Community Partnerships to Address Crisis Insights and Learning Session
This session looked in depth look at the evaluation of a cross sector project called the Community Coordinated Support Programme run by The Children’s Society to update understanding and gain more detailed insights into the experiencing of building and maintaining formal partnerships across councils, communities, and advice organisations.
Learning Coordinator of the CCS Programme Janet Grauberg joined the session to share learnings from the final evaluation of the project and started with an initial overview of the objectives and approach of the programme.
The three year programme was funded by Children in Need and the Lloyds Bank Foundation.
Key learnings
- Better local coordination results in people being more likely to get the advice and support they need more quickly, without “bouncing around the system”. It also provides benefits for professionals working in organisations offering advice and support, and strategically for all those working in an area.
- It’s important the structure of coordination is not too strictly defined, an adaptable approach will be able to best meet local area needs.
- Advice agencies are well placed to lead local service coordination as they are more likely to have the infrastructure and insights required.
- “Organising the slices better doesn’t make the cake grow bigger”. Joining up services better does not necessarily ensure we will be able to meet demand. Better local coordination does not, of itself, resolve capacity challenges in local services, or people’s financial crisis.
- Better coordination costs, with the bulk of resources around coordination going to support engagement and relationship development, alongside investment in systems and software.
Other useful materials, research, and reports
- Working With Communities - Delivery Models and Monitoring
- Working with Communities - Funding and Research Insights
- ‘Going Deeper’- The Invisible Hurdles Stage III Research Evaluation Final Report
- Getting Out of Debt: The Road to Recovery for Victim/Survivors of Family Violence
- Pathways to Empowerment and Justice: The Invisible Hurdles Stage II Research and Evaluation Final Report
- From Fragmented to Holistic: Starting the Evidence Base for Client – Centred Practice through Navigation:a Report on the Research Evaluation of the Hammersmith Fulham Law Centre ‘Women’s Crisis Navigator Service Project’ (Pilot)
- Lawyer Secondary Consultations: improving access to justice and human rights: reaching clients otherwise excluded through professional support in a multi-disciplinary practice
- Developing a national framework for social prescribing - Welsh Government consultation
- December 2021 Justice and Innovation Group Meeting
