminal Justice
North Tyneside Reducing Reoffending Board
Community Safety Partnerships
Local Criminal Justice Boards
PCC panels
MARAC
MAPPA
Anti Social Behaviour Panel
Homelessness
NE Regional Homelessness Group
North Tyneside Homelessness Prevention Forum
Sunderland Homelessness Forum
Darlington Homelessness Forum
YHNE
BTC
VPHP
Arrears Panel
Sustaining Tenancies group
Sunderland Hostel Strategy Group
Gateshead Vulnerable Person’s Housing Panel
Swan Lodge service user forum Sunderland / Substance Misuse
DAAT
NE service user and carers forum (ADFAM)
Drug Related Death group
Sunderland cases for concern
Newcastle Service user forum
Cross Cutting Groups
MEAM groups
Local Authority Safeguarding Boards
  1. Expertise of the group/ gaps in knowledge?

Delegates were asked to discuss the current knowledge of the group. Homelessness was the strongest element. It was felt that the following were gaps;

Mental Health
NTW
Safeguarding
MIND
CAMHS
Crisis Teams
GPs
Street Triage / Criminal Justice
Probation/ CRCs
Police
YOT
Homelessness
Welfare Rights Teams
Homelessness charities
Social Services / Substance misuse
Lifeline – DAAT
Cross Cutting Groups
DWP
Physical Health – PHE
Older People
Learning Disabilities
  1. What are we missing? Any resources, training, groups we could tap into?

Mental Health
Gaps in mental health knowledge – existing partnerships
Trauma informed care approach
Relationship breakdowns / Criminal Justice
Knowledge and skills of partnerships i.e. MAPPS, OMU. MARAC
Domestic Abuse
Homelessness
Housing and Homelessness
Supported housing – learning disability and mental health / Substance Misuse
Brief Interventions
In-depth Interventions
Harm Reduction
Cross Cutting Groups
General awareness training across all topics
Multiple and complex needs – the clients no other agencies work with
Training around trauma informed care
Understanding MEAM Approach
Survival sex work
  1. What would people like the group to focus on for the next year? – Feed into nationally?
  • Raise homeless on the agendas of health and criminal justice
  • Integrating multiple needs into the 4 areas – multiple needs is not a 5th area
  • Use the forum as a platform to discuss/resolve blockages to complex need clients e.g. social work involvement, dual diagnosis
  • How to avoid burn out of frontline workers
  • Strategic Influence
  • Funding cuts – excuse for everyone to do nothing.
  • Dual Diagnosis and Mental Health
  • Physical disabilities and mental health issues – where to go if there are no support workers
  • Other services understanding homelessness e.g. police, DWP, mental health, CAB
  • A greater knowledge of what forums exist for frontline workers to tap into
  1. Key Issues you / your organisation is struggling with:
  • No-one wants to take responsibility for cases / families or issues
  • Where to house high risk complex needs clients
  • Mental health being involved in meetings
  • EU nationals with no entitlement benefits
  • Getting commissioners from different sectors to talk to each other
  • Support with breaking behavioural cycles
  • Local area connection – those who can no longer live in their area
  • Dual diagnosis
  • Understanding mental health partnerships
  1. What do you personally want from the MN&EF?
  • Action
  • Reflective practice for staff working with multiple needs clients. More support – less burn out.
  • Finding out about new projects and initiatives
  • Sharing good practice
  • Sharing training – buy in bulk
  1. Membership of the group

It was agreed that the MN&EF would be brought under the MEAM banner to feed into the national agenda. Future forums will be advertised through the partners of MEAM’s communication channels.

  1. Next Steps

Action: Natalie to update the Terms of Reference for the forum, based on today’s discussions.

  1. Date of Future Forum

The next forum will be held in December and the information gathered from today’s forum will be used to plan the session.

The forum was followed by a workshop ‘What does it mean to have a local connection’. Notes are available separately for this workshop.