Don't be static!

What this means 

The Communities Where Everyone Belongs group was often mystified by how so many services and hubs were still static and/or building-based. Why not move them around? Why not use empty or underused spaces in communities for advice and wellbeing support? Why not have mobility aid loan services at libraries? Why not try something totally different? 

Don’t expect communities to come to services, or assume that people only want building-based services in their communities. Go to where people are, don’t be afraid to be mobile, and find out the best way to have true conversations with people in their own communities.

Simply asking what people want of their local libraries, community hubs, and information services would be a start.

The research 

The Care Act 2014 requires local authorities to consider people’s lives as a whole, promoting their wellbeing, with duties to provide information about care and support choices in their area. It places a duty on local authorities to shape the local market for care and support, and empower people in choosing the services that best meet their needs. Early research suggested that flexibility of service was equally as important to people as cost and quality was when choosing the type of social care they wanted (National Market Development Forum, 2010). 

The COVID-19 period offers some interesting insight into the possible effectiveness of more flexible services that engage with people directly in the community. MacIntyre (2021) looked at how a service for older people in a London borough (Ageing Better in Camden) was forced to adapt due to lockdown. It found running outdoor events for people to safely socialise (called ‘face-mask pop-ups’) had proved effective. They found that the ‘peaceful’ space of parks would often make people feel more relaxed, and older people would start spontaneously chatting to other older people, as well as directly with the Ageing Better in Camden team. (MacIntyre, 2021). 

Libraries in the UK have also recently taken on wider roles in society, including acting as local ‘warm banks’ in the winter of 2022/23, so people could keep warm in the face of vastly increased gas and electricity bills. An American study (Wahler et al., 2020) looked at the potential for libraries to offer varied types of support to the people who use them, including those experiencing mental health issues, homelessness, and physical health difficulties.

The study found that library staff would often offer informal support; and that some states had direct partnerships with local social services, which included pop-up services, training and support for local library staff. (It’s important to note that the context for libraries is different in the UK; as a result of austerity, many local authorities have reduced their paid staff in libraries and increased their use of volunteers (Baber, 2018), with the same potential implications as set out in the section on 'The impact of the cost of living crisis on voluntary and community organisations'.) 

Once again, the role of co-production is crucial here. By not assuming what people want but, instead, by working together with people to co-design and co-deliver in the community, local authorities can support more accessible and better-used services (Sutton, 2020). 

What you can do 

If you are a senior manager:  

Ask yourself: 

• What is stopping you from using dynamic spaces as hubs for local people? 
• What do local people, and those in direct practice who support them, think are key ideas for a dynamic community?
• What are you doing already? How are these initiatives evaluated? What kind of conversations emerged in them? 

Reach out to other senior leaders in neighbouring local authorities to hear about their initiatives. Visit them. Have conversations with people about the spaces they use and gather their ideas – there’ll be lots of them! Be creative. 

Further information 

Watch

SCIE has a 2021 webinar, Thriving places: Delivering services with and for our communities that looks at local community work alongside existing contexts such as housing, skills and education, employment support and the environment.

Read 

Ageing Better in Camden has published its lessons from COVID-19 in terms of outreach and direct engagement in the community.