Village Agents & Good Neighbours Norfolk RCC uses and promotes Good Neighbour and Village Agent models as part of a strategic approach to provide support to vulnerable individuals but in a way that allows for a local focus and reflects differences between communities.

The core of the strategy is that where needs are moderate and community capacity is good the volunteer led Good Neighbour model is effective. Where need is greater or community capacity is lower the officer based Village Agent model provides extra support where it’s needed but with the long term aim of building community resilience

Village Agents are a paid embedded support officer model. Village Agents work with individual providing direct support and helping link them into others services.

Where patterns of need or gaps exist they work to support the community to develop their own solutions. This can range from supporting the establishment of local social activities or community transport solutions to helping recruit local first responders and arranging specialist training.

“It is simply great to know there is someone to contact when you are unsure, anxious or simply don’t know who to contact. They may not know themselves but these village agents, I’m sure would find someone who does – That’s their role and they do it so well.”

Mary Granville-White, Chair, North Norfolk Older Peoples Forum

Village agents usually have a 10 hour contract operating over a cluster of parishes with a total population in the region of 5,000. Village agents are usually deployed in pairs to allow for mutual support and absence cover. Although normally targeted at supporting anyone vulnerable within the community the Village Agent model can be used to target a specific demographic over a wider area.

We expect village agents to provide intensive direct support to around 100 individuals each year alongside their work with the wider community.

We aim to target Village Agents into areas of comparatively high need and lower levels of community capacity. They provide more intensive support to address current needs whilst helping develop community solutions and resilience over the longer-term.

Whilst Village Agents take time to build up the links and trust they have with local communities once in place they represent critical infrastructure for engaging with hard to reach individuals. This can help improve effectiveness and save time and money for a range of initiatives.

The village agent model builds on work originally piloted by Gloustershire RCC and adopted in a range of areas across the UK. This brings the benefits of shared learning and strong track record of effective delivery and evidenced value for money. In practical terms here are a few illustration of what this work means:

Helping Marge, a non-driving retired lady access community transport to visit her husband in hospital saving £50 in Taxi fares per trip.

Visiting young mum Liz, to help find the paperwork she needed for a debt hearing. Two hours of searching boxes and all was in order.

Helping John, an older gentleman and newbie silver surfer, to set up Skype on his computer so he can talk to his grandson in America. 30 minutes to set up and he was ready to go.

Helping Jean access specialist support from a local voluntary sector organisation to help make it easier to live at home with her health condition.

Supporting a local coffee morning bringing together a number of people at risk of being lonely and isolated and giving them something positive to look forward to.

Arranging for first aid training, raising awareness within a community working with first responders and promoting the installation of lifesaving automated external defibrillators.

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Good neighbour schemes are a volunteer run and led model. A local group form a steering group taking it in turns to receive requests from clients and match them with local volunteers able to provide support. Task undertaken vary with each local group but tend to cover basic odd-jobs, support with accessing services and transport. Good Neighbour schemes can provide an important conduit for information straight to the grassroots and an early warning system for potential issues. “The bottom line is that there’s a phone number everyone can call to get a bit of help with little things.”

Mike Hill, Chair of St Faiths Good Neighbour Scheme, Norfolk

Good Neighbour schemes required intensive early support to help engage the community, establish the local groups and ensure they are operating safely and legally. Once established they are designed to be self-sustaining with low on-going costs often met locally. However, lower level on-going support and networking can help further develop the communities knowledge and skills as well as overall understanding of local need.

Good Neighbour Schemes usually have between 10-20 local volunteers and average around 5 requests for support a week. As an example of the work undertaken by Good Neighbour Schemes from the client perspective:

“Potter Heigham Good Neighbours' are brilliant. Everyone is very helpful. We are lucky to have a group of people who give their time to us. The mentoring I get gives me the time to talk through my week. It is also nice to get out of the house and go to the shops etc. The Surgery prescription run takes our worry away knowing that our medication will be delivered." This client is in her late 80's and lost her husband about 2 years ago. She has limited mobility and needs help getting to the Post Office to collect her pension.

Potter Heigham Good Neighbour Scheme Coffee afternoon

Flu Clinic organised by a Good Neighbour Scheme

For more information or to find out how these models could help meet your prioritise contact Norfolk RCC on 01362 698216 or email office@norfolkrcc.org.uk