Putting our ambitions of community-based health into practice

But more than that, it will take the breaking down of traditional boundaries. A person starting their care journey is not interested in whether the support they need is provided by three organisations working together, or a single provider. What matters to them is receiving care or support which is effective, of a high standard, and which addresses their specific needs in that moment. It needs to be consistent, seamless and accessible.

Doing this will require a radical shake up of traditional ways of working. Across healthcare and wider partners, we know how to come together as separate organisations collaborating and each delivering our particular service within that project. But increasingly, we need to be viewing ourselves instead as one singular ecosystem. That means sharing more. Trusting one another more. It could be practical steps such as sharing staff or joint training, but just as important is proactively seeking to build robust relationships between colleagues who share a common goal.

Partners with a particular expertise can enhance the quality of support for customers while bringing an opportunity for other colleagues to develop. Likewise, those same people we are supporting are also the most valuable source of knowledge and experience we can gather about what services need to do to meet their needs.

Lived experience is nothing new to the care sector; we have historically made efforts to engage with customers and gather feedback on their experiences. Where we can grow further is by gathering that input before the service is even designed – having the trust in our customers to inform exactly how a service should operate.

The housing sector is currently adjusting to a swathe of regulatory changes. Tenant satisfaction measures (TSMs) have been introduced to give the customer greater transparency to hold their housing providers to account. Providers have a duty to collaborate with customers and put them at the heart of what they do. TSMs inform our direction as a business ensuring continuous improvement, led by the customer. It should be no different when we talk about health.

Success is ultimately about what partners can deliver together. That is why we are proud to point to partnerships like Hope Haven in the North West of England, where Home Group is one of a number of organisations working in this new innovative way, changing how mental health and wellbeing support is delivered in our community.

Hope Haven is a collaboration between Home Group, Everyturn, The Well, ICan, Whitehaven Community Trust, Cumbria Health and Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear Foundation Trust.
From the outset, it was made a non-negotiable that everything the partnership delivers be under a singular brand and identity. Each partner provides its skills and staff, but they work together as one organisation.

Extensive work has gone into ensuring that patient information is captured and crucially, while still safely and appropriately protected, is able to be shared. Budgets have been set as one organisation, and even the wording used on a day-to-day basis and in external communications has been co-designed to ensure one common language.

All of that comes together so that locally, Hope Haven can present itself as a singular organisation providing mental health and wellbeing community support in Whitehaven and wider Copeland.

This matters because for many people, reaching out in a time of need can be difficult enough. No one should face being passed between several organisations, sharing their story time and again.

Instead, they should have one point of contact, in which they can build up trust and confidence. We then wrap the community provision around that person and make sure we can address all of their needs.

It is why it has also been important to have more than just traditional health providers involved within Hope Haven. Home Group comes into that partnership from a background predominantly in housing and supported services. We recognise that unstable housing exacerbates ill health, but on the other hand, a strengths-based approach equips people with the skills they need to improve their overall wellbeing and sustain their home.

It is likely not a new challenge to many healthcare providers – the idea of having treated the health issues a person may have been facing only to be unable to safely discharge them back into the community because of inadequate or inappropriate housing. We have utilised our housing stock to solve or progress some challenges which otherwise could trap a person within the healthcare system longer than necessary.

As collective organisations, we have the capability to respond effectively with varied experience, because rarely do real people’s issues fit neatly into one cross-section of expertise.

When we get it right, it can make a dramatic difference in a person’s life.

One aspect of the Hope Haven project, alongside the community wellbeing and mental health support, is the delivery of several short-stay flats. These are a safe space for people in need to be referred into by the local Crisis team or other social providers, in cases where someone may need temporary support but not necessarily hospitalisation.

Leading the delivery of these flats, we are able to draw on our existing knowledge and experience while embedding them as a Hope Haven service.

‘George’ (we have changed his name) was the first person to be supported in these short-stay flats.

Homeless and presenting to his local Housing Options team as feeling suicidal, he was vulnerable and showed signs of confusion and cognitive decline.

Using Hope Haven short-stay flats as a space to stabilise, the Crisis team was able to assess him in a safe, suitable environment and could collectively understand what help he needed.

George explained how relieved he was when he arrived. After giving him time to settle, primary care staff from Cumbria Health were able give him a full medical check-up and arrange treatment for some of his health concerns.

Over just a four-day period, Home Group worked closely with adult social care and secured funding for him to move into supported housing with us.

Now, George is engaging well with the supported housing team and his social worker, enjoying walks with the team and meeting his neighbours. His memory and cognitive decline issues are also being investigated.

George’s success was due to a true partnership approach that complimented his needs, leaving him to focus on recovering in a safe space. There weren’t blockers, or lengthy referrals to various teams and duplication of information. Instead, support was timely and appropriate, empowering George to take the next the step.
This is what becomes possible when support is genuinely built around the person. Rather than being passed from one organisation to another, retelling their story as they go, they remain the constant touchpoint, with services coming to them, aligned around their needs.