Wokingham Borough Council and their partner organisations will be keeping their fingers crossed for success this Friday (23 June) as four projects have been shortlisted for the national MJ Achievement Awards.
Partners essential to the delivery of these four projects include Optalis, the NHS, Loddon Homes, Places Leisure, IT start-up company Pungo, Age UK Berkshire, The Link Visiting Scheme and several local primary care and health care providers.
One of the most prestigious awards for Local Government, the MJ Awards were established to recognise best practice and excellence in delivering services as well as innovation in supporting local communities. The awards also celebrate projects where local authorities have worked closely with partners, including other professional organisations, the voluntary sector, businesses and the local community to deliver great outcomes for all.
Cllr Stephen Conway, leader of the council and executive member for housing, said: “To hear we’d been nominated for four awards, the highest number of nominations for any single council this year, in recognition of the innovative partnership work we’ve been doing was fantastic news and something we should all celebrate.
“Partnership working is incredibly important to us. Not only does it help us make the most of our limited resources it also helps us extend our reach and get the right support to the right people at the right time. As these projects show, by working with great partner organisations, we can achieve real innovation in how we provide our services and make a massive difference to people’s lives.
The four awards the council has been nominated for are:
Best Social Housing Initiative for the ASC Specialist Accommodation (ASCSA) Programme – The creation of new specially adapted accommodation to support a range of vulnerable residents, helping improve their independence and quality of life within the community.
Digital Transformation for Project Joy – Creation of a new Social Prescription App to help connect residents in need with the best health and well-being service to offer support, reducing pressure on GPs and providing an improved approach to referrals
Innovation in Partnerships for Keeping In Touch (KIT) – An innovative project working with Voluntary Sector Partners to help support older residents stay healthy and independent through a 1:1 coaching approach. With coaches able to listen, assess, devise plans and remain in touch to help deal with any emerging or changing issues.
Innovation in Delivering Sustainability and Social Value for the Wokingham town centre regeneration – Leading and enabling the town centre to adapt to the changing face of the high street, create new public spaces and community facilities such as the Carnival Hub with its leisure centre, library and cultural use
Case Study 1: Best Social Housing Initiative for the ASC Specialist Accommodation (ASCSA) Programme
Making sure residents requiring additional support can live in a place they call home and have a choice over where and with whom they live is at the heart of our ambitious ASCSA programme.
The scheme aims to match these residents with the right accommodation to meet their specific needs and improve their quality of life, as well as offering them secure long-term affordable housing solutions.
ASCSA uses a community-based supported housing approach which seeks to provide specialist housing within existing communities to make sure residents can live full and active lives as part of their community, helping tackle loneliness and isolation, as well as encouraging increased participation in work and education. This community-based approach has also been shown to help give residents increased confidence and autonomy as well as helping reduce challenging behaviour.
By supporting these residents to live more independently the council is also helping to reduce the cost of providing the service, by reducing or delaying, and in some cases preventing, their need to access higher levels of ongoing care.
Since launching the ASCSA programme the council and its wholly owned registered provider Loddon Homes, have been working with care partners, Optalis, Arusha, Dimensions and CareTech to successfully deliver six specialist accommodation projects across the borough.
These are made up of a range of properties from small homes to apartment blocks to support some of our most vulnerable residents in Wokingham Borough, such as: residents with physical or learning disabilities, residents with complex behaviours, the elderly with learning disabilities, young adults transitioning from children’s services, and residents with mental health needs.
The programme has been funded and delivered with a range of grants as well as by using S106 developer contributions for affordable housing. In addition to bringing together services from across the council, the project has also been delivered in partnership with the local NHS services and external stakeholders like Persimmons Homes who helped deliver the specialist accommodation at Hatch Farm.
“This is a fantastic programme which is really helping turn people’s lives around. Making sure they have a say in the decisions which affect them and have access to the additional resources they need.” Said Cllr Stephen Conway, leader of the council and executive member for housing. “We’re also pleased to have secured funding from the LGA Housing Advisors Programme to help us review the lessons learnt from this programme so we can continue to grow the scheme and help share best practice with others.”
A new resident who recently moved into Hatch Farm, said: “I put in to move out. I came to have a look. I have lived at hostels before, but they have a lot of rules and I had nothing but problems. Now I have my own place, it’s my house, my rules. Now I go out, I walk to the shops, we also go out for meals and get takeaways. I’m planning with my staff to go bowling. It’s quite a good place, I enjoy it here.”
