Areas of social need

in Barnet

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The overall challenge in Barnet

Over the current decade Barnet Council will lose around half of its spending power.

This means it will be an enormous challenge for the council to continue to provide

the services our residents need and to keep Barnet a successful and attractive place

to live and work

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2011/12 2012/13 2013/14 2014/15 2015/16 2016/17 2017/18 2018/19

Savings target (£m) Savings agreed (£m) Savings delivered (£m)

The overall challenge in Barnet

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It is important to stress that the council will have less money to

spend five years from now. We need to do things differently and

projects set up and run by students could play a key part in helping

us address this challenge.

http://youtu.be/JodRaIGNIRM

Priority areas for Barnet

Adult Social Care

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Supporting

older people

Street Scene and

Green Spaces

Promoting our

economy Responding

to welfare

reform

Public Health

Housing

Supporting and

developing

schools

Supporting

young people

Our

Priorities

Adult Social Care – working age adults

Barnet’s Adult Social Care services can broadly be divided between supporting people of

working age and supporting older people. Both of these groups have seen the number of people

using services increase significantly in recent years

Working Age Adults

The challenges facing the council in respect of working age adults are:

adults with more complex disabilities are living longer and often require very expensive 24-

hour care packages

diagnosis of autism is significantly increasing and too often there is a focus on the disability

and not ability

disabled people supporting other disabled people often leads to more creative support plans

and better outcomes at a lower cost but services are often less regulated

we need to intervene earlier to reduce the impact of mental health problems

the likely increase in responsibilities to provide services to carers at a time of financial austerity

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Adult Social Care - working age adults

How could students help?

Befriending schemes for the elderly or those with mental health needs

or learning disabilities? (e.g. Friend in need)

Gardening sharing scheme or creating raised beds in gardens for

those who aren’t mobile?

Turning around people’s perception of social care recipients as

‘service users’ to people who have interests and skills to offer? (E.g.

dans le noir)

Supporting young people with Learning Disabilities to become more

independent as they reach adulthood? (e.g. using public transport, life

skills, running a café on campus) (E.g. Safe Spots)

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Adult Social Care - supporting older people

Caring for Older People

Life expectancy is increasing by five hours every day, and most of us can now expect to live

well into our 90s and beyond. In Barnet, we not only have more older people than other London

boroughs, but the numbers of older people in the borough are growing at double the number

than other London boroughs. The current population of people aged over 60 is 64,690 (the

number of people aged over 65 is 52,000) and is projected to be 109,849 by 2041- an increase

of 41 per cent. The over 90s population is set to increase from under 3,000 in 2011 to almost

12,000 in 2041 and there will be more over 90s than 85-89-year-olds from 2035. There are

therefore a number of challenges facing the borough in the years ahead:

meet the changing expectations of our older people at a time when demand is rising and

budgets are falling

make it easier for older carers and others to continue looking after their family and friends

overcome the isolation and loneliness that many of our older people face

make sure that people stay healthy, well and connected for longer – what would a model for

older people look like that ensured a continued active and valued place part in their

community?

make sure that every older person has a home of their choice that promotes full

independence.

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Social isolation

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Research identifies 11 common factors which

can drive social isolation. These include:

● Being a single pensioner

● Being widowed

● Being retired

● Unlikely to meet friends family

regularly

● Unlikely to interact with neighbours

● Having poor health

● Suffering from depression

● Suffering from poor mobility

● Being visually impaired

● Being hard of hearing

● Struggling financially

There are 44,900 older people live in

Barnet. And an estimated 18,300 of these

older people live alone

According to the ‘Mosaic’ profiling tool

areas that have high numbers of older

people are Totteridge, in the centre of the

borough near Finchley Church End and

Mill Hill.

Adult Social Care - supporting older people

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How could students help?

