Annual Report 2020-21
@FoundationsSpt | foundations-stockport@stockporthomes.org | enquiries@foundations-stockport.org
Foreword from Roger Phillips Chair of Foundations Stockport Board
Welcome to Foundations Stockport (“Foundations”) second annual report, in what has been a very busy and challenging year. Foundations has had to quickly adapt to delivering services during a global pandemic, and nowhere more so than within Your Local Pantry. During the first lockdown, Stockport Homes colleagues delivered over 4,500 emergency food parcels from the Pantry to both our own customers and those contacting Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council’s Covid-19 helpline. This year has seen Foundations continue to work with some of the most vulnerable households within the community, supporting the Government’s ‘Everyone In’ campaign to accommodate rough sleepers, the GM Housing First pilot and Move-On Fund accommodation. Notable successes have been achieved with a number of people with very complex needs, who had sadly been sleeping rough for many years. Our employment support offer continues to grow, with new apprenticeships created and the Motiv8 service securing funding to support people furthest from the labour market until early 2023. Other external funding successes include £15K from the Clothworkers Foundation for an additional furniture recycling van, over £17K for Your Local Pantry from a range of funders and over £16K to support the provision of activity packs for children and food to tackle holiday hunger. Some activities and progress have been limited by the pandemic restrictions, particularly work with young people in schools and holiday clubs. Foundations worked with partners to deliver an alternative ‘safe’ range of activities during school holidays, alongside tackling ‘holiday hunger’. Foundations has now developed its ambitious first five year Business Plan, the delivery of which will benefit some of the most disadvantaged households in Stockport and Greater Manchester. I would like to thank the Board Members for their continued dedication, strategic focus and support for Foundations, and I look forward to achieving even more over the coming year. Roger 2
Welcome to Foundations
We are a Charitable Community Benefit Society established in 2018. Foundations has four broad key aims stated in its governing document and activity is structured and prioritised to deliver against these aims.
Our Aims • Supporting people into employment, relieving poverty, relieving food poverty and developing digital skills. • Supporting customers in local communities and delivering support services to help people live independently. • Empowering communities to develop networks of support, including targeted work with people who may experience disadvantage such as people with disabilities, from BAME communities and those with complex needs. • Working in partnership to reduce demand on statutory services and supporting the development of the third sector, ensuring additional resources and services are secured. The work we deliver is prioritised around these aims. This year, we have focussed our work on supporting people through the pandemic, including: • adapting employment and skills training to meet increased demand, through high quality online resources and telephone support; • our network of community foods stores rapidly changed their operating model to deliver food parcels to vulnerable and isolating households during the first lockdown, with the five pantries and a new mobile pantry reopening for the rest of the year; • activity packs and packed lunches provided to children in need during school holidays, including as part of the national HAF (Holiday Activities and Food) programme, and • continued support for rough sleepers and other people who are homeless through the Housing First and rough sleepers’ initiatives such as ‘Everyone In’, where rough sleepers from all ten GM boroughs were accommodated in Manchester hotels, as well as continuous delivery of Housing Options and temporary accommodation services. We are proud to see the continued expansion of Foundations work to benefit even more local people, making Stockport a great place to live. 3
Employment Support
We provide employment advice and guidance, including support with job searching and gaining work experience, apprenticeships, accessing training or work placements.
Motiv8
Through our Motiv8 service, we work with people who face challenges in their lives to move towards education, training and employment.
