Sue Northcott A welcome from WY- FI’s Programme Manager
A welcome from The WY-FI Network - Heidi Kite WY-FI Peer Mentor and Network Member
Mark Burns-Williamson West Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner
Anna Headley Humankind (WY-FI Lead Partner) and Chair, Core Partner Management Board
The numbers … 731 beneficiary ry start rts (a (aiming for 1050 by 2020) 306 curr rrently on caseloads 11 beneficiaries now in involved in in the network 158 people undertaking 222 pla laces on training 104 completed CERTA le level 2 in in Peer Mentoring
The Central Pillars • Navigation Model • Multi-Agency Review Board (MARB) • Peer Mentors • Personalisation Fund • Employment, Training and Education
WY- FI Legacy …
Del Roy Fletcher Professor of Labour Market Studies, BSc (Hons) MSoc Sc Centre for Regional Economic and Social Research at Sheffield Hallam University
The Evaluation of WY-FI: Key Lessons & Reflections Year 4 Annual Conference: Leeds Civic Hall Professor Del Roy Fletcher September 26 th 2018
Outline • Aim: Share some of the learning and knowledge emanating from the local evaluation of WY-FI. • Context: Fulfilling Lives Programme & WY-FI. • Operating Environment • Evaluation. • Focus: two key elements of the delivery model: Navigators; Multi-Agency Review Boards (MARBs). • Outline latest findings re: impact on service costs. • Conclusions and reflections.
Context • Fulfilling Lives Programme : BLF invested £112m in 12 areas of England to improve the lives of people with multiple and complex needs. Economic rationale pre-eminent: group increasingly prioritised because they make a significant call on public resources. Financial benefits accrue from improving way services are co-ordinated and delivered. • WY-FI : focuses on adults with at least three needs (homelessness, re- offending, problematic substance misuse and mental ill-health). Seeks to join- up existing provision for 1,050 individuals over 6 years across West Yorkshire. Tailor packages of support. • Guiding principles: co-production , working in an asset-based and person- centred way , fostering multi-agency working .
Challenging Operating Environment • Growing need : Homelessness in all its forms increased. Prison population risen by >90% 1990-2015. Prison overcrowding & staff reductions led to highest number of prison deaths, homicides and rates of self-harm on record (Prison Reform Trust, 2016). Prison: warehousing the most vulnerable? • Policy changes: – Transforming Rehabilitation : Replaced Probation Trusts with a National Probation Service and Community Rehabilitation Companies. HMIP (2017) found that CRCs not commissioning the range of specialist services that are needed, staff have exceptional workloads, and the national delivery model does not have at its heart effective joined-up local partnership work . – Welfare Reforms : Since mid-1980s eligibility for benefits tightened and dramatic increase in the severity and use of benefit sanctions . Extended sanctioning period from six weeks from 1911 to 1986 to 3 years in 2012 : 'most punitive welfare sanctions ever proposed by a British Government' . Vulnerable groups disproportionately affected. Universal Credit: requires bank account and computer literacy . – Austerity : service cuts and growing pressure on the front-line ('doing more with less') compromised ability of providers to provide depth of support needed by client group.
Evaluation • Evaluation: process (explore changes to service delivery and how experienced) and impact (on service costs). • Ongoing fieldwork with six sets of respondents: – Regional Support Hub staff – Delivery partners and wider stakeholders – MARB staff – Navigator teams – Beneficiaries – 'Experts by experience' and Peer Mentors
Navigators • Approach: befriend individuals, accompany them to interviews and 'fight their corner' to ensure services are delivered in a personalised and flexible fashion. • Small caseloads and freedom to work with individuals over long time. • Client-led approach combined with tangible help (Personalisation Fund).