Volunteering to help older people shop, engage in social activities,

offer IT/mobile phone support ? (E.g. Good Gym)

Increasing the number and variety of activities in and outside

residential, care and retirement homes? (e.g. North London Cares)

A ‘pop up university’ model, where older people teach skills to

students? (e.g. knitting, fixing things, up-cycling etc.)

Decreasing social isolation / depression among elderly through pet

therapy (e.g. Cinnamon Trust model)?

Housing

Like all parts of London, the demand for accommodation in Barnet is high. The recovery in

London has seen house prices and private sector rental costs increase dramatically. Private

sector rents increased by 5.9 per cent in London in the last year and in London the private

sector rental market is projected to increases by 3.5 per cent in 2014 and 2015, 4.5 per cent in

2016, and 6 per cent in both 2017 and 2018. Affordable housing is also now one of Barnet

residents’ top concerns. There are therefore a number of housing challenges facing the borough

in the years ahead:

ensuring the right mix of housing size for Barnet’s population

supporting the private sector to play an effective and responsible role in providing housing in

Barnet

ensuring that social housing is used by the people who most need it, while they need it

ensuring that new mixed developments are properly integrated communities.

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Housing

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How could students help?

Better tools to help residents find affordable accommodation - how

about a Council house swapping app?

Increasing the take up of reliable tenant schemes such as Homeshare

(where elderly people rent out spare rooms cheaply to students/young

people/those at risk of homelessness in exchange for help around the

house/companionship)?

Enhancing integration on estates through ‘clean ups’? (E.g. Operation

Impact led by Manchester University students)

Could students start up their own housing associations to address

accommodation supply for students and encourage students to remain

in-borough during and following their studies?

Promoting our economy

As local authorities are funded less and less from Central Government grant (which will fall

from £60m in 2014 to less than £10m by 2020 in Barnet) and more from Council Tax and

Business Rates, the amount of income that the council receives is directly related to the

success of local business and how large the population is as more residents means more

Council Tax income. This presents a number of challenges for the council in the coming period:

keeping Barnet ‘Barnet’; the challenge of a growing population while preserving the

suburban nature of the borough

supporting and developing the borough’s businesses

creating an environment in which business can thrive

matching the skills of the population with the needs of employers

supporting young people into work

making best use of council buildings

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Promoting our economy

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How could students help?

Smarter ways to match people with skills to locally available jobs -

smarter recruitment? Or more job-sharing between older and

younger people wanting to work part-time? (E.g. Job hunting apps)

Organising and running a volunteer-led festival which could promote

local businesses, the arts, offer career building opportunities to young

people and enhance community cohesion? (e.g. Bristol Arts Week)

A ‘pop up university’ model to support budding entrepreneurs in the

borough (e.g. City Unrulyversity)

Developing an app to support local volunteering (and/or

volunteering by students at Middlesex – this could be location

based/match interests)? (e.g. Vinspired app)

Running pop up bars/outdoor cinemas in empty car parks on summer

evenings? (example of pop up bar in Peckham and Nomad cinema)

Responding to Welfare Reform

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Map showing location of and

impact on affected households

Over 20,000 households impacted by Council Tax and Housing Benefit

Reforms across the borough

3,500 with a gap of more than £25 a week between their rent and their

housing benefit

It is estimated that the impact of welfare reforms will be £90 million in

2015/16 – Barnet is the 7th biggest loser out of 325 Local Authorities

The percentage of key out of work claimants rates varies

by 10% in Barnet wards

The highest percentage of claimants are in

Burnt Oak 16.7%,

Colindale 15.5%

Underhill 13.5%

Intelligence from the four jobcentres in

Barnet identify the following barriers

to employment

Mental health

Language

50 +

Childcare

Responding to Welfare Reform

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How could students help?

Exploring new ways of helping people manage their money - through

1-1 support or budgeting tools/apps that support behaviour change?

(E.g. Budgeting apps)

Better ways of using the data we have to reduce the impact of welfare

reform in particular areas?

Cooking skills project aimed at 55+, carers or young mothers who

want to learn how to cook quick, nutritious and easy to make recipes?

