Memorandum from Women's Health In South
Tyneside
We would like to present the following views
for your Commissioning Public Services from the third sector.
Q2(a)
Women's Health In South Tyneside (WHIST) is
a well-established voluntary organisation. It was set up by local
women (20 years ago) and has flourishing into its present form
by offering services in response to local needs.
The organisation deals with a wide range of
health issues and attracts women who are unable to find a service
to suit their needs elsewhere. The provision compliments statutory
services and the agency is used as a referral point by social
workers, mental health workers, GPs, health visitors, psychiatrists,
psychologists, occupational therapists, employment agencies and
other voluntary agencies.
We offer training courses, individual and group
support, volunteering opportunities, personal development, physical
exercises and créche provision. We support about 350 people
a week, we have 33 volunteers active within the organisation and
we help women to move on in their lives by overcoming the difficulties
and barriers they are facing.
We have waiting lists for all provisions on
offer, at present we have 616 people on the waiting lists.
The organisation offers services, which are
firmly linked into four of the local authorities current priorities.
We help women into jobs.
We help to make safer communities.
We help people to live independent and healthy
lives.
We attract women who are considered hard to
reach and who have a reluctance to approach statutory services
because they do not provide the type of services they require
or they are unable to access the services through lack of childcare
etc.
So we have this evidence that local voluntary
services are popular.
Q2(b)
We also hold evidence of demand for more of
the services that we provide and we can never meet the demand.
Q3
I do not see how aligning ourselves with the
state will be of any help. We have entered into contracts through
the LSC for the training aspects of our work and we are buckling
with the bureaucratic demands this places upon us.
There has been a great risk of our losing our
identity and Adult Community Learning have struggled to operate
within a locally managed organisation wanting to have a presence
in the courses, wanting to interview women who may be participating
in educational opportunities for the first time in their life.
This has proved intimidating and since accepting this funding
we have a bigger drop-out rate, due in part to the form filling
that the participants have to undertake.
I would like to add that this organisation which
was visited recently by the Minister for the Third Sector and
the Minister for the Environment has recently had two substantial
funding streams removed at short notice. The Drug Action Team
have moved the goalposts and have taken their grant away since
they now want to fund work that exclusively targets women taking
class A drugs rather that for supporting women affected by drugs.
Their decision has been enforced in a manner that leaves this
organisation operating outside of employment law and has not taken
account of redundancy requirements. Social Services have given
us one months notice that they intend to put us on a month-by-month
contract, which again flies in the face of employment legislation
and Compact agreements between the local authority and the voluntary
sector.
The organisation is well thought of and is a
referral agency for GPs, mental health workers, social workers
and other voluntary agencies. We respond to identified local needs
government targets do not always take account of local needs.
We are a small organisation with a core staff of three key workers.
Two of these posts have been undermined as described above and
the third worker is on maternity leave. Organisations such as
WHIST are in grave danger of folding up because of the current
target-driven culture. We offer high quality services and we would
be capable of entering into contracts if we were allowed the opportunity
to participate in the process, however the actions described above
that have been taken without consultation exclude us completely.
Larger national charities are waiting on the sidelines to take
up contracts.
We have 1,653 members
350 women a week use WHIST.
663 women are on our waiting lists.
And there are more success stories than we have
space to report.
SAVINGS TO
HEALTH AND
SOCIAL CARE
SERVICES AS
A RESULT
OF PROVISION
ON OFFER
FROM WHIST
So far, having looked through only 11 letters
of support from women attending WHIST we can provide the following
information:
— Less hospital visits were mentioned
by seven of these 11 women.
— Less use of A&E was mentioned
by five women. All five would have used this potentially two times
maybe more.
— Less visits to GPs mentioned by nine
women.
— Of these nine women three were attending
at least once a month = 36 visits a year.
— 1 reports attending weekly so we
would estimate 48 visits a year.
— Taking less prescribed drugs—nine
women. This will involve less visits to the GP as well as they
would have to be seen.
— Less use of alcohol and services
associated four women.
— This is from information offered
by the women in open letters of support. They have not been asked
for specific information about their uptake of services.
— One GP knows of a woman he referred
who did not need NHS services while attending WHIST. She finished
the courses she was on and there was a two month gap before she
started attending for further support, during that two month period
(Jan and Feb 07) it cost the NHS £3655.00 to provide services
to her.
— We have also supported a woman in
receiving her children from care. We have offered a package of
support both practical and emotional that has enabled her to care
for two children again, the savings must be immense.
— Of 150 women taking up physical activities
one third of them have been referred by a GP or health worker.
OTHER INTERESTING
FACTS
— At least seven support workers access
our services every week bringing on average three or four women
on each visit.
— Over 350 different women use WHIST
every week.
— Our membership is 1600 women.
— We have 33 volunteers actively involved
in the organisation. The services they provide are equivalent
to £66,384.00.
— Volunteers raised over £4500.00
for us last year.
— Of 150 women taking up physical exercises
in a week one third of them have been referred by a GP or health
worker.
— Over 80 children a year use the créche.
— 48 women have received counselling
from WHIST during the last year.
— 90% of the women taking up support
and training services report an increase in confidence and self-esteem
as a result.
— We have provided individual and group
support, training and activities to over 450 women in a year.
— Women gain qualifications with the
support of WHIST
— We have turned away 25 women requesting
counselling in the last four weeks.
March 2007
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