The word ‘community’ can mean different things to different people. We can talk about community as a group of people with a shared interest or set of beliefs such as a sports club or a faith community. We can describe community as a geographic area in which people live, work and socialise. We can also use the word ‘community’ to describe a people group with a common ethnic or diversity label, a common ideology or political leaning.
For the purposes of this blog, we’re going to think of ‘community’ in three different layers:
Geographic communities (or neighbourhoods) are made up of a series of ‘bumping spaces’ where people congregate regularly on certain days or times of the week; and for certain events or activities. Bumping Spaces are unique to each individual community and are often the beating heart of where relational connections take place. These may be formal spaces such as community centres, libraries or GP surgeries. They may be hospitality-based spaces such as cafes, coffee shops or pubs, or they may be informal bumping spaces which take place around a particular community activity. Have you ever taken a moment to consider where the primary ‘bumping spaces’ are in your own neighbourhood? Sometimes it is surprising to discover where people congregate and where those relational connections are occurring. For example- if you ever walk past a primary school at the beginning or the end of the school day, you are likely to see a group of parents congregating- chatting, sharing stories, laughing together, commiserating each other over a poor nights sleep, and taking their children to the park to play together after school. If you ever walk in a park or countryside area, you are likely to pass many dog-walkers who stop and chat to each other, whilst their dogs play together. If you walk down a nearby canal towpath or riverbank you are likely to see barge-dwellers, boat owners and local fishermen who pass the time of day together. Community develops where natural connections occur.
In the practice of Independent Support Brokerage we often have conversations with people who are isolated and may have only paid workers and professionals in their lives. They don’t often use the phrase ‘My community’ because they don’t recognise or feel a sense of belonging to a particular community. One of the key ingredients in developing independence, resilience and wellbeing is community. Whilst we can’t prescribe community for people as such; we can provide assistance and ‘scaffolding’ to enable people to begin to develop their own natural connections and relationships- based on accessibility, interest, availability and encouragement. Often, people are held back from developing these connections, because they hold limiting beliefs about what is possible, whether they will be able to access anything, whether anybody will be interested in getting to know them, and how much things might cost.
The functions of Support Brokerage open up the conversation with the person by first understanding the essence of them- what makes them tick, what they’re passionate about, what’s important to them. What really brings them to life, what makes them smile and what they’re really good at. These early ‘discovery’ conversations provide the seeds for discovering opportunities (often at the ‘neighbourhood’ level)- for thinking about what might be possible and how we might go about achieving it. That’s the starting point for helping people to connect to their community.
The fuel for driving these types of conversations is resourcefulness.
People who access social care or health funding for their care & support needs are often restricted to a blinkered ‘service’ based view of what is possible. Often their understanding of a good life and good support is limited to a narrow understanding of ‘time and task’ based support- such as domiciliary care visits for Personal Care or meal preparation; or perhaps attending a designated day service or activity group for people with a similar diagnosis or disability. The Care Act actually intended the conversation to move away from traditional service-based solutions, and to actually start with the person and their ‘assets’ (their home, their relationship connections, their skills and other resources available to the person- in other words, the things which are ‘strong’ and available in a person’s life); in order to develop a plan which really supports the person to have a good life, and promotes and upholds their wellbeing- helping them to be really integrated into their local community and part of the diverse group of citizens who reside there. Most of the solutions to having a ‘good life’ reside within Communities in the first place.
Liz Leach Murphy is the Founder of Imagineer Development UK CIC, Chair of the National Brokerage Network and a Freelance Consultant working on personalisation within the Health and Social Care sector/community space.
Sarah Holmes is a Freelance Consultant working on personalisation within the Health and Social Care sector/community space; and a Director of Imagineer Development UK CIC
Both Liz and Sarah are practitioners, trainers and coaches in Independent Support Brokerage and consultancy for Strengths-Based Approaches with collectively over 40 years of experience in the Health and Social care and community sectors.
