Challenging and supporting: Cymorth’s role as broker
Auriol Miller became director of Cymorth Cymru in September 2013. Almost nine months into the role, she shares her perspective on the challenges facing the sector and ideas for Cymorth’s focus and priorities for the year ahead
I often get asked why I made the move from international development into housing-related support and the Cymorth role and will save my reflections on the similarities between the two sectors for another time…
Right now, and as the umbrella body for organisations working with vulnerable people in Wales, Cymorth Cymru is acutely aware of the challenges facing our members. Over the course of this financial year we will be working closely with our members and together with the wider sector to ensure that they are able to weather the storms, spot opportunities for development and continue to deliver vital services to some of the most vulnerable in our society.
New legislation
Recently we have seen the introduction of several new pieces of legislation by the Welsh Government, including the Housing (Wales) Bill and the Ending Violence Against Women, Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence (Wales) Bill.
Cymorth Cymru has an important role to play in facilitating cultural change amongst providers to support the implementation of this new legislation. Early intervention and homelessness prevention is a key focus of the Housing (Wales) Bill, and we will be supporting providers to adapt their services as necessary to meet this agenda and deliver against the new duty to prevent homelessness. We are also keen to ensure that the people accessing services are involved in their design and implementation.
Economic pressures
In a climate of cuts, we are conscious of the budgetary pressures facing the housing- related support sector and we are aware that the work we do with our members needs to take into account the economic environment in which they operate.
With pressures on Welsh Government’s departments’ budgets it is also more important than ever that, as a sector, we can effectively demonstrate the value of the services provided to vulnerable people, particularly those that are funded (wholly or partly) by the Supporting People Programme Grant (SPPG). Demonstrating our impact is becoming even more important – as is showing how Supporting People complements and reinforces other Welsh Government priority policy areas and funding programmes.
The SPPG is a key source of funding for the majority of housing related support providers in Wales, supporting over 56,000 people each year to live as independently as they can and build happy and rewarding lives.
In order to fully demonstrate that SPPG offers value for money we need a strong evidence base and Cymorth will be encouraging and supporting service providers to measure the positive impact of their services on the lives’ of vulnerable people, as well as the financial savings they can bring to other policy areas, such as health and community justice. We know that the evidence exists – often at provider level – and need to encourage members to share and communicate.
Given the importance of the SPPG funding stream to our members, Cymorth will continue to play a key role in supporting the programme. We plan to provide ongoing support to those providers who sit on the Regional Collaborative Committees (RCCs), as well as identifying any potential issues that might impact on the success of the programme. Of course, we also recognise the need for the housing minister to be aware of the wider issues facing providers and, to this end, we will be making sure that he receives constructive feedback on this, and is aware of the implications for providers.
Tackling poverty and welfare reform
Tackling poverty is a key priority for Welsh Government going forward and Cymorth is keen to make the connections between this priority area and housing and homelessness.
One of our continuing priorities going forward is to mitigate the effects of welfare reform wherever possible and ensure that the implications of welfare reform are clearly communicated to organisations working with vulnerable people.
To continue our work in this area we are also looking to form strategic partnerships with the anti-poverty movement in Wales and raise awareness of the relationship between welfare reform and homelessness. We are supporting the Your Benefits are Changing campaign, to ensure people are kept informed of benefit changes, and have recently joined the Who Benefits? campaign, which aims to give a voice to the millions of citizens who have been supported by benefits.
Raising awareness both of the issues that people face that can result in homelessness or institutional care, and of the services available to help them, will remain one of our key priorities going forward. We will also be continuing, and where necessary refocusing, our work to support vulnerable people to have a voice in civil society.
What next?
Over the course of this year we will be working closely with our members, partners and stakeholders to formulate our strategic plan, which will inform our priorities and activities from April 2015 on.
We will be publicising news and developments throughout the year so please do keep an eye on our website (www.cymorthcymru.org.uk) for updates.
We welcome comments and feedback from both members and non-members, so please get in touch. Additionally, if you have any case studies that could help demonstrate the positive impact of support services please email our communications manager jodicox@cymorthcymru.org.uk.