In this webinar, part of our ‘Road to Recovery’ series exploring learning from COVID-19, our panel will consider the importance of community organisations to making and maintaining social connections, support and opportunities to participate in our communities as we age. Find out more: https://www.ageing-better.org.uk/events/road-to-recovery-lessons-from-community-organisations

1. The Road to Recovery:
Lessons from community
organisations’ role
supporting older people
through the pandemic
Webinar 28 July 2020
Melanie Henwood Associates

2. Neighbourhood Networks: Leeds &
Birmingham
• Setting the scene for today’s webinar.
• Centre for Ageing Better’s work in both sites.
• Understanding the policy context: similarities and
differences.
• Neighbourhood networks and asset based community
development.
• Ambition and aspiration.

3. Neighbourhood Networks: Leeds &
Birmingham
• Leeds: the best city to grow old in?
• Long history of support for 3rd sector.
• Leeds Neighbourhood Networks ‘the jewel in the crown’.
• Prevention, wellbeing and personalisation.
• Birmingham – Prevention First (healthy, happy independent
lives).
• Cultural change – Neighbourhood Networks; 3 conversations;
Local Area Coordination.
• Greater than the sum of the parts.

4. “Life is what happens when you’re busy making
other plans…”

5. Communities, Coronavirus & Creative Solutions
• Covid-19 hits the UK.
• Lockdown March 23rd 2020.
• What has it meant for older citizens?
• Community support and response.
• Opportunities for creative solutions.
• APPG on Social Integration.
• Mutual Aid – New Local Government Network.

6. Conclusions & Questions
• Covid-19 impact has been “devastating” & “immeasurable” (ADASS).
• Have the Neighbourhood Networks provided protection?
• Has the pandemic been a catalyst for development?
• Crisis response or permanent shift?
• What is the ‘new normal’ going to look like in building and
maintaining community resilience?

7. www.melaniehenwood.com
melanie@henwood-associates.co.uk

8. Covid 19
The Contribution of
Neighbourhood
Network Schemes in
Birmingham
Benita Wishart, Support and Development
Manager Prevention First,BVSC

9. NNS inBirmingham The Covid Response Reflections

10. The
Neighbourhood
Citizens 50+
Social Work
Teams
NNS Workers
LocalAssetsAsset
Directory
Birmingham's Neighbourhood Network Schemes
NNS: Connecting people, local activities &services
Purpose /Vision

11. Neighbourhood
AccordHousing
AgeConcern
Birmingham
WittonLodge
Community
Association
+ CompassSupport
POhWER
DisabilityResource
Centre
+ Age UK
Birmingham's ConstituencyModel
April
2019
April
2019
April
2019
April
2019
Sept
2018
Sept
2018
Nov
2019
Nov
2019
Nov
2019
DevelopmentSupport
Unit,Birmingham City
Council
Birmingham
Settlement
+ KarisNeighbour
Scheme
+ SohoFirst
+ NechellsPod
FamilyService
Gateway
+Northfield
Community
Partnership
+Age UK
Neighbourhood
DevelopmentSupport
Unit,Birmingham City
Council

12. The Brummie Response
Voluntary&Community
Organisations
FaithCommunitiesMutualAid
Volunteers

13. Working withAssets
Mapping
Support
City Council Request
25 March 2020
Some roles stayedsame
But some verydifferent
Small Grants
Covid Priorityadded
Decision-makingtaken back tocentre
5/10 NNSs gave out firstgrants
Around 50grants
£260,000

14. Loneliness &Isolation
Offer
New small grants
Existing grantees modified
theirapproach
Volunteer Offer
Assets
Co-ordinate
Plus Tasks Not
Required in theEnd
Home fromHospital
Deathand Dying
Essentials Offer
Fooddelivery
Shopping
Medication

15. City-wide co-ordination &
Thematic Group
Mapping
Route2 Wellbeing
BVSC -
C19 Support Brum
SupporttoNNS
Weekly Zoom MeetUps

16. CommunityBuilding
Phoneline
Northfield

17. ErdingtonCovid 19Taskforce
SubheadText
Body CopyText
Communications
Erdington
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n34evaAgcWs

18. Food &loneliness
Helplines, dinners &scones
Sutton Coldfield
CollaborationwiththeRoyal
SuttonColdfieldTownCouncil

19. Listening &Connecting
Commissioned twohubs
Hall Green
Community Updates

20. MutualAid
Grants
Local Communication
3/4 of all grants prior to Covid 19 -Selly Oak &PerryBarr
Selly Oak

21. Health&WellbeingProjects CapacityBuilding
Selly Oak

22. DigitalExclusion
Wicked Issues
MentalHealth Benefits, Debt,
EmploymentAdvice
BereavementSupportCarerSupportTransport

23. Reflections
NNS providedreferral
pathways &onestop
support
Role ofelected
Members
Relationships with
social workteams
Ingenuity of sector
Neighbourliness &volunteers

24. Investment in&
recognitionof
assets
Culturalcompetence
Communications
05
04
01
06
Community
buildings
02
Opportunitiesfor
connection
03
Lessons
Risk & bureaucracy

25. Emil Prysak, CommissioningManager,
Birmingham City Council
The response of the VCFSEsector
and the civil society mobilisation
has been incredible in
Birmingham. It is without doubt
we couldn’t have been as
effective without them. Not to
mention BVSC whocoordinated
the strategic partnership forus.

