In the past two years the emphasis of the work for the regional team has been around Health; Employment; and Housing together with the creation of a North East Regional Programme Board to both support and challenge local areas around best practice and act as a voice for the North East to Government.

On Health

The North East Team has helped create the impetus for change now being led by the Strategic Health Authority. This has included the setting up and running of the national Health Self-Assessment Process in the region. A programme manager has been appointed in the SHA to lead on wider health developments for people with learning disabilities. The establishment of a “Clinical Innovation Team’ and before that a Health Leadership Team has set the strategic direction for health improvements for people with learning disabilities and families in the North East and is now coordinating all practical steps to take this forward.

On Housing

Two large events were held in the North East lead by Housing Options and from this emerged the idea of a Housing Self-assessment process that would help local area Partnership Boards fully involve local people in thinking about housing need, choice and opportunities, rate themselves and then focus on practical steps to move forward. This process is currently in the final stages and through working with Inclusion North, will involve support to local areas to implement their plans. Additinally there have been a number of PSA 16 funded Innovation Pojects which have tried to stimulate and promote exciting new ideas across the region in housing choice and opportunity.

These have included: * Inclusion Housing – HomeLife. Its focus is twofold: to provide vulnerable adults with secure, bespoke accommodation (preferably where they want to work/live) as well as provide suitable brokerage employment support. * Gateshead Council - Housing Support and Mentoring Project. The project aims to support people with learning disabilities into settled accommodation by providing a support and mentoring scheme to them and their family carers.

The project targets people living with older family carers, a hard to reach group, and engage with them to assist and support them through the planning process and into tenancies.

On Employment

The regional team led the launch event of Valuing Employment Now in the North East. This was an exciting event in hearing about this new strategy as well as an opportunity to hear about good local things that were already happening.

In the region there has been a small regional group, as a sub-group of the regional board, focussing on best practice and the promtion of regional initiatives involving joint training initiatives.

The main emphasis of this work has been collaboration with the PSA 16 lead to identify key projects to support through an Innovation Fund and provide ongoing support to these projects.

These projects include:

• City Hospitals Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust (CHS) Project Choice. This project is an internship programme and consists of three 10 week modules four days a week with one day in college/school.
• Percy Hedley Foundation- Development Project. This project aims to “upskill” the private sector workforce and link job-opportunities for adults with learning disabilities to service providers.
• North Tyneside Council - Personalised Pathways to Employment and Training. The project is a collaboration between North Tyneside Council Adult Social Care Department, Mental Health Matters, Skills for People and North Tyneside Council Adult Learning Alliance. The project will work with adults with a learning disability and adults with mental ill health to help them identify individual goals and deliver outcomes on a pathway to employment.
• Bishopwearmouth Landscapes – A Social Enterprise Project. This project will provide horticultural and landscaping services and establish an independent ‘not for profit’ Community Interest Company.

A full description of the projects that were funded is available to download.

An evaluation of the projects progress is to be undertaken between January and September 2011 and a report on all 15 projects produced by 30 September 2011. This will be posted on this website in due course.

Resources

• Socially Excluded Adults