226
new requests for support across Stockport and Rochdale
183
people were successfully supported by the service
970
we helped people to achieve 970 of their goals around health and wellbeing, self-confidence, managing money and employment
140
we are still working with 140 people on their journey towards employment
41
people moved into education and training, 35 started job searching and eight started a job
Cathy’s story working with Motiv8 Cathy was experiencing mental health issues and homelessness after leaving an abusive relationship. She also disclosed childhood physical abuse, for which she had never received any support or counselling. Cathy’s Motiv8 worker referred her to Shelter for housing support and registered her with a GP to secure medical evidence to support her housing application. She moved into Stockport Homes temporary accommodation before securing a tenancy for life, which included furniture, carpets and white goods through the Tenancy Ready and furniture teams. A link to OWLS peer support domestic abuse group led to Cathy attending the Freedom Programme and receiving weekly support calls as well as remote counselling sessions. Digital partners Start Point loaned Cathy a laptop to complete online courses, which was followed by interview preparation support and a new interview outfit from Smartworks. Cathy was then accepted as a volunteer at Stepping Hill hospital for which she credits her Motiv8 Keyworker with increasing her independence and self-confidence to move forward with her life.
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Our Employment Support Manager Amanda Ward has been a regular feature on BBC Radio Manchester as part of their £10 million Job Hunt series, where she has supported listeners with employment advice and guidance.
Carolyn’s story working with our employment support team I first lost my job in the beginning of February and my mum passed away a few weeks later, so it felt like my world ended. Luckily, I managed to get a job straight away in hospitality, but after the lockdown, that job wasn’t viable anymore and in August I was made redundant. Since then I have been struggling to get myself back out there, but…Maria has been amazing with our regular 1:1 sessions! Having that person who I can call for advice and support or to chat to, and sometimes cry to. I haven’t been very happy in the last few months but this whole process has definitely boosted my confidence...” Employment Officer, Maria La Mattina has been supporting Carolyn in her job search since August. In less than two months this resulted in an interview that was successful, and Carolyn has started her new career in customer services.
Apprenticeships Foundations runs an apprenticeship programme on behalf of Stockport Homes Group. This gives people the opportunity to work and gain a qualification as part of a training programme which includes mentoring.
To date 14 roles have been converted to apprenticeships 5
Furniture recycling project
This project collects good quality donated furniture and recycles it to help households in need of basic items such as fridges, washers, beds and wardrobes. The items are either gifted or sold at a low cost to help people make their house into a home.
• Furniture was donated by 454 households • Furniture was delivered to 515 households in need • 44.45 tonnes of furniture and white goods were saved from going to landfill – that’s the same weight as three and a half double decker buses! • 64 households provided with a cooker through the Covid-19 Winter Fund grant • £15k external funding secured for second van I think the service is fabulous, very efficient, all staff are super friendly, courteous and respect Covid guidelines. Local Resident who donated furniture
Thank you so much, the support you have provided with furniture so far has made a significant difference to their living situation and in turn their mental wellbeing.
Alex, Stockport Adult Social Care, on a vulnerable family supported referred by Adult Social Care to the furniture service
We are always looking for volunteers to help with cleaning and repairing household items, as well as collections and deliveries. If you would like to know more, please contact us on 0161 218 1091 or email us furniture@stockporthomes.org
Your Local Pantry is our award winning network of community food stores, where local people can buy low cost food for a weekly membership fee of just £3.50. Our pantries are in Brinnington, Bridgehall, Mottram Street (town centre), Lancashire Hill and Woodley. The pantries not only reduce food bills, they also provide volunteering opportunities for people to help with taking deliveries, sorting stock and supporting people with their weekly shop, with a number of volunteers using the experience to get paid jobs.
4,576
food parcels were delivered to vulnerable and self-isolating households including those referred via the Stockport Council Covid-19 helpline from April to July 2020
532
66
care leavers provided with free pantry access in partnership with Stockport Family
46
new pantries opened across the UK in partnership with Church Action on Poverty
New family membership initiative rolled out, offering families
20 items for £6.50
new pantry members joined us in 2020-21 Total savings across all pantry members was a massive
£120,285!
The Pantries generated £73,109
in social value from volunteering, with 18 new volunteers joining the project and a total of 2,997 volunteering hours given 7
Youth provision
Foundations works with local schools to support children with improving their mental resilience and delivers affordable holiday clubs for local children called Fabulous Foundations. Due to the closure of schools and ‘bubbles’ during the pandemic, these projects had to stop temporarily. Instead, we supported Stockport Council’s Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) programme in the Easter holidays.
