Blog: Celebrating success across the Community Led Support network
Annie Smith, Delivery Lead for Community Led Support (CLS), tells us about some of the highlights from this year’s CLS annual Spring Festival.
This year the two day, online event was opened up to anyone working in health and care. It spotlighted some of the excellent work taking place in local communities around the UK.
On 16-17 May 2023, NDTi’s Community Led Support programme held its annual virtual Spring Festival. This event showcased the brilliant work we see happening across the vibrant Community Led Support network, made up of statutory organisations alongside their local communities, trying to maximise the strengths and connections of people locally.
We heard about community spaces in Hartlepool, Shetland and Stoke-on-Trent. They create a welcoming local space where people can come for information, advice, support and a cup of tea when they need it.
An attendee at Hartlepool’s session on Partnership and Prevention in Community Hubs said: “Excellent examples of why connection, purpose and meaning makes such a difference in people’s lives. Great wide range of support people can access via hubs.”
We also heard about the power of partnerships in Warrington where work is being done to connect people with local support when they are ready to leave hospital.
An attendee at Warrington’s session on Community Support for People Leaving Hospital said: “Mind blown here! I think this is what our missing link is. Awesome work and the passion is so obvious.”
And we heard about strengths-based practice in statutory health and social care services and the innovative ways this is being supported and sustained in Leeds and South Lanarkshire.
An attendee at Leeds’s session on Strengths-Based Social Care said: “The themes that emerged… building relationships, using new language, tracking and developing, spending time to get to the bottom of the issues and thinking originally about solutions.”
We look forward to seeing where these areas, and the rest of the Community Led Support network, go next on their CLS journeys!
Members of the Community Led Support network can watch recordings from the seven sessions on the network's online Basecamp forum. If your area is part of the Community Led Support network and you would like to be added to Basecamp, please email karen.dawkins@ndti.org.uk.
For more information about Community Led Support, please email jenny.pitts@ndti.org.uk.