Imagineer Development UK CIC is a social enterprise based in the North of England with a national reach; originally set up as a test bed for Independent Support Brokerage in the UK. Imagineer is the hosting organisation for the National Brokerage Network, which is a community of practice for Independent Support Brokers. Imagineer provides a range of training & consultancy services in Support Brokerage, Person-Centred and Strengths-Based Approaches.
Follow us on twitter
Find us on Facebook
Find us on LinkedIn
When we’re delivering training or webinars about Support Brokerage we often explain it using the analogy of a car and a journey.
The car represents a person’s life. The person is the driver of their own car. This represents the core principle of Support Brokerage, which is that the person is in the driving seat.
In other words, as Support Brokers- in all of our practice and interactions we are continuously revisiting the principle that the person we are working alongside is taking the lead in making decisions about their life- where they want to be going, what they want to be doing, how they want to be supported and who will be involved. This is a core principle of Self-Directed Support.
Now to continue with our analogy, all cars need fuel for the journey.
Some people need assistance with putting ‘fuel’ in their car. This is where the Support Broker can become involved. Support Brokers are multi-skilled individuals who come from a range of different backgrounds. They have knowledge and experience which they can bring to assist the person they work alongside. Support Brokers can be people with lived experience, people who have worked in the Social care sector, Health professionals, Housing professionals or Community/Third sector workers. The Support Broker brings their range of skills, experience and knowledge, and uses this to assist the person with adding ‘fuel’ into their car. The ‘fuel’ we see in the image is referencing a range of different ‘strengths-based’ approaches which a Support Broker can lean into as they are working alongside the person to assist them with achieving their objectives.
The term ‘Support Broker’ is neither a job title, nor a job description, because the tasks which a Support Broker carries out will vary with each person they work with. Remember that the person is in the driving seat, and they will determine the remit and involvement of the Support Broker.
Now that the fuel has been added to the car, it is ready for the journey.
Remember, the person is in the driving seat. Once they have fuel in their car, they may decide that they need no further assistance from the Support Broker and decide to continue the rest of their journey independently. However, they may require some support to plan their journey and/or navigate the various destinations. In the image below, you will see that there is a passenger in the rear seat of the car. This is the Support Broker, who is holding a map and calling out directions- all the time acknowledging that the person is still in the driving seat and they are in control of the journey. At any point, the person could ask their Support Broker passenger to get out of the car!
For some people, they may have multiple ‘passengers’ in their car- these may be close family members or friends & members of their local community who are very involved in the person’s life; alongside the Support Broker who is also a passenger. We sometimes refer to this (or formalise this arrangement) as a ‘circle of support’. The principle of ‘passengers’ and the person in the driving seat still applies.
The journey of Support Brokerage may include visiting one or more destinations which help to bring the person closer to achieving their objectives. These include the ‘keys to citizenship’ of: Life, Love, Help, Purpose, Money, Home and Freedom.
The Support Broker may be tasked with carrying out specific actions as part of this journey, which could include person-centred planning, support with navigating the social care or health assessment process, identifying resources which help to achieve the person’s objectives and developing a support plan. The range of tasks is broad and should not be defined as an exhaustive list.
As with any journey, the longer we spend in the car and in the driving seat; the more confident we become and the more skilled and experienced we become at driving the car. This is also true of the input of a Support Broker. As the person becomes more confident and skilled at advocating for themselves, knowing and understanding their rights and being able to take the lead in discussions about their own support, the Support Broker is able to step back with the aim of not being needed at all in the end. For some people, it may be that they will always need some element of involvement from their Support Broker, but this should never be assumed and should regularly be revisited as a conversation with the person about how they feel things are going and how confident they feel about doing things independently.
Imagineer offers a range of training & mentoring services to support the knowledge and practice development of practitioners; and also to help people to know and understand their rights. Our next Support Brokerage course is running in February 2020. Consider signing up for our ‘Quick bite for lunch’ webinars which explore practical ideas taken from Independent Support Brokerage. These practical approaches can be embedded within your practice. We are also planning a series of ‘Deep Dive’ webinars for the new year, which will be advertised on the ‘Webinars’ page of our website.
You can also subscribe to our mailing list if you would like to be kept up to date with what we’re doing.
