Transcript Anchor House - Client involvement 16th December 2016x

Client involvement
16th December 2016
The Caritas Anchor House way
Keith Fernett, CEO,
Caritas Anchor House
Registered charity no: 1147794
Agenda
1. The ‘beginning’
2. Bumpy road to success
3. Results
4. The Caritas Anchor House approach
Registered charity no: 1147794
Agenda
1. The ‘beginning’
2. Bumpy road to success
3. Results
4. The Caritas Anchor House approach
Registered charity no: 1147794
There was a lot to do…
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The organisation in 2005 was useless
6 D’s under the QAF
No Policies and Procedures
103 residents and 1 PERSON 2 days a week
providing support
• £29 a week per person Supporting People Grant
• Drug dealer controlled the residents
Registered charity no: 1147794
• Violence was an everyday feature
• Had a bar and gambling machines – hangover
from being a sea farers mission
• Staff would not make me a cup of coffee
• Residents were shown no empathy
• Building had millions of pounds of repair
problems, rats, cockroaches, the works
• Unsupportive Local Authority
Registered charity no: 1147794
Agenda
1. Our journey: the ‘beginning’
2. Bumpy road to success
3. Results
4. The Caritas Anchor House approach
Registered charity no: 1147794
Hard questions…
• How can you have client involvement in that
context?
• Started talking
• Started communicating
• Took the bullies on!
• Took the Police on! We had such an awful
reputation
Registered charity no: 1147794
• Sense of Humour
• Undertook questionnaires to ascertain views
and priorities
• After 12 months did in depth interviews
• The results discussed openly
• Standards agreed
Registered charity no: 1147794
Agenda
1. The ‘beginning’
2. Bumpy road to success
3. Results
4. The Caritas Anchor House approach
Registered charity no: 1147794
Hard work paid off…
• Place started to calm down and devised
Residents Involvement model together
• Won the Inaugural Michael Whippman Award
for Innovation in the Homeless sector
Registered charity no: 1147794
• After the award we went to the pub, the
residents were delighted, nobody sat next to
them, they were disgusted
• They asked why was talking to them
Innovative? I could not answer that, as it was
a mystery to me!
• One of those residents is still with us as an
employee, one of 20% of our staff who are
former residents, ‘our experts by experience’
Registered charity no: 1147794
Our impact increased…
• We won the second Innovation Award in the
sector for ‘Community Involvement’ – having
been a pariah we involved ourselves, picking
up rubbish with the police and the Council –
recognition and hard work was paying off
Registered charity no: 1147794
• Our resident won the National Apprentice of
the year and the ‘ Most Inspirational Trainer In
the UK’ from the UK Skills Council
• We were establishing role models
Most Inspirational Trainer in the UK ‘ - UK Skills
Council
Registered charity no: 1147794
Agenda
1. The ‘beginning’
2. Bumpy road to success
3. Results
4. The Caritas Anchor House approach
Registered charity no: 1147794
Our approach…
• All our Policies and Procedures are resident centred
• All our Policies and Procedures have a resident input
• The residents designed a warning framework to deal
with anti-social behaviour, non payment of rents,
drugs, alcohol abuse etc. etc.
• The colour schemes for bedding, curtains, flooring
chosen by residents
Registered charity no: 1147794
• We are a community, we are one, the residents
are supportive of each other
• When drug dealers taken on the residents
protected the staff
• Staff disputed Police behaviour towards residents
• Protocol in place with Police about their
behaviour – really works – residents trained
Police Recruits about Community Cohesion and
Diversity issues
Registered charity no: 1147794
• Client involvement is not the issue, it is about
communications, ownership, motivation,
empowerment, getting rid of the dependency
culture, taking ownership of their lives
• We offer an introductory license of one month
and the resident will make the decision about
whether they stay by their behaviour and
engagement
Registered charity no: 1147794
Final thoughts…
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INVOLVEMENT IS PATRONISING?
Ownership is powerful?
Ownership challenges staff!
I have visited a number of hostels, we do not
use the ‘hostel’ phrase. Ours is ‘Residential
and Life-skills Centre’; language is
developmental
Registered charity no: 1147794
Canning Town Funk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEZQemlpKKQ
Canning Town Happy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsS09Fp7Bhk
Registered charity no: 1147794
Where are we at?
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Monthly Sounding Board meetings
Introductory Welcome Host Gold meetings
New residents meeting led by Chief Executive
We say hello, we open doors, we hardly swear
General meetings, quarterly, up to 80
residents attend, talk of the future and results
Registered charity no: 1147794
Where are we at?
• Invariably we get a round of applause
• All staff members are encouraged to spend
time talking to residents informally
• Residents attend Mindfullness sessions in the
country, run a market stall, steward the
Copperrbox mayoral hustings
• Challenge Planning applications
Registered charity no: 1147794
Where are we at?
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We have our moments but they are rare
We talk performance
We have volunteers at midnight
They have a stake
They return to see us for years afterwards –
role models
Registered charity no: 1147794
Registered charity no: 1147794