Page 10 - TLAP Beyond Direct Payments

Beyond Direct Payments
Bringing together these small community solutions results in signi cant impact overall. Community enterprises and ventures in the areas where Community Catalysts have worked:
• support nearly 13,000 people
• provide 2,347 jobs
• create 2,134 volunteering opportunities.
Community Catalysts have also created a network to provide on-going support and to help represent their interests and concerns called Small Good Stuff.
Nurturing micro-enterprise in Somerset
Rural Somerset is one of the most challenging areas in which to organise exible, responsive and economic care to help older people to stay in their own home. Over 3 years a locally based Community Catalysts Co-ordinator has supported 194 new enterprises to develop, created a peer support network of 164 micro-enterprises, and helped increase the uptake of direct payments by 43.6%.
Between them these enterprises:
• support 600 older people
• create 180 local jobs
• provide 23,500 hours of care or support a week
• equivalent to nearly £20 million of annual expenditure.
The project is still active and the numbers continue to rise. Moreover, this work resolves some of the on-going issues that are faced in our communities.
Making personalisation meaningful. Older and disabled people living in rural parts of Somerset are supported at home by local people who can provide a exible, responsive, consistent and high-quality care services. This is particularly valuable for older people who consistently make much less use of direct payments and want more practical solutions for their needs (Baxter, Rabiee & Glendinning, 2013). Recent research demonstrated signi cant satisfaction and outcome improvements over traditional care (Community Catalysts, 2017).
Making personalisation sustainable. People can work locally, earn an income and make a positive difference to the lives of people in their neighbourhood. The bene ts of this approach are also ecological: less travel, less stress, less waste while strengthening the whole fabric of community life.
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