(E.g. Nana Café)

Moving beyond food banks to explore what other essentials people

might need help with? (e.g. cleaning products, clothes, books)?

Public health

Barnet’s residents can expect to live longer and in better health than in many parts of London

and England. This is not by chance, but is linked to a range of factors including relative wealth,

levels of family support, lifestyle choices, access to healthcare and the right support when

needed. While the overall picture is a positive one, Barnet’s Joint Strategic Needs

Assessment (JSNA) shows us that there are significant differences in health and well-being

across Barnet. The key challenges facing the borough’s health are:

the need to combat childhood obesity

the need to further reduce smoking

greater uptake of screening to catch early onset breast cancer

the rise of ‘multi-morbidity’ – people with more than one long term illness

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How could students help?

Running campus-based smoking prevention / breast screening

campaigns?

Could students link up with schools / GPs to run fitness clubs for

school pupils and/or the community?

Or trial a ‘kids gym’ in the borough? (E.g. The Little Gym)

Public health

Street scene and green spaces

The council’s street scene unit delivers many services that maintain the places where people

live. This includes the collection of waste, recycling, street cleaning, street lighting, parks

and green spaces. Most of these services are a direct cost to residents through the Council

Tax and are not supported by income generation. The critical challenge is to maintain the high

quality of these services, much valued by residents, in the face of reductions in the council’s

overall budget. The challenges facing the council in respect of Street Scene and green spaces

are:

the need to encourage recycling

the need to reduce the overall amount of waste being generated

continuing to provide popular parks when budgets are falling

supporting greater community involvement in delivering some services.

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Street scene and green spaces

How could students help?

How could a student led project change the culture of a public space

and transform how it’s currently being used? (E.g. a park which is

underused, vandalised, has a lot of litter or empty buildings like park

keeper’s houses / band stands)

Could students do ‘market research’ to find out what people

(especially young people) want from their local park, how they use it

and who they are?

Could we establish a city farm? (E.g. Hackney City Farm)

Supporting and developing schools

The growth of academies and free schools has created a number of different challenges for the

council with the authority now having less direct influence over local schools. A good education

is the greatest gift that we can give to children and young people and it is important that the

council ensures that the excellent standards of schools in Barnet are sustained. The challenges

facing the council in respect of schools are:

maintaining the high quality of local schools which equip young people to be successful on

leaving school

providing more school places in a growing borough

ensuring children with special educational needs receive an excellent education including

personal development opportunities through partnerships with families which may reduce

dependency into adulthood

providing a high quality school improvement service to make sure that no child gets left

behind

providing the right support, consistently, for children at risk of low achievement.

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Supporting and developing schools

How could students help?

Could access to Middlesex University Library be opened more widely

to local secondary schools and colleges to support preparation for

University?

Supporting young people to think through their degree /career options

through taster events at the University or ‘a day in the life’ sessions?

Encouraging young people to think about vocational careers? (E.g.

Horticulture)

Could students with a second language help school pupils practice to

improve their foreign language skills?

Supporting young people

Children and young people make up around a quarter of Barnet’s total population and the

borough’s 90,464 children and young people is the second largest such population in

London. Generally, young people live successful lives in the borough, but there is a growing

demand for care services. The challenges facing the council in respect of children and young

people are:

continuing to provide high quality care to young people with disabilities as demand rises

and budgets fall

ensuring young people continue to be protected from harm

supporting early intervention in challenging families

establishing who is best placed to provide such support

ensuring that life opportunities in Barnet are available to all young people

joining up services across several agencies

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How could students help?

Supporting young people to run a community café or put on a

community event to develop skills (e.g. a play, festival, market)? (E.g.

Prince’s Trust Youth Cafés)

Promoting / running a group to support isolated mothers and increase

parenting skills? (E.g. of parenting course – Netmums)

Promoting civic participation among younger people? (E.g. Kirklees

Local Democracy week)

Supporting young people