Robert: "I've been in foster care for a few years. Getting pushed from pillar to post, I felt isolated from my family. My dad said I was like a difficult child to live with. As soon as my dad left me, that day my whole life went with him, I was a right mess and I became homeless".
Voice over: For all sorts of reasons people find themselves needing help in matters to do with housing, homeless people, young people at risk, older people finding it difficult to live independently in their own homes, people with mental health problems or physical disabilities, women at risk of domestic violence and many more.
Vulnerable people who need somewhere safe and secure to live, who can they turn too, where do they go for help? Fortunately for people like Robert, Bradford Supporting People is there for them. They buy in-services from no less than 60 organisations throughout the Bradford district. Which provides such things as supported housing whether temporary or permanent, hostels, refuges, support for people in their own homes, over 300 different services in all.
Robert: "I got referred to Bradford Cyrenians it just made me want to make a difference. I moved in to a hostel and my key worker went through courses and education that I could take up and she introduce me to Horton Housing Training Centre. They are a great laugh and I feel better now a days because I feel as though I have more going for me now".
Supporting People is a national programme to provide housing related support services to vulnerable adults and here in the Bradford District it’s administered by Bradford Council, and Jayne Hellowell is the manager responsible for it.
Jayne Hellowell: "My role in Supporting People is to manage what is a national programme which funds in Bradford 13,000 vulnerable people across 21 client groups. Central Government give us nearly £20m in Bradford of which we give that money to arrange of third sector organisations, who in turn offer what we call housing related support to a range of vulnerable people including older people, people with learning disabilities, people with substances miss use and so on".
Voice over: People like Raymond, his mental health problems were brought on by drug use.
Raymond: "When I was younger I was a bit rebellious when I was a teenager and you know how teenagers can be rebellious. It was 1972 or 1973 I was into the 60s, you know and I was into drugs and I took LSD and a year later I suffered a breakdown, a schizophrenic breakdown and I suffered from depression and it went in to psychosis and I ended up in Lynfield Mount Hospital at 17".
I recently moved to Queens Range and I have lived here now for 2 years and its very good place to be, there’s a lot of support here for us and the staff are very good, very tolerant and very caring and that helps a lot, you don’t get that at hospital but you do here at Queens Range because a hospital is not as intimate as it is at Queens Range. There’s more time for us here and I think it is working. Queens Range is a wonderful place for those who have suffered mental illness to get better and I think it is doing me a lot of good being here.
In the last two years I have improved quite a lot. I hope to move in to the bungalow here and that should give me more independence because like I say they are very impressed with my progress and one step at a time I should get better and better and maybe in a couple of years time move back into the community again and be back to normal, live a normal life".
Voice over: If people want information about services that Supporting People funds whether the general public, health workers, probation services, social workers or any other organisations they can contact Adult and Community Service at Bradford Council who can refer people to the most appropriate organisations to meet their needs.
It could be any one of the dozens of providers that Supporting People have bought in services from. In Bradford its self, in Keighley, Ilkley, Baildon, Shipley, throughout the region. Organisations that can help people find somewhere to live or carry on living in their own home.
Irene: "Life especially for Jim was getting very difficult. We were living in a tall thin house which had 3 flights of very steep stairs and Jim was finding it difficult getting up stairs, getting into the bath, getting out of it and getting around.
I was getting extremely worried, I knew I would be able to cope but how would Jim cope. We only had a small pension from the air force and everything was going up and up and there was absolutely no way I could see of anything getting any better.
Voice over: Irene and her husband felt they were no longer able to live in their own home but Anchors Staying Put, one of the organisations that Bradford Supporting People buys in-services from was able to help by contacting various agencies on their behalf.
Irene: "Once I contacted Anchor they said they would get in touch with Occupational Therapy to see about getting some aids for Jim and they would get in touch with various agencies on are behalf SAAFA, the Royal Air Force Association and places like that".
It's made a tremendous difference for a start we got a completely new central heating system, a stair lift so Jim can get up stairs, we got a chair recliner up riser so he can get out and about easily. I’m so much happier and so is Jim because he has so much more independence it’s the dignity that’s in it. It was supporting and be reduced to crawling up stairs on your hands and knees".
Voice over: Working with some many different service providers means that Bradford Supporting People can meet a range of needs.
Jayne Hellowell: "The services that we buy-in from those providers their responsibility is to make sure that vulnerable people are supported to what we call living independent lives and that might mean if somebody is say older and frail and they live in their own home they are supported to social included, get out of the house and importantly that they see somebody and have contact with somebody or that they are paying their bills, they are going to the health services and its real low level preventative services but in the long term it really helps people to remain as independent as possible.
