Page 13 - TLAP Beyond Direct Payments

The potential for further change
Community Catalysts typically works in an area for two years, helping to build the capacity of local partners and local people, strengthening community structures and bringing established and new community entrepreneurs into self-sustaining networks. It applies expertise in the regulation and legislation that govern wellbeing, care and health enterprises and in the bureaucracies with which they must work. Enterprises often need help to negotiate the many regulatory, legislative and bureaucratic barriers they face to be legally compliant, sustainable and to offer care services that are safe and high quality.
The Community Catalysts approach would seem to be broadly replicable in all kinds of areas.
The key success factors seem to be:
• skilled and knowledgeable co-ordinator working for at least 2 years to support local people to explore their ideas, understand local needs, provide coaching and expert support and help link to local sources of advice and form self-sustaining networks
• locally-rooted person working at a neighbourhood level through community structures and networks to strengthen what is already working well
• back-up from a national organisation and UK wide network sharing learning and helping to address wider policy and practice barriers
• support from the whole system from senior leaders to front line staff
• comprehensive approach to risk and quality management.
Community Catalysts believe their approach will work in any area and demography. The approach has been used in towns like Oldham and counties like Nottinghamshire. If every local authority in England implemented a Community Catalysts approach then they calculate that there could be as many as 52,000 community micro-enterprises, providing care and support to 182,500 people, delivering 608,000 care hours a week and creating 55,000 jobs.
Beyond Direct Payments
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