Hard edges event: 28 October 2019

Summary of responses to questions:

Question 1. To what extent do you and/or your agency ensure that services are provided in a manner which acknowledges the role that trauma, poverty and the fear of violence has in the lives of people who come into contact with your service?

Responses:

Collective consensus to invest in training across all sector receptions to develop an ethos of Trauma Informed Practice. This would help promote a consistent person centred approach and create a welcoming environment throughout all the stages of an individual’s involvement with services. Promoting the same message would allow individuals to feel valued and encourage their engagement with services. It was also suggested that individuals who use services should be invited to future events to help identify gaps in service delivery across Angus from their perspective.

The media’s negative portrayal of those who offend or disadvantaged was viewed as detrimental to an individual’s ability to move forward. Depicting them as ‘the problem’ generates public fear and anxiety towards these groups, creating a ‘closed door’ policy by some services. There needs to be a systems change at organisational and structural levels to breakdown these misconceptions.

There are a number of worthwhile community led projects within Angus, however we if we want to eradicate the notion of a ‘them and ‘us’ society. We need to challenge/reframe how we set up services ie identifying those in receipt of free food, individuals having to ask for food/food vouchers, to a ‘hand-up’ approach instead of a ‘hand-out’ approach.

A recognition that the relationship between individual and worker, where the worker never ‘gives up’ on them, is essential to the individual’s recovery and/or rehabilitation. It was noted in the ‘Hard Edges’ that this type of ‘stickable’ approach practiced within Justice produced better outcomes for individuals. Substance services have started to incorporate this approach with positive results, moving away from the ‘three missed appointments and discharged’ service criteria approach.

Workers often have to advocate on behalf of individuals to access benefits due to their lack of technology and/or understanding of the language used by various professionals.

This can take up a lot of workers time, who themselves may not understand the terminology being used. Therefore referrals to services best placed to support enquires would speed up the process and deal with issues more effectively and free up workers time. It was appreciated that an individual’s manipulative/aggressive behaviour can be triggered by the anxiety caused by their lack knowledge and understanding of what services are offering or asking of them. Concerns re the risk to vulnerable individuals who need services will miss out on support as a consequence of those who know their rights ‘shout the loudest’.

Participants felt they are doing their best considering current financial and workforce constraints, but also accept they have a responsibility to learn about new theories and become more informed about the services available in Angus to support their work.

Main themes:

• Trauma Informed Practice Training
• Challenge current organisational and structural cultures to implement change in how we promote support within the community
• Effective community led projects
• Create a common language that will support individuals understanding during their involvement with professionals
• Service users to be involved in future events
• Lack of resources/time
• Responsibility of workers to become informed about new theories and support services
• Recognition that individuals have choices and need to be accountable for these

Question 2. How effective is collaborative working in supporting people who are either victims/survivors or involved/on the edges of offending behaviour?

Misconstrued notion that once individuals become involved with the justice system, they were ‘in for life’. To eliminate this notion there is the need for early intervention/prevention and collaborative working/discussion/training with teachers and police, as they are often the first point of contact with those at risk/on periphery of offending – research indicates truanting from school can be the first indication of children/young people becoming involved in offending. Opportunity for 3rd sector to work alongside teachers to tailor support to help divert these groups from prosecution, keep children in school and support their aspirations for their future. This was viewed as essential in breaking the cycle when working with intergenerational families who have lacked a caring environment. A ‘Folding Inwards’ approach is currently being undertaken in schools to prevent children slipping through the net and encourage them to stay in school and get families to ‘buy-in’ to support. Concerns re the disbandment of specific services that proved to be effective and support available to some individuals but not others ie forensic support is available for individuals within the learning disability team who are on the edge of offending, but unavailable within the Justice team until the individual has offended.

Recognition that ‘old ways’ of doing things can sabotage individual’s progress. The message ’you matter, we care’ needs to be promoted. There needs to be centralised services away from hospitals to more person-centred, non-medicalised venues to prevent individuals being stigmatised or labelled when accessing services. Agreement that there is a need for a ‘welfare’ approach instead of a ‘punishment’ approach and the use of mentors to support desistance.

Although there is some good work being undertaken to support victims, their voice needs to be promoted along with more joint working. Projects similar to Glen Clova should be replicated across services to encourage engagement on a voluntary basis at the early stages of the individual’s life, as lack of recourses could create a crisis in later years.

Main themes:

• Pockets of good work
• Collaboration between services could be improved
• Early intervention to prevent crisis situations 
• New ways of working productive, but system change towards welfare rather than punishment, and doing things the old way
• Individuals autonomy to independently refer into services

Question 3. How effective are we at taking a strategic approach to commissioning and leveraging resources to promote joint approaches to service provision?

Participants felt services still work in silos when commissioning services and although there is a substantial amount of collaboration at grassroots level to reduce duplication of work. This needs to be mirrored at strategic levels to effectively leverage resources as lack of resources can escalate situations to a crisis point, especially as individuals usually present with more than one issue. Services need to use each other and 3rd Sector services should be promoted more. Planning of services can also be affected due to a lack of knowledge on the funding periods allocated to individual services.

• Utilise 3rd sector to a greater extent
• Good areas of joint funding
• Directory of services
• Need for improvement in joint leveraging of funding
• Information on  funding to sector services to support planning of services
• A funding directory

Question 4. What needs to be done/delivered differently?

• Improved communication during the individuals transitions between ‘community - prison - community’ need to be more streamlined to support reintegration.
• Rolling out of Whole Family Approach assessment as implemented by the Learning Disability Team for individuals and carers in other service areas, especially as carers can also suffer trauma.
• Primary/Lead worker from entry to end of individual’s involvement with services. 
• Promote individuals who use services in the commissioning of service delivery
• Implement where possible, current positive models of good practice/ventures/projects across services/service areas.