Local Area Co-ordination in Swansea

This paper describes what Local Area Coordination is and what Local Area Coordinators do, some of the outcomes the approach can achieve, how it will work in Swansea, the recruitment process and how the approach will be evaluated.

1. What is Local Area Coordination?Local Area Coordination is a long-term, evidence based approach to supporting disabled people, people with mental health problems, older people and their families and carers to:

Stay strong, safe and connected as contributing citizens Build more welcoming, inclusive and supportive communities

Research and evaluation studies show that where implemented correctly, Local Area Coordination supports:

The building of community capacity and resilience. The prevention of, or reduced demand for costly services. Service reform and integration (leading to high quality services becoming a

valued back up to local solutions).

These outcomes reflect the direction of travel in the Social Services and Well-Being Act (Wales) 2014 and will support Swansea to meet the requirements of the new legislation.

2. What do Local Area Coordinators do?Local Area Coordinators support disabled people, people with mental health problems, older people and their families and carers to build and pursue their vision for a good life. They work with people:

who are not yet eligible for formal social services (helping them to stay strong and connected),

who are at risk of requiring services/ are in crisis (sometimes in partnership with other services), and

who are already dependent on services (in order to reduce that dependence through local non- service solutions, relationships etc.)

  Local Area Coordinators are based in communities of between 10—15,000 people and provide a local, accessible and single point of contact for individuals and families.

They work on two levels; Level 1. Most people will just need straightforward information or connection to other people, groups or agencies in order to solve their particular problem, and to stay strong and connected. Level 2. For others, a more in- depth involvement is required. Local Area Coordinators will work with between 50 and 65 people in this situation. They take time to get to know the person, their strengths and gifts and ask “what is your vision for a good life and how can you get there?” When asked this question, people rarely identify extreme things like winning the lottery; many descriptions of a good life are simple and the Local Area Coordinator

can help support people to determine and express their goals to make them realistic and measurable. In this way a whole range of possibilities is opened up, including peoples’ own resources and contributions from those around them.

Local Area Coordinators support people to: Access information in a variety of ways that are useful Be heard, stay in control and make choices Identify their personal strengths, goals and needs Find practical (non- service) ways of doing the things they want or need to do

(thereby reducing demand for formalised services). Develop and use personal and local networks (thus reducing isolation). Plan for the future. Connect with, be part of and contribute to local community life. Access support and services if required.

In addition, Local Area Coordinators work alongside the local community to: Understand, nurture and share the talents, strengths and opportunities in the

community. Build partnerships to make communities more welcoming and inclusive. Build a positive vision and action for our communities.

Sometimes formal services are complicated and difficult to navigate. Local Area Coordinators help with this by:

Combining a range of traditionally separate roles to provide a single point of contact across service types and age groups, making things simpler and helping people to be in control.

Becoming the new “front end” of the service system.

3. How do we know that Local Area Coordination works?Over the past 26 years, evaluations (including in Western Australia, Scotland, Cumbria, Thurrock and Derby) have shown that where it is designed properly with local people, and there is strong, connected leadership, Local Area Coordination achieves consistently positive outcomes, including:

People diverted from using traditional services (reduced demand) or needing less service provision (savings).

Increase in valued, supportive, personal relationships (reducing isolation) Increased capacity of families and carers to continue in caring role Reduced out of home placements for children and adults More inclusive, supportive, better resourced and resilient communities People feeling more in control of decisions, support and services Increased opportunities for contribution People feeling more confident in the future. Driver of service reform.

4. How will it work in Swansea?

We are starting in three areas at first, one in each of the three Health and Social Care Integrated Hubs; North, West and Central.

Funding is available for one year in the first instance from the City and County of Swansea Prevention Fund and Western Bay for three Local Area Coordinators and an Implementation Manager.

The areas were selected by the Local Area Coordination Leadership Group (made up of elected Members, Social Services, Health and Housing representatives and the Council for Voluntary Services) to ensure that:

the population sizes were right three very different communities are represented (both urban and suburban or

semi-rural, with a mix of housing stock and tenure, and a diverse range of age groups and ethnicity),

an area with a significant Welsh-speaking population was included .

The three areas are: Central: St Thomas & Bonymaen (including Danygraig and Port Tennant,

SA1 Waterfront and Pentrechwyth)

West: Sketty (including Sketty Park, Derwen Fawr and Tycoch)

North: Gorseinon (including Garden Village, Kingsbridge and Loughor) 

5. Recruitment:The Local Area Coordinators were recruited co-productively by community members in each area working alongside paid officers and the Leadership Group. Community members included local tenants of a supported housing project, a 6 th former from a local comprehensive, members of several faith communities, a Vicar, local businessman, a retired health services manager, the Community Officer of a large supermarket chain (who also gave their premises free of charge to use as an interviewing venue), local parents, a primary school support staff member and a young jobseeker. All were recruited in their local communities and gave up a whole day of their time to help select the Local Area Coordinator for their area.

This method of co-productive recruitment has proven to be an extremely important element in the success of Local Area Coordination; it ensures that individual communities have early knowledge and ownership of the approach and that the Local Area Coordinators ‘hit the ground running’.

Being a Local Area Coordinator is skilled work and integrates many skills, such as: Information and advice work Community building Personal network development Community asset mapping Brokerage Support planning or person centred planning Advocacy Community based social work

Service coordination Community development

Local Area Coordinators need to have the right qualities, skill and attitudes, including:

A “can do” approach – creativity and initiative. Local knowledge and a real commitment to local people and communities. Good at building relationships with people. The functional skills to do the job.

The first three Local Area Coordinators in Swansea started on 1st June 2015.

6. EvaluationLocal Area Coordination in Swansea is being evaluated by the Institute of Life Sciences at Swansea University. The evaluation will include a formative element, to ensure that the development stage and recruitment process is examined, and further summative reports as the work progresses. First results are expected in September with further results in December 2015 and early 2016.

Jane TonksRalph BroadUpdated July 2015