- Area:
- London
- Programme:
- Multiple and Complex Needs
- Release date:
- 26 3 2013
The BIG Lottery Fund (BIG) announced today that two London partnerships are now on their way to receiving up to £10 million each to support people with multiple problems like homelessness, mental ill health, addiction and reoffending.
BIG is awarding £50,000 each to the partnerships – one covering Lambeth, Southwark and Lewisham led by Resolving Chaos, the other covering Camden and Islington and led by the Single Homeless Project (SHP). The £50,000 grants will help them 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. Eight other successful partnerships across England are also on the verge of receiving a share of the £100m investment.
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, Mitch Winehouse and Russell Brand, 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.
In Lambeth, Southwark and Lewisham, the partnership has calculated there are between 500-800 people per borough with at least three complex needs who are known to services because of their problematic behaviour.
The partnership will help people with multiple needs become more independent and engaged with the community, with homes, jobs and meaningful relationships. They will receive one-to-one support and a personal service plan will be developed. Beneficiaries will be offered peer support, education and training with individuals gaining quicker access to local and statutory services. The aim is to create a system that provides flexibility, joined-up provision and outcomes that individuals want.
The project will also consider how resources are currently used and their effectiveness in improving lives. Individuals’ history and current service use will be tracked to identify which services bear the main costs dealing with people with multiple needs. This data, along with evaluations, will be used to demonstrate how resources could be set out differently to achieve better results.
Nick O’Shea, Director of operations at Resolving Chaos, said: “Public services need to be transformed and the effective way to do that is by spending money in the right places. If we give people with multiple needs more choice and better support we can turn their lives around for less money. Instead of people using crisis services such as A & E or ending up in custody or prison, our work in Lewisham, Southwark and Lambeth will ensure that they get the right help at the right time from the right people. This will be cheaper and produce better outcomes.
“It’s a vital programme, because if we can prove this process is effective for people with multiple and complex needs, then there is a blueprint for how to provide better services for others, including disabled and older people, where future funding crises loom. This is a big opportunity as it comes at a crucial time when a lot of services are facing significant budget cuts. We aim to respond by showing that more is possible, even with less money.”
In Camden and Islington, the partnership will help people access the services they need, feel part of their community and live fulfilling lives. It will focus on individuals with all four problem areas who present the greatest challenge and rely on crisis services.
Individuals will be better supported through on-going contact with one worker and a network of peers. Workers will support individuals shift from being at the point of crisis to directing their own support. The partnership will work with local business to make employment feel obtainable. It will also identify what works well and where individuals experience problems accessing services in order to test different ways of delivering services. By proving the economic argument for investing in prevention and the benefits of working in partnership, the partnership estimates 7,000 – 8,000 people in Camden and Islington will benefit.
Liz Rutherfoord SHP’s Chief Executive said: “This investment from the BIG Lottery Fund is great news for people in Camden and Islington who have complex needs and for the wider community. SHP and our partners aim to transform the way the voluntary and statutory sector work together so we can offer effective and co-ordinated support to people who have previously been denied the services they needed because of their multiple needs, enabling them to live fulfilling lives.”
Alison Rowe, Big Lottery Fund England Head of Communications, 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.
London Case Study:
Nashiru Momori, from Croydon, spent 19 years of his life involved in drugs, crime and imprisonment. 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.
Nash suffered a severe mental breakdown as a young man. He said: “I was smoking a lot of pot experimenting with Class A drugs and he began petty stealing.”
He ended up in jail but found there was no support for him. Once released he continued in a downward spiral, getting further involved in drugs and crime which ended up with a nine year sentence. But this time 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. For the first time I saw myself as now being able to do something better in life and making my mark in a positive way by helping others who were experiencing similar issues to myself.”
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 every day. The structure helped me get back on track.”
Nash had one-to-one support for the first six months had to go to rehab sessions from 9am-5pm every day. At the same time he was frequenting a drop in centre where he volunteered to help others. Nash is now enjoying his job as a Criminal Link Justice Worker.
He said: “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.”
Lambeth, Southwark and Lewisham partnership members:
Resolving Chaos, St Giles Trust, Certitude, Thames Reach, LB Lambeth, LB Southwark, LB Lewisham, South London and Maudesley Trust.
Camden and Islington partnership members:
Single Homeless Project, St Mungos, Prison Advice and Care Trust, Holy Cross Centre Trust, Pillion Trust, Groundswell, Eagle Recovery, Crime Reduction Initiative, One Support, Solace Women’s Aid, Business InThe Community, Resolving Chaos, Islington Council, Camden Council, Homeless Link.
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
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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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