WHAT WE DO
SETTING UP FOR SUCCESS
With outcomes-based contracts, Government commits to pay for the achievement of pre-agreed performance milestones (rather than the delivery of a clearly-specified service, as is the case with traditional Government contracts).
This switch in focus means the impact-driven organisations selected to deliver the service have far more flexibility to tailor their services to their specific cohort, and encourages a more partnership-based approach – while ensuring all involved are clearly accountable for improving people’s lives.
Bridges Outcomes Partnerships works with commissioner and provider to design the project, provides the working capital necessary to deliver the service, and supports the delivery teams to optimise results – with a focus on agile, data-driven decision-making.
Challenge:
There are over 80,000 children in the UK who are currently ‘looked after’ by their local authority, and this number is steadily increasing, with a 6% rise since 2011. Relative to the general population, these children are statistically more likely to have poorer outcomes in a number of areas, including educational attainment and mental and physical health. So there’s a clear imperative to keep young people out of the care system wherever possible.
Solution:
Provide clinical therapeutic interventions to families at risk of breakdown. Build resilience, improve family relationships, improve educational interactions, reduce offending behaviour and and help families stay together
Achievements to date:
Project Case Study:
Positive Families Partnership is a pioneering initiative to help vulnerable young people across London access therapeutic programmes that can help them stay out of care and deliver better outcomes for them and their families.
Please contact Iciar and Amit for further detail about our Family Therapy projects
Fostering & Adoption
Challenge:
Over half a million children are the subject of abuse in the UK each year. Where a child is no longer able to live with a birth parent, they are put into the care of the Local Authority. On any one day across the UK, 63,000 children are living with foster families. About 50% of foster placements for teenagers break down. If a child’s first placement breaks down, they are likely to enter a cycle of breakdowns which reduces a child’s opportunities to develop secure attachments. It may also exacerbate existing behavioural and emotional difficulties. In some cases, this behaviour becomes so challenging or detrimental, that a child ends up being cared for in a secure children’s home. These homes cost over £200k per year per place, following which, research shows, it is often far harder to reverse these behaviours.
Solution:
Provide a step-down programme with a focus on targeted foster carer recruitment to meet the needs of the cohort, build appropriate resilience levels within carers and young people and provide ongoing support to the young people and the carers
Achievements to date:
Project Case Study:
Foster Care Support provides skilled and experienced foster care delivered in Birmingham by a team of professionals through a structured phased approach.
Please contact Amit for further detail about our Fostering & Adoption projects
Health, wellbeing and independence
Challenge:
Working life individuals have to cope with a number of disturbing circumstances, from long-term health conditions to housing issues, that impact their wellbeing. If they do not receive the right level of support their health and life outcomes can deteriorate significantly.
Solution:
Holistic programmes with a person-centric approach to help participant to make the most of their life by focusing on strength-based interventions, achieving sustained lifestyle changes, and improved self-care among participants. These programmes will also work with the participants to help them to navigate the system to receive the additional support that they need.
Achievements to date:
Project Case Study:
Ways to Wellness an innovative programme working to create sustained lifestyle changes and improved self-care for people living with long-term health conditions.
Please contact Lucia for further detail about our health, wellbeing and independence projects
Challenge:
The number of people sleeping rough in England has risen each year since 2010. A period of homelessness is a dangerous and isolating experience for anyone. Homeless people are around 17 times more likely to be the victim of violence, and are far more likely to experience bad health outcomes. There are many causes for homelessness: a lack of affordable housing, unemployment, unexpected life events, complex Local Authority support systems, and much more.
Solution:
A programme that will work with entrenched rough sleepers to get them off the streets and help them build a new life, providing the intensive emotional and practical support they need to maintain successful tenancies, as well as help with addiction and other health issues, supporting them to access appropriate existing health, training and employment services.
