Bury Council

 

Neighbourhood Public Service Leadership Teams – Phase 1

Briefly describe the initiative/ project/service; please include your aims and objectives

Bury’s neighbourhood model, as set out in our LET’S Do It! strategy sets out how collectively we’ll drive inclusive growth and tackle deprivation to improve local outcomes. In particular it sets out how we will transform the way in which we organise ourselves for case management through Neighbourhood-focused practitioner networks, and the way we engage people &communities in a place embedding the LET’s principles of:

– Local neighbourhoods – focusing in granular detail at the specific nature, opportunities, risks and insights of each part of the Borough.
– Enterprising Spirit – working differently to maximise and target our collective resource
– Working Together – both as public services and without communities of interest, experience and place.
– Through a Strengths Based Approach – building on the assets in our communities

To drive LETS at place we’ve established Public Service Leadership Teams. PSLTs are place-based individuals leading thedelivery of activity at a neighbourhood level from across each pillar of our neighbourhood model. There is a PSLT in each of Bury’s five neighbourhood footprints, providing system leadership, these teams act Team Bury at place, eg Team Prestwich, Team Radcliffe, Each local leadership team is responsible for: Developing and understanding place insight, which includes :
– data for evidence-led discussions
– key local assets (networks, groups and places), such as through Ward placemats
– key local practitioners from across the neighbourhood model, o oversight of case management information (volumes, trends and learning)
– Identifying and coordinating integrated response to place-based issues.
– Develop relationships and connections, including identifying workforce development needs and opportunities.
– Oversight of case activity within their neighbourhood area to ensure cases are being dealt with by the most appropriate part of the system and that this is joined up to ensure effectiveness – in particular to provide collective complex case direction at leadership level
– Ensuring connectivity between case work and community activity through the Community Hub, nurturing relationships and connectivity with community capacity to support the prevention, resilience and supporting step-downs from formal services.
– Provide place based leadership for the delivery of a respective People and Communities Plans in their neighbourhood, delivering Let’s Do It! at place – which bring together the new approach to neighbourhood engagement on community led priorities to empower local residents alongside reformed public services with local practitioners working together to ensure early, joined up and targeted support.
– Provide local leadership for the delivery of partnership activity at place, to inform the targeting of system responses, such as support in relation to the cost of living and anti-poverty measures.

Core Membership of each neighbourhood PSLT consists of:
– Beacon Service Social Prescribing Link Worker
– Children and Family Early Help Lead
– Community Hub Manager, Bury Council
– Health and Care Integrated Neighbourhood Team lead
– Neighbourhood Co-ordinator, Six Town Housing
– Neighbourhood Inspector, Greater Manchester Police
– Public Health nominated neighbourhood lead
– Strategic Partnerships Manager, Bury Council

In keeping with the ‘Local’ principle of LET’S Do It, there is flexibility in broader membership to reflect specific attributes and activity in each neighbourhood. This has included representation from the Health and Work Programme and Ingeus to support employment related activity in Bury East and Radcliffe; Environmental Health colleagues to address hoarding insights in Whitefield; and Staying Well Team colleagues to support co-ordinated support to older people in the North neighbourhood. PSLT representatives provide a vital link between the overall strategic direction set for our neighbourhood model through the Public Service Reform Steering Group and the array of front line practitioners across the Borough. PSLT colleagues drive practitioner insight and awareness, reaching out to colleagues across their neighbourhood footprint to foster and nurture relationships with colleagues.

In keeping with the Together and Strengths principles of LETS the focus on relationships is key – to move away from blind referrals from one team or organisation to another, the duplication of provision or individuals falling through the gaps of provision. By sharing collective insight, developing meaningful local relationships and networks of colleagues who act as lead professionals (key workers) but whose delivery is supported by a system response at place, the PSLTs are creating the conditions to transform the way in which those requiring complex case co-ordination receive this,whilst working together to maximise opportunities for prevention and enabling local residents to live their Bury best lives in thriving neighbourhoods throughout the Borough.

What are the key achievements?

