One-stop shop call for deprived areas

The Institute for Public Policy Research has called for a network
of care centres to be established to act as one-stop shops for
people with multiple needs who need access to a range of
services.

The think-tank warns that often services fail to recognise the
inter-connected nature of people’s needs or that individual’s needs
are closely related to factors in the wider community, such as
poverty and social exclusion. As a result, many services work in
isolation and people are failed by the system.

“Rather than experiencing a single targeted intervention to meet
their whole needs, they receive multiple interventions that lead
them on an unpredictable and repetitive journey around different
agencies,” it says in a report published last week.

The report, written with social care charity Turning Point,
highlights the “strong link” between living in a deprived
neighbourhood and experiencing complex needs, and warns that this
is not being addressed by existing models of service
delivery.

The think-tank suggests that new models of “connected care centres”
are set up in the most deprived communities, building on the best
attributes of Sure Start children’s centres, targeting those who
are most vulnerable to experiencing complex needs.

People could make self-referrals, although assertive outreach staff
would target the “hardest to reach”.

– Meeting Complex Needs: The Future of Social Care from www.centralbooks.com