Achievements to date:
Starts: 447
3 months accommodation outcomes: 245
Entry into education: 12
Payments: 1,066,680
Project Case Study:
Greater Manchester Rough Sleeping finds long term, stable accommodation for rough sleepers. See further detail – https://www.gmhomespartnership.org/
Please contact Conor for further detail about our Rough Sleeping projects
Schools
Solution:
Provide an intervention that supports each child to progress in all aspects of life, well-being, confidence, relationships and academic achievement.
Challenge:
20% of children in England leave school without basic literacy or numeracy
Achievements to date:
Starts: 12,784
Improvement in school behaviour: 5,605
Improvement in school attendance: 2,211
Improvement in school attitude: 4,670
Payments: 17,859,421
Project Case Study:
West London Zone provides mentoring and support for disadvantaged young people in West London schools.
Please contact Lucia for further detail about our Schools projects
Support for Vulnerable Women
Challenge:
Number of young people being taken into care is large and growing. Outcomes for LAC are significantly worse than for young people who stay with their families including with respect to mental health, youth offending, education and employment. It is a growing problem in the UK, with 90+ children being taken into care every day.
Local authorities are facing significant funding challenges. There is est. ~£2bn funding gap in Children’s Services across the UK which will only get worse as pressure on the system increases.
Local authorities have a large number of women to whom multiple children are born and subsequently removed into the care system under child protection proceedings. These women, who are typically young, disadvantaged and living with intersecting and numerous social, emotional, environmental and health related challenges, have historically ‘slipped through the net’ of current provision once they are no longer responsible for a child.
Solution:
Support women who have experienced, or are at risk of, repeat removals of children from their care, to break this cycle and give them the opportunity to reflect, tackle destructive patterns of behaviour, and to develop new skills and responses that can help them create a more positive future.
Achievements to date:
Starts: 41
Project Case Study:
Pause for Change provides support for vulnerable women who have experienced, or are at risk of, repeat removals of children from their care in Plymouth and Derbyshire
Please contact Iciar for further detail about our Vulnerable women projects
Challenge:
Single people are more at risk of homelessness since councils prioritise couples and those with children, leaving single people to fend for themselves unless they are in priority need.
19 of the 20 Local Authorities with the highest concentrations of homeless in England are in London. In 2019 an estimated 170k people experienced some form of homelessness, nearly 1 in 50 people.
Solution:
A programme that combines direct support and navigation to other local support services, it supports the beneficiary directly to prevent or relieve homelessness, providing advice around benefits, discretionary housing payments, basic legal issues, tenancy agreements etc,as well as helping them to access more specialist support where needed. When either a prevention or a relief of homelessness has been achieved, the support worker will work with the beneficiary over the following months to help them sustain their accommodation.
Achievements to date:
Starts: 912
Personal housing plan: 737
Prevention: 54
Reliefs: 249
Sustainment: 110
Payments: 530,850
Project Case Study:
Pan London Single Homelessness Prevention Service provide accommodation and support to prevent or relieve homelessness for single people in London.
Please contact Conor for further detail about our Homelessness prevention projects
Young People, Education, Employment And Housing
Challenge:
Each year, around 60,000 young adults aged 18-24 in England experience homelessness. Many of these have complex needs and a large number are also classed as NEET (Not in Education, Employment or Training). Due to the nature of government homelessness services, this group often falls through the cracks of provision, failing to get the support they need. Without effective intervention, these young people risk a considerably poorer future than their peers.
Solution:
Work with young people to identify the things that are more important to them and their values enabling them to progress into work, training opportunities and achieve fulfilling lives and careers.
Achievements to date:
Starts: 1,280
Begins education/training course: 594
Enters employment: 327
Payments: 7,363,278
Project Case Study:
Reboot West Improves the life chances of care leavers in Bristol, North Somerset, Bath and North East Somerset and South
Please contact Iciar for further detail about our Care leavers projects
PROJECTS
TO DATE
SOCIAL OUTCOMES ACHIEVED TO DATE
DIRECT AND SYSTEMIC IMPACT
Information correct as at 31 March 2019