What we have learnt? • It takes time to establish relationships of trust . This reflects depth of beneficiary vulnerabilities and their problematic history of service use: 'I was absolutely flat on the floor....I've been there loads of times and the more you're on the floor the more that your problems are a mountain and you don't want to face them. You give up and you've nowt to live for '. • Navigators with lived experience have the advantage of shared histories and experiences. Act as role models- a living embodiment that change is possible. But for some familiarity with the same 'world' and potentially the same people is a concern. • Navigators have become involved in long-term intensive relationships and provide emotional and practical support : 'taking the everyday stresses away'. • A key advantage of the navigator relationship is its reliability and longevity : 'I always know she is there'.
Further Lessons • Personality of the navigators and 'people skills' are crucial (humour and being personable). Beneficiaries frequently liken strong relationships to 'friendships'. • Positive behavioural change often results from the relationship itself.: 'I feel I've got someone who genuinely cares'. Relationship drawn upon to cope in times of crisis: 'It's the first time in my life that I've had people that are there that are to help me and support me when I'm falling apart'. • Size of the teams matter : larger teams provide more scope to conduct outreach (street presence), broker effective matches between navigators and beneficiaries; comprise a range of expertise; pool learning and build resilience within teams. • Navigators need support : experience rejection, deal with challenging behaviour and deaths. Teams have had to consider how best to provide ongoing support to navigators.
Multi-Agency Working • MARBs play a pivotal role in facilitating multi-agency case conferencing and joining up local support. • MARBs are resource intensive but have engaged all four areas of support following initial difficulties with mental health providers. CRCs have been difficult to engage. • Represented a new departure in some districts (Calderdale) whereas there was a pre-existing commitment to multi-agency working in Bradford and Leeds: 'add value'. • MARBs have been instrumental in facilitating 'service flex', getting to providers to reconsider those banned from provision and refocussing support on the most vulnerable. • Engineered a step change in working relationships: MARBs are 'glue that holds the approach together' .
What have we learnt? • MARBs have opened up pathways into other services and support (e.g. housing or social workers) and allowed WY-FI to challenge providers about the exclusion of clients from services and 'ask difficult questions'. • MARBs have begun to engender cultural change : 'advocate from the inside' to ensure a quicker and more flexible approach to working with people with multiple and complex needs. • MARBs evolved differently : Some remained small; others grown rapidly in terms of scale and remit and have become pre-eminent (Bradford, Leeds). Leeds has 'vulnerable women', rough sleeper section and incorporating integrated offender management. 'It's turned into a big, complex needs meeting where everybody comes and talks about complex needs in Leeds which is brilliant....all the agencies are in the room'. • Success factors: effective & efficient chair (create right environment moves beyond talking shop: 'I'll go and shake their hand and say who are you and welcome before meeting starts '); the involvement of the 'right' partner agencies; the seniority of attendees (with power to flex services) and opportunity for face-to-face contact .
Impact on Service Costs • CRESR developed a costing model to quantify extent to which WY-FI has affected costs of service use. • Model is based on service use data across 18 areas for 190 service users across five quarters . Results are then scaled-up to the expected 1,050 beneficiaries. • Results will be improved as more service users are included and it is able to cover a longer time horizon. • More positive impacts on service costs will occur over longer time horizons. • Predicted that WY-FI has increased service costs by £3.4 million or approximately £3,300 per service user . Table 1 shows that it is predicted to reduce costs for nine negative 'reactive' events e.g. crown court proceedings, evictions and arrests. Cost rises for those experiencing 'treatment' e.g. mental health service inpatient.
Cost savings over five quarters by service use type
Conclusions • The need for WY-FI has never been greater because of policy changes that continue to make the lives of the most vulnerable more difficult and frustrate ability of the front-line to respond appropriately to their needs. • The model works: Navigator teams and MARBs have become an indispensable part of service delivery in West Yorkshire . • WY-FI is more effective in some areas e.g. where it complemented existing direction of change and where MARBs have become pre-eminent 'must attend' multi-agency partnership. • The quality of human resources in navigator teams and MARBs are vital . Implementation has been undermined by high staff turnover in some districts.
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