1. At Crossgates & District Good Neighbours Scheme
Supporting Wellbeing
At Crossgates & District Good Neighbours Scheme
Station Road, Leeds LS15 7JY | | | Registered Charity No:

2. Aims of the project
To provide more capacity for work to reduce isolation, support independence and choice, with frail older people in the area
To increase capacity for referrals from health and social care professionals

3. 66% of SWIFT participants are over the age of 85
Range of the project
21 months – July March 2019 Funded by Time to Shine
Took 88 referrals 15 of whom have now died or moved into care
66% of SWIFT participants are over the age of 85

4. Successful engagement
All 69 remaining participants are now receiving regular information from the Scheme via the quarterly newsletter
38 are still actively engaged as participants in our activities (some overlap)
15 in CDGNS groups with support to participate – via transport & in group volunteer support
12 via our Befriending project (Out of 31 placements set up 33% lasted more than 6 months)
12 via Supported Outings including individual, small group & minibus trips
15 have also received telephone support via our Winter contact & Monthly Contact schemes which trigger follow up work as needed
Result - Substantially increased social contact for this group of frail, older people

5. Supported Outings - Paul & David
Volunteer Befrienders Christmas Meeting.

6. Volunteer Benefit 1,525 volunteer hours given over the project
Volunteer Befrienders Christmas Meeting
26 volunteers (1 under 50)
As Befrienders
On Supported Outings
As drivers providing transport to and from groups
In group support
On telephone support scheme
On office reception
As a trustee involved in evaluation

7. Barriers to sustained participation
Frequent episodes of poor physical or mental health, hospitalisation
New diagnoses affecting appetite for new social contact
Anxiety
Perceptions of cost/expense, unwillingness to spend even when Attendance Allowance secured
Transport needs exceeding capability of volunteer transport scheme and signposting to other services not filling the gap

8. Referrals from Health & Social Care
11% of referrals were from Health & Social Care compared to an average of 27% from these referrers over the 3 years before the project, disappointing 38% when referrals from Connect for Health, Memory Service and Hospital to home were added in. Does this indicate a more multi-layered referral process compared to previous years when some of these services were less established or not in place? Closer working relationships have been established via the Live Well team, Skills team and an online referral tool has been launched to simplify the process One of our local GPs gave the following feedback on the referrals he had made to CDGNS: “Very positive outcomes with people reporting feeling less isolated and more active.” Dr Alastair Walling

9. Learning
The flexibility of the offer we made was a good thing. Of the 88 referrals:
38 chose Group Activity
31 chose Befriending
12 chose Supported Outings – mostly on our minibus trips, but also to view a Care home, get to a disability swim session when ACCESS bus unavailable and on a small group outing for 3 people too depressed to participate otherwise
N.B. Some individuals chose more than one activity and …?... didn’t engage but received intensive worker input prior to this decision

10. LEGACY
Continued funding for Supporting Wellbeing is very welcome. The new worker is in post and work is ongoing. We are aiming to try more small group work and using the worker to provide transport and accompaniment as a bridge to group participation, which has been beyond our capacity before Building Connections worker also in place and focusing on those living alone and isolated Continued increased capacity for this part of our work

11. LEGACY Continued increased capacity for this part of our work
Supporting Wellbeing - the continued funding is very welcome. The new worker is in post and work is ongoing. We are aiming to try more small group work and using the worker to provide transport and accompaniment as a bridge to group participation, which has been beyond our capacity before
Building Connections worker also in place and focusing on those living alone and isolated