Case Study 2: Digital Transformation for Project Joy
For many the GP is often the first place that they turn when they face issues in their lives.
However, of those visiting the GP, circa 20 per cent to 50 per cent have a health and well-being challenge that can’t be addressed by their doctor or medicine alone. Not only is this placing massive pressure on the limited GP resources available it’s also leading to delays in getting people the help they need. This has a knock-on effect on other services, with those suffering from problems like mobility, loneliness, social isolation and low-level mental health issues more likely to call on statutory services like Adult Social Care, acute hospital and community nursing.
Recognising this needed to be addressed, the council worked with a range of partners including GPs, Social Prescribers, health and wellbeing providers and service users to better understand the issues. These included a lack of awareness of the full range of services available in the area and no easy way for different partners to connect and intra-refer between services for the best effect.
As a result of these conversations, the council partnered up with IT start-up “Pungo” to look at digital solutions to this challenge, leading to the creation of an innovative new social prescription App called JOY. The initial development involved bringing together six Primary Care Networks, 12 GP surgeries, a community nursing provider, several branches of the Council and a large and diverse voluntary sector to make sure the solution met the needs of a diverse range of users.
Funded through the Digital Cities initiative and Better Care Fund, the JOY app has been designed to better connect residents in need with the best health and wellbeing service to offer them support. The app also helps improve the referral process with services able to quickly cross-refer to others to make sure the right solution is found for the individual involved.
In addition to this, the app also links directly to GP systems meaning it can be used as a Social Prescriber case management tool, with insight into who is and isn’t using services and a better understanding of any service gaps. This information can be used to help target resources as well as improving future commissioning of services.
Launched two years ago with six services on offer, the JOY app has grown to offer 126 services and more continues to expand. This includes services from Adult Social Care, Sport & Leisure, the council’s community nursing provider and a growing list for the voluntary sector.
In the last year, Project JOY has supported more than 3,000 service users within the borough and has seen a 23 per cent reduction in GP appointments. There has also been a 90 per cent acceptance rate for referrals made, with the average referral now only taking four minutes to make compared to the 14 minutes before the app.
Cllr Stephen Conway, leader of the council and executive member for housing, said: “This is a true exemplar of partnership working which has allowed us to work collaboratively, taking a problem and turning it from a local solution into a real success story that has the potential to help thousands of people for years to come. Since its launch with a local pilot, JOY is now supporting 850 GP practices across England, with a predicted 140,000 people supported via the app this year alone.”
One of our Social Prescribers said: “One of the main things that stand out to me is the ability to filter the information and pull out really specific data. It allows me to contact a group of people who, for example, have suffered a bereavement. I can then send them all information about a support group or a newsletter in one go. I find this so useful and it’s something I couldn’t ever do before.
“Joy has made a real difference to how I make referrals. What’s brilliant about Joy is that it’s all there in one place. No more flipping back and forth between systems and having to type the same information over and over.”
Case study 3: Innovation in Partnerships for Keeping In Touch (KIT)
As the cost of living crisis continues, health and wellbeing services have seen growing demand alongside spiralling costs to deliver services. It’s important that the council and partner organisations can find ways to manage demand and support those who are most in need.
The Keeping In Touch (KiT) programme has brought together key voices from the voluntary and community sector, the NHS and the council to discuss some of the core issues leading to high demand and look at solutions on how they can be addressed.
Some of the key themes identified included a focus on short-term emergency and high-need support, growing isolation and disconnection and residents not being prepared for some of the key challenges they face as they age leading to crises, with a need to better educate people on ways to prevent issues happening on the future. There were also complaints from residents about the number of different individuals visiting to provide their care, leading to limited continuity or any overarching understanding of their needs.
The Keeping in Touch (KiT) project seeks to address these issues by offering support much earlier in people’s health journey, helping them become more resilient and prepared for the issues they will face in the future as they age. By doing this they can live their lives as they wish, for as long as possible. Reducing, delaying and preventing their need to depend on more formal care in years to come.