26. For further details about Birmingham’s Neighbourhood Network
Schemes please contact:
Emil Prysak,
Commissioning Manager
Prevention & Communities, Birmingham City Council
Emil.Prysak@birmingham.gov.uk
Or
Benita Wishart, Support and Development Manager Prevention First
BVSC
BenitaW@bvsc.org

27. LeedsThird
SectorResponse
to Covid-19
Ali Kaye
Third Sector
Development Manager
ali@opforum.org.uk

28. Leeds Older People’s Forum
LOPF aims to promote the well-being of all older people in Leeds, and to give a more
powerful voice to older people in shaping their city for the benefit of all citizens
❑Established March 1994 and now has a city-wide membership of 100+ third sector organisations
working with older people across Leeds
❑How – representation, co-production, enabling, influencing
❑Board and Advisors
❑Our projects

29. Leeds Third Sector Response to Covid-19
❑Leeds City Council and Voluntary Action Leeds – city wide response to supporting the
shielded and vulnerable
❑ Covid-19 telephone helpline – 300 calls per day led by LCC
❑33 ward hubs established, each led by a third sector organisation led by LCC & VAL
❑City wide volunteer recruitment campaign – 8,000 volunteers led by LCC and VAL
❑Communities of Interest – LOPF and Forum Central
❑NN’s – 12 became ward hub leads; services repurposed to meet local needs.

30. LeedsThird
SectorResponse
toCovid-19
Ali Kaye
Third Sector Development
Manager
ali@opforum.org.uk
T.@LeedsOPF

31. Real Time Evaluation of Leeds Neighbourhood Networks
During the COVID 19 Pandemic
The Road to Recovery: Lessons from community organisations’ role supporting older
people through the pandemic - Webinar Presentation - 28th July 2020
Chris Dayson, Centre for Regional Economic and Social Research, Sheffield Hallam University

32. What is Real Time Evaluation (RTE)?
• Developed in the context of humanitarian crisis response
• Involves a flexible, rapid cycle of research with regular, accessible and actionable reports
to aid response planning and decision making.
• Feedback/findings provided during the evaluation fieldwork, rather than afterwards.
• Benefits of RTE:
– Short to medium term: regular, up-to-date information at city and neighbourhood levels to
support decision making and planning; help improve the reach, quality and effectiveness of the
LNN response
– Longer term: evidence about the role and contribution of the LNNs to the COVID 19 crisis
response and recovery; inform future commissioning decisions about the role and funding of
LNNs within the future health and social care

33. Overview of RTE Findings
• Findings fall into four categories:
1. The crisis response: what the LNN did, who it supported, and why they responded in a
particular way
2. Their position within the city-wide response: how NNs response fitted with the wider
public and VCSE response
3. Challenges associated with the LNN crisis response
4. Facing forwards: practical and philosophical reflections on the future role and
contribution of NNs
• Based on RTE fieldwork to date: 25+ interviews with NNs; 5 interviews with wider
stakeholders; 14 responses to a ‘Right Now Survey’; ongoing engagement with wider health
and social care system

34. 1. The LNN crisis response
• Key descriptors: rapid, flexible, responsive, person-centred, locally-focussed
• Many NNs ‘saw this coming’: planning in advance of lockdown, ready to identify needs and
respond quickly and flexibly. Rapid Shift from group-based to individual support.
• What the NNs have done: direct support for 000’s of older people across Leeds
– Provision of food, medicine and essential items
– Provision of social and emotional support (i.e. welfare checks and company)
• Who the NNs have supported:
– Members: existing and new members (i.e. older people) in need of support
– The wider community: usually when asked to take on ‘community hub’ role
• Has led to increased reach and visibility: more referrals, new volunteers, additional ‘demand’

35. 1. The LNN crisis response
• Each NN response determined by some key enabling factors and mechanisms:
– Resources and capacity: core funding; staff capacity and availability; volunteer capacity and
availability; access to facilities and equipment
– Pre-existing reach, knowledge and understanding: already knew who people where, where they
were, and the type of support they might need; able to access people unknown or invisible to
health and care services
– Embeddedness within their community: understanding of needs of specific communities of place
and interest; links to wider service provision (VCSE and public); trusted presence
– Values driven: commitment of key staff and volunteers to ensuring needs of community members
were met wherever possible

