Why isn’t there one of these in every town?

P3 has been announced as the winner of the Social Care and Welfare Sector Award for its Sandwell Complex Needs Service (SCNS).

The service represents a new approach to dealing with adults facing chronic exclusion, trapped in a cycle of criminality and/or severe mental health problems, substance and alcohol misuse and homelessness. In all cases, this cycle has persisted for many years and coincides with multiple exclusions from services.

By developing a high quality residential service and by co-ordinating multiple agencies the SCNS has been able to produce not only much better results for the clients themselves, but also for the professionals from the various agencies who deal with them.

The quality of care delivered has gone up, while the overall cost to services as a whole has gone down dramatically.

An external professional SROI analysis has shown that for every £1 spent, a social return of £9 has been returned. This relates to the efficient use of professionals’ time and a decrease in the use of emergency and other acute services, court appearances, services dealing with criminality, rent arrears and eviction, and state care for dependents.

The SCNS provides tailormade programmes for the individual client, involving multiple agencies, co-ordinated by P3. These services include NHS Mental Health Teams, NHS Addiction Services, West Midlands Probation, Supporting People at Sandwell Metropolitan Borough, Police Community Support Officers and Sandwell Homes Housing Options team and Community Care team.

Clients and professionals alike testify to the fact that the high quality residential care allows better in depth treatment, thanks to the clients no longer being in unsuitable temporary accommodation, as well as increased aspirations among the clients themselves, who are more willing to want to turn their lives around.

Professionals also make the point that the close cooperation with other services has made them more efficient not only in treating these clients, but other clients as well, leading to an overall improvement in services through positive system change.

P3 CEO Martin Kinsella said: ‘We are delighted that the hard work and perseverance of our staff team in this area has met with not only this prestigious award but the greater well being and improved life chances of our clients in Sandwell.’

P3 operates across supported housing, hostels, offender support, job-shops and youth services in order to give its clients routes out of poverty, isolation and social exclusion. It operates across the Midlands, London and South of England.

A video created by SocialEnterpriseLive partners Matter&Co for P3 is available here.