Delivery of the KiT programme is very much in collaboration with the voluntary and community sector along with a range of health and social care organisations across the borough. Some of the council’s key partners involved include Age UK Berkshire, The Link visiting scheme and the NHS Berkshire Healthcare Foundation Trust.
At the heart of the KiT programme is a 1:1 coaching approach where coaches from voluntary organisations meet with residents to listen to their concerns, before assessing and devising a personalised plan to help them prepare for the future. Each client is treated as an individual and agrees how and when they “keep in touch” through their journey, with the coach remaining available to support immediate needs and catch up with them regularly.
Cllr Stephen Conway, leader of the council and executive member for housing, said: “By working with partners like the Link Visiting Scheme and Age UK Berkshire, we’ve been able to get support to those most in need, including those who might not have approached us for help directly. The benefits of the approach are already being seen with feedback from those accessing KiT being incredibly positive and feeling they are getting the support they need.
“By using this early intervention approach we hope we will continue to see long-term improvements to residents’ lives, as well as a reduction in emergency demand, freeing up resources to better support those with higher levels of need.”
A representative from Wokingham South Primary Care Network, said: “KiT is an essential scheme in that the welfare needs of vulnerable adults are picked up as they arise and before a crisis is reached; this is especially important for people who don’t like to ‘bother’ anyone. KiT has quickly become one of the schemes I regularly refer into, and I’m sure it must feel like a lifeline to those that use the service.
“The team are excellent at building rapport and trust with clients, which enables them to suggest appropriate interventions to improve health and wellbeing. It’s an absolutely fantastic scheme that is a credit to the incredible team that deliver it.”
Case study 4: Innovation in Delivering Sustainability and Social Value for the Wokingham town centre regeneration
Over recent years Wokingham town centre has seen a complete transformation as the council has delivered a major regeneration scheme.The regeneration sought to address key issues which had been identified in the town, including car dominance, issues with massive local growth from housing developments on the edge of the town, a limited offer, and an overall poor town centre experience which was leading people to go elsewhere.
Following the failure of private schemes to redevelop the town centre, the council decided to step in and take the lead. This innovative approach enabled the council to make sure that the regeneration happened, and that it would successfully reflect what people said was important for the town’s success.
From the start of the project, the council worked closely with residents, businesses and local community organisations, to identify ideas for how the town could be improved, leading to a Town Centre Masterplan which set a need for creating a thriving town centre economy as well as spaces for people to breathe and streets as places.
The council continued to work with the community, and partners including David Wilson Homes, Loddon Homes, and Places Leisure, on more detailed regeneration schemes for Elms Field, Peach Place and Carnival. Additional objectives were also set requiring the regeneration development to be self-funding as well as generating a new income stream which the council could use to pay for essential services for residents.
Regeneration improvements include pedestrianised spaces and a new square, an improved park and play area, new retail and food units, an Everyman Cinema, bowling alley, soft play centre, an Aldi Foodstore, 512 space multi-storey car park, 95-bed Premier Inn, and a range of new homes including key worker apartments The regeneration has also delivered the new Carnival Hub with a large state of the art leisure centre, a community library and cultural use, including a sports hall which converts into a 400 seat performance space.
By leading the way on this ambitious regeneration project, the council has been able to continue to ensure that the community was placed at the heart of the scheme. The town has seen over 60 new businesses open, more than 70 per cent of which have been independent and niche businesses, reflecting feedback from residents and a need to offer something different from larger neighbouring towns. The community has also embraced the new spaces such as Elms Field, which now hosts a large programme of community events, Peach Place, which is proving the ideal spot to relax and enjoy a drink with friends, and Carnival where the new hub is proving a massive hit.
Cllr Stephen Conway, leader of the council and executive member for housing, said: “The council is under huge pressure financially. It’s important we can look at innovative ways in which we can deliver the facilities our residents need, without putting pressure on the funding required to deliver our key services. The regeneration is a great example of this, as we’ve been able to deliver improvements for our residents, such as a new leisure centre and library, as well as great new pedestrianised spaces and a park where they can relax and socialise.”
David Cliff, local business owner, said: “It’s clear the investment in regenerating the town centre is acting as a strong draw with many citing it as a reason they want to be here. It was a bold step for the council to get involved and lead on regenerating the town centre, but one which we all believe was needed for this to be a success. I’m so proud of our town and our council and they both deserve any and every recognition they receive.”