1,030 craft bags and 2,000 healthy meals
were delivered to families as part of HAF, which is a record number for Foundations!
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Youth diversionary Our Detached Youth Worker builds relationships with vulnerable young people who are involved in anti-social behaviour and/or at risk of offending. We are supporting eight young people aged 10-20 years one to one as a result of concerns about their behaviour and welfare. Outdoor sessions are taking place in the evenings in Edgeley and Brinnington, which are attended by 20-25 young people per session. Ten young people have agreed goals to improve behaviour and make positive choices. GM Police have confirmed that anti-social behaviour and nuisance has reduced in Edgeley thanks to the partnership approach including the detached youth work.
Offender engagement A new Foundations member of staff started in March 2021 to provide housing support to people leaving prison. So far, the work has involved • Setting up a system to work with people leaving Forest Bank Prison • Working with temporary accommodation to support five high risk vulnerable people • Developing positive activities for offenders, focussing on improving their wellbeing • Linking with Stockport Women’s Centre to support female offenders • Ensuring people leaving prison who have substance misuse issues are able to get the support and medication they need, especially if they are Covid-19 positive or needing to self isolate 9
Rough Sleeper project
Foundations is working with GM partners on the Rough Sleeper Initiative, which help reduce rough sleeping, get people rehoused and try out new ways of working. • Responded to 340 reports of rough sleepers, of which around one third led to a rough sleeper being identified • Rough sleeping figures for Stockport dropped 50% from the previous year • 11 rough sleepers were accommodated as part of the GM response to the ‘Everyone In’ initiative • We supported 51 people identified as rough sleeping to access temporary accommodation • 22 of these people have now moved into a secure tenancy • One ‘entrenched’ rough sleeper was supported to secure long term admission to a mental health ward
GM Housing First Move on project GMHF is a three-year pilot to provide safe, secure homes for more than 400 people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. Foundations Stockport is responsible for delivery of the pilot in Stockport.
The Move-On Fund increases availability of housing for rent for people affected by homelessness and / or domestic abuse. We have bought and refurbished six rental properties for people affected by homelessness and/or domestic abuse
• 13 customers currently being supported, 11 of whom are now accommodated • Two had been sleeping rough for over two years • 92% of the tenancies in Stockport have been successful, compared to 89% across the Housing First programme
Six customers have now moved into the properties (one woman and five men). We are supporting them with a range of issues including mental health, substance misuse and autism
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Working in partnership to support and grow our local Third Sector
Foundations is working closely with Sector 3, who provide Stockport’s Third Sector support network, to grow the third sector locally. This has included several well attended online events with local and national funders.
• • • • •
£488,425 grant income brought into Stockport 60 groups attended Sector Connector – linking local business to the Third Sector Instant recommendations on appropriate funds provided by funding surgery 30 groups attended an ASDA Foundation session and 60 groups met with the Lottery to fund out more about funding available
• Local intelligence meetings bring main local funders together to ensure appropriate bidding taking place. We meet with other local funders to ensure groups are making bids to the most appropriate funds. 11
Investing in the community
Foundations is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, and its finances are independently audited with a set of statutory accounts produced each year. Our main source of income is Gift Aid donations, delivery of services funded by the local authority and through other government contracts and membership/subscription fees. Foundations Stockport would like to thank all those who have provided financial and other support during 2020/21 including:
How much we invested in services
Your Local Pantry Housing First
£18,696
Fabulous Foundations
£2,180
£18,280
Rough Sleepers Initiative
£88,296
Apprenticeships
£194,102
Motiv8
£1,638,973
£66,604
Furniture Recycling
ASB Prevention Delivery
Total
£144,166
£273,002
Move-On Fund
£10,248
Grants (HAF)
£16,177
Donations in Kind Gift Aid – SHL, 360, Viaduct
£146,724
£660,500
@FoundationsSpt | foundations-stockport@stockporthomes.org | enquiries@foundations-stockport.org