If you can’t find what you’re looking for on our website, please send us an email: info@imagineer.org.uk
Liz Leach Murphy is the Founder of Imagineer Development UK CIC, Chair of the National Brokerage Network and a Freelance Consultant working on personalisation within the Health and Social Care sector/community space.
Sarah Holmes is a Freelance Consultant working on personalisation within the Health and Social Care sector/community space; and a Director of Imagineer Development UK CIC
Both Liz and Sarah are practitioners, trainers and coaches in Independent Support Brokerage and consultancy for Strengths-Based Approaches with collectively over 40 years of experience in the Health and Social care and community sectors.
Imagineer Development UK CIC is a social enterprise based in the North of England with a national reach; originally set up as a test bed for Independent Support Brokerage in the UK. Imagineer is the hosting organisation for the National Brokerage Network, which is a community of practice for Independent Support Brokers. Imagineer provides a range of training & consultancy services in Support Brokerage, Person-Centred and Strengths-Based Approaches.
Follow us on twitter
Find us on Facebook
Find us on LinkedIn
How can you make an informed choice and be in control of your life when you don’t understand what your choices are?
Let’s imagine you’re visiting a friend for dinner, and at the end of the meal, they get their box of ‘Celebrations’ out. (Apologies for the English chocolate reference if you are reading from a different part of the world where these are not available….Celebrations are a box of chocolates with a random selection of miniature varieties of chocolate bars).
The box is already open and it appears that there are only two options left- the ‘Bounty’ sweets and the ‘Milky Way’ sweets.
You really want some chocolate and neither of those brands would be your favourite. But because that’s all you have to choose from, you go with a ‘Milky Way’. Sound familiar?
Now imagine a different scenario where you visit your friend for dinner and they bring out a brand new unopened box- with all of the different varieties to choose from. Would you still choose the ‘Milky Way’?
I know I wouldn’t!! (It would either be a ‘Galaxy’ or a ‘Teasers’ sweet for me).
When one or two options are the only choice you’re given, that’s what you’ll choose from. You might not even think that you have a choice! Maybe you have been told that there isn’t a choice and you should be grateful for what you’re being offered!
What happens when you have the whole range of brands available? Would your choice be different? Probably!
It’s the same with choosing care and support options for planning, arranging and implementing Health, Social Care and Welfare support. Many people are only told about one or two options at the point of assessment. Some people aren’t told that they have a choice at all – they are simply told what they can have.
This simply isn’t right. The Care Act 2014 outlines the range of options available to a person who has been assessed as eligible for support.
So often, people aren’t made aware of their rights when accessing Care and Support.
So how do we help people to make informed choices?
Are you interested in finding out more?
Imagineer offers a range of training & mentoring services to support the knowledge and practice development of practitioners; and also to help people to know and understand their rights.
Visit our training pages which can be found under the menu heading ‘What We Do’ for further details; and subscribe to our mailing list to be kept up to date with what we’re doing.
Further reading:
To keep up to date with case law and to improve your legal literacy in the area of Health & Social Care law, visit:
Luke Clements website
Cascaidr Website
About us:
Liz Leach Murphy is the Founder of Imagineer Development UK CIC, Chair of the National Brokerage Network and a Freelance Consultant working on personalisation within the Health and Social Care sector/community space
Sarah Holmes is a Freelance Consultant working on personalisation within the Health and Social Care sector/community space; and a Director of Imagineer Development UK CIC
Both Liz and Sarah are practitioners, trainers and coaches in Independent Support Brokerage and consultancy for Strengths-Based Approaches with collectively over 40 years of experience in the Health and Social care and community sectors.
Imagineer Development UK CIC is a social enterprise based in the North of England with a national reach; originally set up as a test bed for Independent Support Brokerage in the UK. Imagineer is the hosting organisation for the National Brokerage Network, which is a community of practice for Independent Support Brokers. Imagineer provides a range of training & consultancy services in Support Brokerage, Person-Centred and Strengths-Based Approaches.
Follow us on Twitter: @imagineercic
Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ImagineerCiC
Follow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/imagineercic
© 2023 Imagineer Development UK CIC | Company Number 8243143