The development of PSLTs has brought together a multi-agency approach to both the ‘place’ and ‘case’ side of Bury’s model, bringing place-based leadership to compliment system leadership. PSLTs have played a pivotal role in the development and delivery of Bury’s Cost of Living and Anti Poverty Strategy. By using collective insight from across the system, this has allowed for greater targeting of resources, including the national Household Support Fund, and local cost of living measures through:
– The identification of individuals and households demonstrating socio-economic vulnerabilities but that wouldn’t necessary show up on data (eg because they weren’t eligible for welfare support measures), including reaching into local pastoral teams to identify young people without appropriate winter clothing or food provisions
– Integrated responses to place-specific vulnerabilities or risks, such as joint pop-up events, engagement and leafleting in specific Lower Super Output Areas and working with local community groups to develop tailored solutions to address cultural sensitivities, such as a kosher exchange voucher with independent stores in Prestwich.
– Greater system awareness across GPs, district nurses, PCSOs, tenancy sustainment staff and social prescribers of national, regional and local welfare support provision, warm spaces and the ability to directly link individuals into food/fuel support.

PSLTs also provide a forum by which to develop tailored responses to specific place based issues in an integrated way. There have been examples in each neighbourhood of greater co-design and co-delivery of neighbourhood based support – both in reaction to place-based issues and to promote opportunities to address local priorities – and to ensure co-ordinated approaches to trends and hotspots across case management.
– North
– Collaborated to co-produce awareness and engagement of ‘This Is Me passport’ to support individuals with dementia, providing a system response to a Health INT derived priority.
– Provided case co-ordination oversight to households addressing complex need linked to substance misuse and tenancy sustainment in Ramsbottom.
– Co-ordinated a system response in Brandlesholme on ASB linked to property overcrowding and higher than average prevalent of rent arrears, including targeted anti-poverty activity
– West (Radcliffe)
– Addressed sites of multiple system demands within the proximity of the Metrolink Station and joint engagement with Transport for Greater Manchester.
– Co-ordinated insight and response to deliberate fires associated with youth ASB around Outwood following raising of issue by GM Fire and Rescue.
– Shared advice and information on alternative heat sources linked to pockets of deprivation based on data flagging a hotspot for secondary fires
– Public Service Leadership Team colleagues having a presence on rotation at the Radcliffe Regeneration Office to support the delivery of the Radcliffe People & Communities Plan (see next section)

– East
– Joint walkabout on Chesham Fold Estate, to gather street-level intelligence, provide multi-agency real-time problem solving, and promote breadth of services on offer within one of Bury (and the country’s) most deprived LSOAs.
– Facilitation of Coffee Cake Collaborate to connect community organisations at place and transition to this being community led, including as a forum to co-produce Bury’s Family Hub model
– Through consideration of cases it became apparent there could be further work to increase collective practitioner knowledge on suicide prevention and support so through PSLT sessions promoted through a East neighbourhood based community group.

– Whitefield
– Focus on Elms with prevalence of complex cases in one bed dwellings, increasing mental health presentations recognised by social workers, including local-pop up, linked to Six Town Housing community activity on Ripon Drive including Steps to Success and offer of mobile police station
– Co-ordination of local provision of support in relation to ADHD for those 8+ which INTs and colleagues were not aware of and reciprocal learning on dual diagnosis.

How innovative is your initiative?

We know that the theory of an integrated approach in itself is not innovative – what we believe is different is the bringing together of ‘place’ and ‘case’ to provide neighbourhood based leadership and that this is built upon local community relationships, through our LET’s Do It! Approach. As such it is about spirit, values and behaviours; about relationships at place not just across public services, or with communities, but fundamentally resetting the dial on both.

This has been most acutely realised in Radcliffe where the PSLT is driving the delivery of Radcliffe’s People & Communities Plan as a blueprint for each neighbourhood having a co-produced place based plan. This sets out a shared understanding of a neighbourhoods strengths, assets and priorities of local communities and it is accompanied by a tailored performance framework where performance indicators have been specifically selected with granular data to demonstrate progress at a neighbourhood level.

The People and Communities Plans are central to the regeneration activity in the Borough by fundamentally routing the work back to the Borough’s vision, one of inclusive growth that is intrinsically linked to reducing deprivation, and so improving life chances for local people. As such the People & Communities Plans set out the means by which local people will be best placed to take advantage, now and in future generations, of physical infrastructure developments. Priorities have been drawn in each neighbourhood from significant local engagement across public and voluntary services and alignment of public service planning to this.

For Radcliffe these including targeting integrated support to those furthest from the labour market, including opportunities to test out careers and be upskilled in life skills as well as vocational and academic ones; it has seen police colleagues liaise with local litter picking groups to reduce vulnerabilities for drug and knife enabled crime; for young people this has been placing young people’s voices in the design and delivery of a new library, civic hub and street scene. As such what were once meetings on Radcliffe regeneration which focused exclusively on bricks, glass and carbonfibre, it now includes deep dives on community and social priorities, the development of community capacity and collaborative prevention approaches, as well as on the further integration of public services for those families facing multiple complexities.

