- Area:
- North East England
- Programme:
- Multiple and Complex Needs
- Release date:
- 26 3 2013
The BIG Lottery Fund (BIG) announced today that a Newcastle/Gateshead partnership is now on its way to receiving up to £10 million to support people with multiple problems like homelessness, mental ill health, addiction and reoffending.
BIG is awarding £50,000 to the partnership led by The Cyrenians 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. Nine 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.
Data from local agencies including the local authority and Drug Intervention Programme indicate there are 2,373 problem drug users in Newcastle, and 4.2/1000 population in Gateshead are homeless. Estimates also suggest there are more than 500 people with multiple and complex needs in the area.
The Cyrenians will be working with local organisations Mental Health Concern and Aquilla Way. They aim to radically change the health, social care and criminal justice culture so that people with multiple and complex needs can make the journey from crisis to stability by getting a home, a job and sustained well-being. By concentrating on outcomes for people rather than organisations, services will become better joined-up and see people for the potential they have, rather than for their problems.
This project will identify those people with the most entrenched problems, co-ordinating their support and helping with access to all the services required. Those using the service will be able to determine what best suits their circumstances and priorities. The project will provide evidence demonstrating effectiveness, improved outcomes and cost benefits that support a new approach to co-ordinated care and support.
Stephen Bell OBE, Chief Executive, The Cyrenians said: “This is fantastic news and we know it will bring huge benefits to the whole community across Newcastle and Gateshead. It isn’t about ‘quick fixes’ but rather it’s about making positive, long lasting and sustainable changes for people with multiple and complex needs in our community.
“Over the next eight years, our vision is to improve access to services for people with multiple complex needs, initiating changes in the systems of support available and making the system fit people and not the other way around.
“It’s about getting people the right help, at the right time for them, making a real difference to their lives and moving them away from crisis and chaotic lifestyles in to independence and employment.”
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.
Case Study:
Sarah, 23 from Newcastle received support from WoW - The Cyrenians’ ‘Women Outside Walls’ project.
Sarah was 12 years old when she decided to leave her family home after the physical abuse had become ‘not worth it anymore’. She spent time living with a friend’s family but soon began to sleep rough on the streets of Newcastle City Centre as she felt this was her ‘only real option’.
She explained: “At first I was still going to school. I would change my uniform as soon as I finished so it was clean, and I went to the local swimming baths or toilets on a night time for a shower or wash. I started drinking and it just got worse and worse. I started going in to school drunk and eventually they kicked me out. I also began to get arrested.”
Over the next five years Sarah continued a cycle of drinking, offending and began taking drugs. She lived in various places including friends’ houses, in a hostel and spent time in and out of prison. She also tried to commit suicide on numerous occasions. When she turned 18 and was released, it was the first time she met with Women Outside Walls.
She said: “If I was offered support before that I probably didn’t take it but WOW kept coming back to me and never gave up on me. I felt they were constant in trying to get me to ‘give it a go’ and to try different things like helping me to stop drinking and sort my head out. They encouraged me. “
For the last twelve months, Sarah has lived at one of The Cyrenians’ accommodation projects. Since her time there, she has completed college courses, taken part in drama projects and her relationship with her mother is ‘getting better’.
“The people here are like a family and we’ve got trust. I’ve just got stable since being here. I feel like I’ve got hope now and I’m not just another random on the streets.”
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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