Area Manager's, Mr Marcus Hawthorn, report to Conference.

1.   Introduction

It has been a very busy year for the Legion in the Northern Area. I am delighted to present this annual report to you, outlining the key achievements for the year, how we have performed against delivering our plans and most importantly how we have served the Armed Forces Community in the Area. We are not required to make this very long which you will be pleased with …

I would like to thank every member from across the County for your hard work and support throughout the year, without which, we would not have delivered our plans or achieved so much.

2.   Highlights and progress against last years plan

My annual report is overshadowed by the loss of a team member Linda Johnston about whom we will hear more later, but she was part of a staff team here in Cumbria that has achieved so much over the year.  We exist to provide help and support to our beneficiaries and I am pleased to say that we are doing that far more effectively and quickly than at anytime since 2013 when we brought in the current welfare model. There have been a number of highlights during 2014/15.

We moved the Cumbria Office to new premises in Penrith after successfully closing down the Kendal office.

We continue to benefit from an external Grant Award for £35k to Home Groups Centenary Close supported accommodation development for veterans in Maryport;

We secured an external Grant Award of £13k for the Dignity in Dementia group to work with veterans and their families in Carlisle;

We secured an external Grant Award of £35k for Future for Heroes, formally known as Remount, who run life skills and confidence building courses from Brathay Park;

We secured an additional 7 in external grants in the rest of the area

We paid out 200 plus in individual grants in Cumbria

These totalled over £100k

We helped a total of 370 beneficiaries in Cumbria

And nationally the award of the MOD’s contract for the veterans Gateway as the lead partner.

The Executive summary area plan 2015 set out a number of key priorities and plans for the year. I am pleased to report that good progress has been made against delivering these plans including;

• Establish new premises for the Cumbria Office
• Integrate the new Popin Centre in Newcastle into our Welfare operations
• We have had to compromise on our ability to deliver outreach sessions in the NE because of the demands of running the popin centre but we are combatting that with the appointment of two part-time AIOs for a year to re-establish that program.
• We delivered the retail trial and that led to the full roll-out of retail capability across all popins for the Poppy Appeal. (4k of 72k)
• Recruited and trained 16 more new Case workers and information volunteers across the Area.
• Delivered on the study into IAG standards resulting in decision to work towards and adopt the matrix standard 
• Also successes with BRAVO 22; Matrix; Outcome Star; Case Audits, Volunteer recognition day.

In Cumbria:

The CO North Danielle Warwick and AIO Kerry Newham headed to the Operations Conference in Warwick earlier this year where they picked up an award for Collaborative team working following their input into changing a homeless mans life. The Northern team swept the board.

The partnership with NCIP (now named Place Based Services Programme) continues. It is a third sector delivery programme across the County, providing a range of practical help and advice services for adults of any age.  PBS events have been attended at Dunmail Park, Theatre by the Lake, and Morrisons.

An outreach continues in Workington foodbank, and a strong relationship with foodbanks in Barrow, Millom, Cockermouth, Egremont, Carlisle and Maryport allows referrals from those beneficiaries in crisis. We have held meetings to discuss additional resources such as the fuel bank that our clients can have access to.

The Salvation Army assisted clients throughout the flooding from food parcels to children’s Christmas presents. The welfare team made calls to beneficiaries who we knew where in flood hit areas to ensure they were receiving all available assistance including grants from Cumbria Community Foundation.

The CAB clinic that was launched in Allerdale in 2015 has moved to Allerdale House (Council building) and has gone from monthly to weekly. Thanks to Allerdale Council who have kindly allowed  us use of a room every Wednesday where we can run a drop in and pre-book appointments as necessary. In addition the housing and benefit team has immediate access to TRBL if they have a client requiring our assistance.

Since the last conference, Centenary Close at Maryport has opened; this is the Veterans project by Home Group. We have made numerous referrals into the project and liaised with multiple agencies from around the County to ensure the beneficiaries receive the support they require. The Calderwood House project in Egremont for homeless veterans continues to develop and has widened their eligibility to take those in from out of the County.

Discussions have taken place with Cumbria Constabulary with regards to operating a hub in Copeland. It will be for partner agencies and not public facing. They have offered the welfare team a space in the hub to be able to liaise with local organisations, and to deal with mutual clients in an efficient manner. We are hopeful for all policies to be in place for us to be operating from there early 2017.

This year has seen the launch of the new Armed Forces Network in Cumbria being run by CVS. The welfare team are apart of this and are encouraging participation from all those who deal with veterans to attend. CAN (Cumbria Advice Network) are updating their website to hold current information for Veterans across a range of subjects including housing, employment and mental health.

Meeting have been held locally with the community mental health teams, First steps and the welfare team to ensure joined up working and structured support for our clients are in place.

 Following on from last years meeting with Dignity in Dementia they applied for the Legions external funding and were successful with their bid, they are now mid project offering support to families of those with dementia in the South Lakes. This is a pilot scheme offering 15 funded places.

Since our move into the Eden Rural Foyer we have set up 2 outreach sessions for Penrith and surrounding areas. We are seeing a steady increase in referrals from both beneficiaries and partner agencies.

The drop in at Cornerstone, Denton Holme remains busy with both beneficiaries and partner agencies calling in for information. Radio Cumbria are supporting by adding us to their diary of events.

This year has seen a huge increase in people applying for the Family Breaks. By April they had filled the 2016 allocation. We have invited RAF Spadeadam people who are within 60 days of deployment to apply for a family break, enabling them to have time together prior to a difficult period.

Work continues to raise awareness of the assistance we have available through all media and outreach.

3.   Case Study

Dave, who was found homeless in Carlisle during last years floods and who, on a difficult journey, and with the RBL with him every step of the way, has found somewhere to live, has stabilised his life, health and finances, is now in work and is a lead participant in the RBL-sponsored recovery-through-the-arts program Bravo22 at the Theatre Royal Newcastle. Dave is not his real name – it has been changed because of an embargo due to his amazing journey imminently being the subject of a BBC documentary.

4.    Statistics and Beneficiaries

For the first time we have been able to capture in far more detail how many people are contacting us for advice, information and support.

During 2015/16, the Northern Area team were assigned 1067 incidents from the Contact Centre, resolving 866 of them.

Grants given to Individuals

Area

County

5.   Looking Forward

We have identified the likely key priorities for our work during 2016 but these will be refined further as the implementation of the new 5-year strategy comes better into focus. The key elements of that strategy and our priorities within that as I see it now are:

Positioning the RBL at the hub of an integrated network of support for veterans

Further building and developing quality in:

Care Services and hubs

Advice and Information services, including the Checkpoint:  The Veterans Gateway

Specialist Services

Social isolation

Breaks and recovery

Casework

Standards and professionalising

Branch Community Support

Grants

Continuing to improve team performance against Service Promise, footfall, case audits, case closure and incident rate, CSat Survey

Embed the values of client-focus, respect, transparency and being a learning organisation

Reorienting the RBL towards the next major adjustment of the demographic of our beneficiaries.