WCC - Changing Futures – Peer Mentoring Service and Assertive Outreach Service

Lot 1: A Peer Mentoring Service consisting of at least two Peer Mentors roles. In July 2021 Westminster City Council were awarded £3,280,000 as part of Changing Futures, an ambitious national programme to improve outcomes for people experiencing multiple disadvantages and affect change on a systemwide level. The main plank of Westminster’s Changing Futures programme is to deliver a Specialist Team for Young Adults (18 – 25-year-olds). A key principle of the programme is that the voice of experts by experience (i.e people with lived experience of multiple disadvantage) is built into the design and delivery of the programme. Furthermore, the experts by experience who supported the development of the bid reported how beneficial it was for them to work with people who had had similar experiences to show them 'light at the end of the tunnel'. We therefore developed the idea of Peer Mentors working with the Specialist Team's cohort of young people. We will procure a Peer Mentoring Service to offer relational and practical assistance to clients, building up positive relationships by, for example, participating in activities and supporting with attending appointments. We want to hear from providers, in their bids, about how they can best delivery this service but we expect the Peer Mentors to have a case load of around 10-20 (depending on the regularity of support) be flexible in their approach and respond to where the need is, including supporting clients with 1-off interventions who are not in the Specialist Team’s direct case load.

Referral pathways are to be developed with the Contractor upon contract award, but it is likely cases will be allocated to the Peer Mentors by the Specialist Team Manager. Referrals to the Specialist Team will come from other organisations, community groups and self-referrals and considered at a weekly referral meeting.

The Peer Mentor's caseload will be developed from April 2022 (contract commencement) to March 2024 (end of the Changing Futures Programme)

Six months before the end of the programme the Specialist Team Manager and Contractor will start planning the exit strategy for the cohort. If the funding for the Specialist Team cannot be extended, we will work with other organisations to refer cases where required.

Lot 2: An Assertive Outreach Service consisting of two Assertive Outreach Support Workers. As part of the Changing Futures programme Westminster are also delivering a number of all-age initiatives, including the placed-based Churchill Gardens project and Change Resistant Drinkers Project. We are seeking specialist organization to deliver an Assertive Outreach Service to work across the two projects; one worker will support residents experiencing multiple disadvantage on Churchill Gardens Estate and one will work with change resistant drinkers across the borough. Although these projects are separate delivery strands in the Changing Futures progamme, there are synergies between the projects - both workers will take a strengths-based and trauma-informed approach to improve outcomes for clients in a proactive and assertive way.

The Assertive Outreach workers will each be expected to support a minimum of 15-20 clients per year who are experiencing multiple disadvantage. Clients will be supported to develop person led action plans built on their strengths, skills and interests, with a focus on tenancy sustainment. Wider outcomes include, but are not limited to, improving financial and wellbeing outcomes and accessing local activities and resources opportunities – particularly for the place based Churchill Gardens Project.