£100m set to help people with multiple and complex issues

Area:

England

Programme:

Multiple and Complex Needs

Release date:

26 3 2013

There are an estimated 60,000 adults in England with multiple needs
– costing society around £1.38 billion a year.

The BIG Lottery Fund (BIG) announced today 10 successful areas in England now on their way to receiving a share of £100m to support people with multiple problems like homelessness, mental ill health, addiction and reoffending.

With problem drug users alone costing government and society around £46,000 a year, BIG’s £100m investment which aims to help thousands of people, could save the public purse hundreds of millions of pounds.

BIG’s investment, backed by Jon Snow and Mitch Winehouse, has brought together organisations and bodies that tackle these issues to improve the stability, confidence and capability of people with multiple and complex needs to lead better lives so they spend less time in prison, reduce their drug abuse, are in stable accommodation and have better mental health.

BIG is awarding £50,000 to each partnership to help submit business plans on how they will improve and better coordinate services to tackle the needs of people living chaotic lives in order to receive up to £10m each.

Nat Sloane, Big Lottery Fund England Chair, said: “There are countless statistics demonstrating a need to help people with multiple and complex needs – for example the NHS Confederation found that 70 per cent of prisoners suffer from a mental illness and a substance abuse problem.

“Imagine a world where service delivery gives individuals the power to turn their lives around – our ultimate goal is to use the learning gleaned from this investment to shift policy thinking so that individuals become assets rather than just a drain on society.’

Jon Snow, Channel 4 News Presenter and Chair of the New Horizon Youth Centre, said: “I have worked for some four decades in a project that works with vulnerable and homeless young people and I have rarely ever come across funding targeted directly at supporting people of any age with multiple and complex needs.

“That’s why I am so excited by the Big Lottery Fund’s radically new approach to put £100 million behind bringing the assorted services together behind this needy but difficult group of people. I believe this initiative is going to make life changing differences to the lives of very many people previously regarded as on the margins of society. I’m particularly attracted to the way the Big Lottery Fund has engaged the client groups themselves in designing services.

“In austere and difficult times, the Big Lottery Fund is laying the foundations toward making a profound difference. I’m honoured to support their endeavour.”

Mitch Winehouse, who alongside family members established The Amy Winehouse Foundation, said: “Since losing Amy I have been supporting charities that help people who are struggling with an addiction or health issue. I’ve been involved with Big Lottery Fund since the start of this investment and I’m very excited that successful partnerships are now on the verge of receiving up to £10 million to start helping people with serious and complex problems. This money will bring different organisations together to offer people more tailored support to deal with all the different needs that they may have.”

Russell Brand said: "The BIG Lottery Fund is investing 100m in people with complex needs - this means alcoholics, homeless folk, mentally ill people and drug addicts. They will be devising a strategy in collaboration with the beneficiaries - this is a unique and outstanding initiative that will significantly advance our society. The BIG Lottery Fund has a simple solution to complex needs - now I might buy a bloody ticket!"

Over the eight-year investment, BIG will track the success of the partnerships and gather evidence that will shed light on more effective and efficient ways of organising and delivering services including tracking the savings and benefits to the wider community as well as to the individuals who are supported. BIG will use this learning to improve practice amongst the projects it funds, to influence future policy and practice and encourage the continuation of successful interventions.

Case study:

Nashiru Momori (pictured above), from Croydon, spent 19 years of his life coping with mental health issues, drug use and crime. He turned his life around and is now employed as a Criminal Justice Link Worker, supporting prisoners with mental health support needs to resettle successfully in the community.

During his first time in jail he found there was no support for him and upon release, he continued in a downward spiral, getting further involved in drugs and crime and another longer jail term. But on this occasion he found support in prison.

Nash said:  “There was support and facilities in the prison such as training and education and drug rehab projects that I took part in. Plus I gained the support I needed around my mental health.”
 
Once out of prison Nash turned his life around with the help of his care manager.

He said: “He engaged me in taking part with planning my recovery journey and he was able to understand the range of needs I had from mental health and addiction issues to needing to find a safe place to stay and some work. I was put on programs and had to be back at the hostel at 12 noon every day. The structure helped me get back on track.

“These services need support as much as the people do. What these services do can really affect people’s actions so it’s important we all work together to give each other the best support possible.”

The successful areas and lead organisations are:

Big Lottery Fund Press Office: 020 7211 1888
Out of hours media contact: 07867 500 572
Full details of the Big Lottery Fund programmes and grant awards are available on the website: www.biglotteryfund.org.uk
Ask BIG a question here: https://ask.biglotteryfund.org.uk
Follow BIG on Twitter: www.twitter.com/BigLotteryFund #BIGlf
Find BIG on facebook: www.facebook.com/BigLotteryFund
 
Notes to Editors

There are an estimated 60,000 adults in England with multiple needs who are beset by several problems at once and lack effective contact with services that support across all their needs. - Making Every Adult Matter (2009).

An estimate of direct annual expenditure on an ‘average’ adult with multiple needs in 2006 was around £23,000. David Halpern, Social exclusion: bringing opportunity for all,
Presentation at Chequers, 29th August, 2006.

Home Office research has suggested a problem drug user costs the government £10,400 a year in reactive expenditure and in social costs around £35,450.

Department of Health figures suggest it is four times more expensive for hospitals to care for homeless people.

St Mungos homeless service found 69% of their hostel clients who were former rough sleepers had some form of mental health problem.

• The Big Lottery Fund (BIG), the largest distributor of National Lottery good cause funding, is responsible for giving out 40% of the money raised for good causes by the National Lottery.
• BIG is committed to bringing real improvements to communities and the lives of people most in need and has been rolling out grants to health, education, environment and charitable causes across the UK. Since June 2004 BIG has awarded over £6bn.
• The Fund was formally established by Parliament on 1 December 2006.
• Since the National Lottery began in 1994, 28p from every pound spent by the public has gone to good causes. As a result, over £29 billion has now been raised and more than 383,000 grants awarded across arts, sport, heritage, charities, health, education and the environment.

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