Active, fulfilled lives

We will:

• Promote a shared understanding of what high-quality care is and what needs to be done to achieve it amongst people who use services, key partners and staff.
• Take joined-up action to encourage improvement and champion high-quality care that makes a real difference to the lives of people who use services, their families and carers. 
• Develop the ‘Three Conversations Model’, focusing on what people can do, encouraging people to live independently by joining together solutions and engaging in timely and appropriate conversations.
• Have the right buildings, facilities, infrastructure and resources in place to give good access to social care and support services.
• Work with providers and the voluntary sector, supporting them to work alongside the Council using a progressive, strength-based model.
• Work with colleagues across agencies to safeguard adults at risk of being abused.
• Promote integration across systems to improve population health and reduce inequality between different groups. For example, we will work with partners from health, housing, the criminal justice system and benefits to support accessible, affordable and effective social care.
• Reduce bureaucracy to enable simple pathways to support and allow more time to be spent with people.
• Address the skill shortages and gaps in the care workforce. We will do this through effective recruitment, retention and management of a sustainable workforce.
• Support people with a range of needs such as those with learning difficulties, autism, ADHD, mental health needs and people who have experienced abuse, neglect and exploitation.
• Tackle the stigma attached to disabled people, changing minds and proactively addressing discrimination.
• Use creative and flexible contracting approaches to secure the right care, at the right time, in the right place.

We will:

• Mobilise and develop the Voluntary Community and Social Enterprise Sector (VCSE) to its maximum potential.
• Create an area where an enterprising voluntary sector is valued and encouraged, and additional capacity is created to deliver social care and health activities.
• Work with Northamptonshire Carers to deliver carers needs assessments, a carers forum, and other support such as a sitting service and respite care.
• Work with carers to establish the support that is needed and determine how this support can be best delivered.
• Train carers in using complex aids and equipment.
• Support volunteers helping vulnerable people, those who are shielding and others who are in need of help.
• Identify children who are carers and ensure support is in place to allow them to live their lives.
• Provide and support a wide variety of volunteering opportunities across our cultural, leisure and library facilities which enhance the wellbeing of our residents and improve skills and employability
• Ensure support for volunteering is a key part of our review and refresh of our Voluntary Community and Social Enterprise Sector (VCSE) infrastructure arrangements.
• Deliver the Carers Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) which includes the exploration of the needs of older carers.
• Support adult carers who report that they have not had as much social contact as they would like through social prescribing.
• Support individuals within the community to develop a wide range of volunteer support skills and create links with the Adult Learning Service. Volunteer roles range widely from specific ones in health and social care to befriending and other forms of peer support.
• Ensure those in a management role within the Council are enabled to support working carers.

We will:

• Co-produce a Healthy Active Lives Strategy and delivery framework with our leisure providers, Northamptonshire Sport, sports clubs and our wider communities.
• Develop and promote a concessionary scheme in leisure centres to ensure equality of access.
• Co-produce with key stakeholders a Cultural Strategy for North Northamptonshire to maximise the cultural and arts offer and improve accessibility to all.
• Review, refresh and harmonise our Playing Pitch, Sports Facilities and Open Space Strategies to enable us to understand future demand and make effective capital investment decisions in future facilities.
• Promote the accessibility of green open spaces, leisure, sports facilities and clubs, including addressing issues of healthier weight and obesity.
• Restore all facilities with enhanced measures to ensure safety and customer confidence in a post-Covid world.
• Ensure that our public buildings are dementia and autism friendly to ensure facilities are welcoming and accessible to all.
• Continue to enhance our 24/7 electronic e-library offer.
• Expand the use of Progression Workers to enable people to use community facilities to support and develop physical and mental wellbeing.
• Continue to support the Active Parks team which is a partnership with country parks, Northamptonshire Sport and the Public Health team.
• Deliver public health services in public spaces such as libraries and leisure facilities in order to increase their reach into local communities.
• Deliver Social Prescribing at scale.

We will:

• Reduce the number of people who experience mental ill health by improving the effectiveness of prevention services for mental wellbeing.
• Engage with Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCG), Public Health, Healthwatch and other key partners and service users to develop a shared understanding of the needs of the mental health population. We will work together to design services that meet local need.
• Ensure the Council’s care provision is accessible to people with mental health issues.Promote mental health awareness and accountability in the workplace and educate colleagues across the Council about mental health and how best to support people we work with.
• We are committed to attendance and engagement with the Mental Health Prevention Concordat.
• Support third sector services who are preventing the impact of social stressors on mental health and wellbeing, for example: CAB, Welfare Rights, Community Law.
• Expand our Health and Housing Project to assist with timely discharges from hospital.
• Provide a housing allocation scheme facilitating moves to safe and appropriate housing to suit people’s needs.
• Provide an effective Disabled Facilities and Adaptions programme, by reducing the backlog of referrals, to increase residents’ independence and wellbeing.
• Develop a strategy that supports the delivery of housing for care which will enable older and vulnerable residents to retain independence for longer in their own homes.
• Deliver effective tenancy outreach to support vulnerable people to live independently.
• Deliver the Public Health Community Approaches Programme to address health inequalities.
• Provide physical and digital resources in libraries to support mental health and wellbeing.
• Work closely with partners to develop health and wellbeing programmes in leisure facilities addressing the needs of the local community.
• Work in partnership to support local organisations to provide wellbeing services and activities.

We will:

• Expand our Transitions and Lettings Plus Scheme for offenders leaving prison, housing 40 homeless offenders in the next 12 months and working with them towards independent living.
• Provide housing and related support to vulnerable, entrenched rough sleepers and a new dual needs (mental health and drug/alcohol) navigator for rough sleepers.
• Undertake a review of homelessness and rough sleeping strategy to ensure a consistent service across North Northamptonshire.
• Refresh the Domestic Abuse Strategy and delivery plans to ensure we meet our statutory duties to provide safe accommodation and support for victims of abuse and their children.
• Focus on tackling the causes of poverty. We will provide support to the voluntary and community sector and other organisations who give advice on debt management to our most vulnerable residents.
• Ensure our housing policies provide appropriate offers for our varied current and future communities.
• Work closely with our housing services to develop appropriate housing stock for people with complex needs.
• Investigate new and innovative solutions to housing and housing related issues with private and public sector partners.
• Work closely with organisations who support veterans to allow them to live better lives.
• Work closely with colleagues in Public Health to increase suicide awareness and awareness of suicide prevention.
• Offer innovative and intensive support to vulnerable people who are not in priority need under the homelessness legislation, but have a range of support needs and other difficulties.  These make it hard to successfully accommodate them in supported accommodation.
• Take an integrated approach to addressing issues such as mental health, drug and alcohol dependencies, street culture activities and institutional experiences, such as prison and the care system. These are often closely linked with the more extreme experiences of homelessness.
• Continue to deliver annual vaccinations and health screening services for homeless and other ‘at risk’ individuals.
• Work with partners to provide life-long learning opportunities such as learning in prison with continued course provision on release.