In January, I joined EVOC as a Development Worker for a new Older People’s and Dementia Befriending Collaborative. My job is to support existing befriending programmes to deliver their services as easily and effectively as possible and to make it easier for new programmes to set up shop and begin delivery.
I’m new to Edinburgh, though not to the sector, so since coming into post I’ve been making the rounds and meeting the roughly twenty organisations that deliver befriending services to older people in the city. It was important to me to find out what is going well, what can be improved, where EVOC can help and where befriending programmes can help each other.
What we have learned from befriending providers
Most older people’s befriending programmes are relatively small projects delivering a lot with very little. They usually consist of one part-time co-ordinator managing a team of volunteers. The co-ordinators are personally very dedicated and regularly work more than their hours, but the demands of the work mean they often spend almost all of their time on direct delivery –things such as training volunteers, assessing befriendees and arranging placements. Those demands often leave them without the time, capacity or resource to devote to the bigger picture issues of running their service. Time and again, co-ordinators told me they wanted to invest more in areas such as recruiting and retaining volunteers, raising awareness and securing long-term funding.
The other thing I learned is there is not nearly enough provision to meet demand. One-fifth of the Edinburgh population is over 65, [i] and 12% of these are socially isolated. [ii] That’s about 8,500 people. Yet Edinburgh only has about 450-500 older people’s befrienders available. Yes, there are other ways of combatting social isolation, but it’s clear that, by a wide mile, there isn’t nearly enough supply to meet demand. We need more befrienders.
How EVOC can help
EVOC wants to work with older people’s befriending services on these larger issues so that co-ordinators can continue to devote the bulk of their time to delivery. Each organisation has its own identity, remit, community and networks, and each organisation delivers a slightly different service. This is all important and good, and we want to preserve that individuality as it makes for more diverse services. There are some areas, though, where it makes sense to work together. We can do more things more efficiently if we do them as a group.
For instance, it takes a lot of time and effort for individual programmes to recruit and retain their volunteers. A centralised resource can make this easier for them by supporting them with promotion, social media and recruitment events. It can build links with colleges and universities (the fastest growing groups of volunteers) and with the NHS Lothian’s oversubscribed Volunteer Service. And to retain and support volunteers, a central resource can help by hosting joint appreciation events such as Christmas parties and karaoke nights. Doing these things together will take only a fraction of the time and resource of doing them individually. We’re already working closely with our TSI partner to develop a package of support around these issues.
Similarly, we will be far more influential if we work together to engage with funders. By pooling our collective knowledge and expertise, we can promote realistic expectations of what can be delivered for a given amount of money. We can encourage more uniformity in reporting and measurement tools, and we can make the case for greater, long-term investment in older people’s befriending. We can even apply for funding to create shared supporting infrastructure to improve efficiency and develop a common referral and service-matching function across Edinburgh.
This work is very timely from a funding perspective. Funders are recognizing the importance of addressing dementia, supporting older people and combatting social isolation. The Life Changes Trust and Big Lottery Scotland are both emphasising these areas now and investing in ways that promote effective delivery. The need for this service is also being recognised more and more by the council and health and social care as they increasingly move towards a whole-person, preventive approach to care. It is important that we capitalise on this momentum in order to grow befriending and reach out to Edinburgh’s loneliest older people.
How you can get involved
We are going to press ahead with this work here at EVOC, and if you are in older people’s befriending –or thinking about becoming so– we want you to be a part of this. Please get in touch at [email protected], and let’s see how we can work together.
[i]Appendix – Population and Disease Projections
[ii] https://www.scie.org.uk/publications/ataglance/ataglance60.asp
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