Work is currently underway with the East PSLT to roll out the People & Communities plan for Bury East, including the town centre. Whilst the framework will be consistent in terms of approach to co-production, being data and insight driven, and bringing PSR and regeneration together, the plan will reflect the specific nature of the neighbourhood – Bury East is different to Radcliffe, so the plan should – and will- be. With a greater population of south Asian heritage, greater employment and places of learning presence and a different composition of community assets, the PSLT will shape Bury East’s plan, working with our communities to understand our populations and the tailored services required. This has also allowed for greater coherence in the way that public services at place engage with the local voluntary and community ecosystem in each neighbourhood – including letting go of ‘running’ sessions with community groups and rather facilitating collaborative conversations to address issues or opportunities raised locally.

The development and delivery of People & Communities plans has supported the shift to a place focus, rather than (exclusively) a focus on particular elements of a model, or particular service delivery. What is does though is take learning from components of the neighbourhood model and provide a route to scale up, either at place or across the neighbourhoods. This has been seen in terms of workforce development, where work on trauma informed practice by the Health and Care Integrated Neighbourhood Team is being opened up via the PSLT to broader place based practitioners, to enable more informed, collaborative and consistent conversations; whilst work in Early Help on Adverse Childhood Experiences is complimenting this across the 5 teams rather than being seen as something only for ‘Children’s services’ colleagues.

A further example of this is taking the SARA (Scanning, Analysis, Response, Assessment) approach that Greater Manchester Police have been using in neighbourhood policing and embedding this across the wider PSLT activity for joint place based problem solving, through which to work with local communities in developing and delivering an collaborative, asset based plan.

What are the key learning points?

We are moving on to Phase 2 of our PSLT programme and using learning from what we achieved so far to ensure we can continue to deliver.
It is important to take an iterative approach, the last two-and-an-half years in particular have shown that the landscape in which we work is every changing and subject to fundamental shifts and often new demands, which have a disproportionate impact on certain communities of place or identity. What has been important for Bury is having a common anchor point, in our case the LET’s Do It! Strategy as this holds us to our collective vision, outcomes and most importantly the principles by which we will operate – so even if the ‘what’ continues to change, the ‘how’ is central. This itself has changed as we’ve matured in the way we work collaboratively in partnerships. The time and resource required to embed this should not be underestimated.

Staff change positions, both at leadership levels and practitioners, which requires a relentless focus and reviewing of understanding of what we’re seeking to achieve. Locally we’ve embedded a few core slides at the start of each Public Service Reform Steering Group meeting, to root everyone back to a common, collective purpose as context for each discussion. We have seen the effectiveness of our co-produced people and community plans so need to build this further – ensuring coverage and consistency of approach across each neighbourhood and developing this further into a place strategy with community assets, aspirations and issues. We believe this approach is something other areas could look to in terms of a framework in terms of the use of insight and bringing together of place based priorities across public service reform, economic development and wider place-making. As taking place in our different neighbourhoods, the importance is the recognition and development of tailored approaches for each neighbourhood, and whilst consistently applying principles, having the flexibility (which can be challenging for some to accept) to be bespoke for different areas.

We need to build on our already excellent progress around data sharing and using intelligence effectively across partners and organisations – our role in the GM data accelerator pilot will help us with this. This work is also supported by our wider Data Management Strategy to enable data and intelligence in an effective way. We are currently developing live versions of our Neighbourhood profiles – which will allow the PSLTs to have information about their neighbourhood at their fingertips.

Currently ward level “placemats” are available to support PSLTs. This is accompanied by the frequently published State of the Borough report – which details the progress against our outcomes set down in the LETS strategy. The key learning here is to bring together both data and insight from across the system in as granular detail as possible, to best develop local knowledge and understanding to inform decision making and prioritisation.
The PSLTs continue to evolve, responding to specific place based issued, such as newly announced dispersed
accommodation allocations allowing for co-ordinated support through existing mechanisms rather than establishing new structures, whilst also allowing targeted considerations of Borough wide activity to identify particular vulnerabilities and the local (community led as much as public service) resources to address, such as a current review of cases and insights in each neighbourhood that could signify housing standards and disrepair issues following the tragic case in Rochdale.

Additional Comments
The PSLT approach, including leadership on People & Communities plans is LET’s Do It! in action. It is a fundamentally different approach to what has taken place locally previously by enshrining the LETS principles in order to prevent, reduce and delay demand on public services through taking an collaborative, asset based approach to prevention, early intervention and targeted activity to those complex cases that require the greatest co-ordination.