36. 2. The position of the LNN within the city-wide response
• Two broad types of LNN role: complementary and supplementary (Young, 2000)
• Complementary – ‘doing what’s expected’:
– Embedded in formal response structures as community hubs, co-ordinating voluntary activity
– Working closely with local partners (PCNs, LCPs, VAL) to ensure local support co-ordinated
effectively
• Supplementary – ‘going above and beyond’:
– Providing additional support outside of formal response structures
– Finding new ways to reach and support vulnerable people
– Engage people under the radar of many other providers

37. 3. Challenges associated with the LNN response
• Intensification of NN’s work – particularly for ‘key’ individuals
– NNs demonstrating both resilience and resourcefulness in response to crisis but...
– Increased demand - meeting the needs of more people with the same (often less) resource
– A sense that many NNs staff (and some volunteers) have had to work longer and harder to
sustain the response – unlikely to lesson anytime soon
– Particularly the case for ‘hubs’, but not only ‘hubs’
– Risk of burnout and burden for key staff – NNs biggest asset but also a ‘weakness’? Risk of
isolation and lack of support from boards (due to age, health etc)

38. 3. Challenges associated with the LNN response
• Being a community hub creates a tension for NNs:
– A key role that complements formal Leeds citywide response
– An ‘opportunity’? To broaden the reach and visibility of NNs (i.e. beyond existing members and
older people in general)?
– Or a ‘distraction’? Away from attending to the core needs of members (i.e. existing members and
older people)?
– Do they retain this broader role post-crisis or revert to a ‘business as usual model?

39. 3. Challenges associated with the LNN response
• LNN funding and sustainability:
– NNs not at immediate risk of funding crisis or closure: flexibility of core funding has been a key
driver of their ability to respond
– Most NNs doing what they are doing within existing budgets, cautious not to over-commit. Some
additional income from service fees, donations etc
– But...a sense more funding will be needed to sustain their role longer-term (inc as hubs): loss of
income from some activities; current ways of working are more resource intensive
– Some concern re volunteers: new volunteers returning to work (i.e. from furlough); older
volunteers may continue shielding, or experience deteriorating health, so be less able to provide
face-to-face support

40. 4. Facing forwards: practical concerns
• Moving from an acute ‘crisis’ response to ‘recovery’ and a ‘new normal’:
– Initial demand for crisis support has ‘dropped off’: what role can and should NNs play moving
forward?
– Current NN planning involves:
• Finding new ways to provide social support, including group-based support
• Getting people out and about and ‘moving more’, including as groups
• Re-connecting people with their communities
– Need to offer individual NNs bespoke tailored support to help them navigate this period?
– What is the citywide ‘vision’ for NNs during the recovery phase? Should this come from the top-
down or bottom-up? What role(s) should they play? How will this be resourced?

41. 4. Facing forwards: practical concerns
• Support during the pandemic ‘recovery’ phase likely to be needed in the following areas:
– Unemployment: support older people to deal with financial hardship; support to find work where appropriate
– Confidence: many older people will need support to re-build confidence to re-engage with NNs and other
services; and to re-connect with communities and social networks
– Mental health: more acute needs due to effects of prolonged isolation; possible PTSD of COVID 19 patients
– Isolation: more older people have become isolated; and effects of isolation more pronounced
– Physical health: shielding has led to physical ‘de-conditioning’ with implications for strength, balance, frailty
etc. Next winter a big concern – need to plan now
– Digital inclusion: will be vital moving forward; some progress but more work to be done - NN recognition that
their own limitations (skills, expertise etc) have been a barrier to progress (intergenerational opportunity?)
• Will require more intensive model of support – therefore resource (£) - than currently
provided: who will provide this? When will it be available?

42. 4. Facing forwards: philosophical concerns
• Many NNs now ‘more visible’ than before the crisis: to their local community; to other
parts of the system
• This has led to better understanding of importance of small local VCSEs in crisis
response: deepening of system-level knowledge of and relationships with NNs
• But...added visibility not without ‘risks’ (Nickel and Eikenberry, 2015):
– Additional demands and expectations from public services: will these be realistic and be
resourced effectively?
– Limits on NN autonomy and independence: could inhibit NNs ability to be flexible and
responsive?
– Additional top-down scrutiny, upward accountability and expectations: does this risk the bottom-
up nature and essence of NNs work?

43. Next steps
This presentation builds on findings from RTE Snapshot report 1:
https://www.ageing-better.org.uk/publications/real-time-evaluation-leeds-neighbourhood-networks
Further analysis of current data for more detailed analytical report in August
Please contact me to discuss further:
c.dayson@shu.ac.uk | 0114 225 2846 / 07769 233417