We also operate a very robust contract management process which involves us looking at the quality of the services, the cost and whether they are performing well so when we put all that information together that will give us very good understanding of how well that service operated but importantly it is what the service users tell us about that service that we want to capture. To make sure that we continue to support good organisations and that where organisations are not providing good quality service they are supported to improve".
Voice over: Supporting People is committed to ensuing service users are involved with the development, delivery and management of the programme. There is a service user involvement group that looks at influencing the programme in number of areas and has trained services user to check the quality of services by becoming peer reviewers and mystery shoppers.
Having somewhere to live isn't the only thing that people like Katie need. They also need help in making positive changes to their lives
Katie: "Before I contacted TWP I was drinking all the time through I got abused and stuff like that by an older man and had a child through it. I was depressed and I did all the things they showed me to do like the anger management and that helped and made me brighter. I did all the courses to get me there and it made my day I was happy, I was smiling and I didn't feel down anymore.
My son's happy, he knows who I am, my family are happy and I'm happy myself and that’s more important than anything else".
Voice over: Everyone has different needs and different aspirations and that’s reflected in support plans which are unique to each individual, their needs now and in the future, the things that are important to them, their goals and the help they might need in reaching them. All these and more are taken into account when drawing up a support plan which will help them achieve five key goals:
- To achieve economic well-being by maximising their income, reducing debt, getting paid work.
- To enjoy and achieve through such things as taking part in training or education, leisure or cultural activities, social contact with family and friends.
- To look after their health both physical and mental including managing things like substance misuse
- To Stay Safe avoiding being in harmed or harming others and know who to contact in an emergency,
- To make a positive contribution to develop confidence, be able to make choices and to get involved where they live.
Some peoples needs are relatively straight forward, but for others a whole range of support services maybe needed if they’re to have the chance in leading safe, happy fulfilling lives.
"There’s been times when I've really, really been low and I have suffered from really bad depression I wasn’t an outgoing person it came to the point where I didn’t want to do anything and I basically just wanted to stay in the house and not communicate with family or friends, I just wanted to do things with myself but not with anybody else.
I got to a point where I almost wanted to commit suicide. I have been to a few counselling sessions to overcome my depression and things have worked out a lot better for me than I ever thought they would. My support worker has brought me to the training centre to be a client and to complete courses and here I am today overcome all my problems, a lot more happier, better as a person and enjoying my life, enjoying every moment of it".
Voice over: With the right support peoples lives can be made so much richer, but what if they didn’t get that support.
Irene: "I was worried that we might not be able to stay here eventually there was no way even if I had to crawl on my hands I knees I was going to let Jim go into a home".
Adam: "I don’t know where I’d have been without the Foyer, I certainly wouldn’t be working for Bradford and Bingley and I certainly wouldn’t be looking to move into my own accommodation with in the next few months".
Robert: "I was dreading to think where I would be in the future; you know whether I’d wake up or not".
Voice over: All sorts of circumstances, all sorts of people, all sorts of problems relating to housing, but the supporting people programme in Bradford can work towards solving these problems, find somewhere safe and secure to live and to help vulnerable people turn their lives around.
Adam: "I had a really bad family breakdown my dad threw me out and I ended up staying with my fiancé and her grandparents and then that kind of broke down by her falling out with her dad so I left there".
I've lived rough a few times and at that point I was sleeping between houses and a friend of mine moved here a month before I did and it was through him that I actually realised it existed and basically applied straight away just so that I would have some sort of stable accommodation which before here I hadn’t had for about 2 years.
It gave me someone to talk to and everyone has an assigned support worker, you have a meeting every week and they've put me on courses which have helped and I did a course with the BBC which got me back on my feet again and following on from that I went on a course on business action on homelessness which in the end led to my employment".
Voice over: Roberts got high hopes for the future too, thanks to Bradford Supporting People and the help he’s been given the days of homelessness are behind him.
But he still remembers how it feels having no where to live, feelings he expressed in a poem which is included in this collection of work from the hidden homeless.
Roberts Poem
I painted a picture and looked at my history,
Tried planning my ways and thought of the mystery,
With no where to run and no where to hide,
I was sick of hearing access denied,
Just to realise it's the same at sunrise,
With all this ambition to go forth for planning permission,
It’s about time I made the right move and the right decision,
Coming up against brick walls that I could not imagine to climb,
Probation is the reason I don’t turn back to crime,
I sit and wondering just too past time and try picture and combined a perfect sweet life time
For more information about how Bradford Supporting People can help you or if you know someone who needs their help then call 01274 434456 or visit our website at www.bradford.gov.uk/supportingpeople
