Spice Case Studies: Health and Social Care

Spice Case Studies: Health and Social Care

Spice Time Credits



Spice Time Credits are a social currency
developed initially in South Wales and rolled out
across Wales and England. In England, Spice
Time Credits are supporting over 500
organisations to develop new approaches to
coproduction, sustainability, service provision and
commissioning with professionals, service users,
funders, commissioners, communities and the
private sector.

How Spice Time Credits work: everyone has
something to give

People are thanked with Time Credits for
contributing time to their community or service.
They then spend Time Credits to access events,
training and leisure services, or to thank others in
turn. The system is sustainable as it is coordinated
by existing community facing staff, and because
spending opportunities access under-used
community resources as well as direct
(unmediated) exchanges between people.

Earning Time Credits

Services and local community groups identify
current and new opportunities for people to give
their time. The new opportunities are based on the
interests, skills and availability of local people, and
are enabled and supported by community services.

Spending Time Credits

Public, community and private organisations
identify ways for people to spend Time Credits in
their services or at events. This can be spare
capacity at theatres or swimming pools for
example, or for community services a way of
recognising and thanking people for the
contributions they have made (trips for young
people on free school meals become trips for
young people who have contributed). Spice
spending menus include a wide range of
community organisations as well as higher profile
opportunities such as The Barbican and Tower of
London.




Why use Time Credits?

Time Credits encourage more people to get
involved in local community organisations and to
give more time, increasing community action and
strengthening local networks. Individuals are than
able to access new opportunities in the local
community, such as swimming, theatre, training,
cinema, exhibitions and tea dances. Both earning
and spending Time Credits can build confidence
and support health and wellbeing.

Evaluation survey responses show that:

73% of people feel like they can contribute
more
67% have made new friends
66% have learned new skills
65% have taken part in more community
activities
65% of people now spend more time with
others in their community
64% know people in their community better
61% know more people
55% say they feel better about where they
live

Using Time Credits also encourages professionals
to work in new ways, collaborating with service
users and citizens to think about how services can
be run in co-productive ways that encourage
participation by the whole community, sharing skills
and assets. This can encourage a greater sense of
community integration and enable improvements in
service delivery as they are shaped by those that
use them.

Evaluation survey responses show that 74% of
organisations agreed Time Credits had helped
them make better use of the skills and resources in
their communities, and 45% of organisations
agreed Time Credits had helped them to deliver
improved services for the same resources. 49% of
organisations said that they felt that they had been
able to recruit more volunteers and 47% said more
of their service users are now giving time.


Spice Case Studies: Health and Social Care
Citizen Led Services

Spice Time Credits encourage the development of
citizen-led services, where support is run by the
people who use it or where members of a
community see a need for a service and develop a
way to meet it.

Time Credits have proven effective at building
peoples confidence in peer support networks,
altering their self perception from being a recipient
of support to providing it to others, and this has
led to people taking more active roles in leading
and organising groups. In our evaluation, 73% of
people feel like they can contribute more after
involvement in Time Credits.

Chorley Peer Support Recover Group (CPSRG)
in Lancashire is a mental health peer support
group for people who are at a stage in their
recovery journey where they are becoming
independent from formal services. Members earn
Time Credits for attending the group and providing
peer support to others, but also for planning and
facilitating sessions. This has led to an increase in
regular attendance and the group has grown so it
has now had to split into two smaller groups. As
one member said, Time Credits has helped the
group become stronger, its much less fragmented
now. The group now offer training in their self-
developed approach to mental health
management as a Time Credits spending
opportunity.

In Wiltshire, The Stroke Association are using
Time Credits to move stroke survivor peer support
groups towards independence from staff support,
building the confidence of group members by
recognising their contributions with Time Credits
with the ambition to reduce staff input.

Finger on the Pulse is a mental health peer
support group facilitated by Wiltshire Housing,
who have introduced Time Credits to strengthen
the group and encourage members to take
ownership and move towards running the group.
Time Credits are also motivating members to do
activities in the local area such as go to local
leisure centres or arts venues;
The Time Credits initiative has really fired up
some very vulnerable and, at times, isolated
individuals to give something of themselves to
others.

Time Credits have also led to the development of
new support groups led by members of the
community or people in services.

In Look Ahead Care and Support, one customer
is leading a womens peer support group in the
service, set up of which was facilitated by staff but
which is now independent.


In Ely Caerau, Wales, Cheryl Hughes set up
Community Mothers, a local support group, after
increasing her confidence through earning Time
Credits in her community. The group has reached
over 60 local people, is fully constituted and has
received its first funding. The group holds a
weekly coffee morning (accessed with Time
Credits) and is working in partnership with a local
church to develop a new play area and garden for
the community. The group has also launched a
book and toy library, peer led cooking group and
depression support group. Cheryl said;

Community Mothers started off as a small idea
that is now growing into something I feel that can
help mothers like myself gain confidence in
themselves to do whatever they want to.


Spice Case Studies: Health and Social Care
Service Transformation and
Co-production

Spice are working with social care services across
England and Wales to integrate Time Credits into
how services are delivered, co-produce services
with the people that use them and improve
outcomes.

Services are embedding Time Credits into the way
that they support people. In Unity House,
Wiltshire, a homelessness and ex-offenders
hostel, Time Credits are integrated into the
Moving On programme for residents and earning
activities help them prepare for sustaining
tenancies and encourage the formation of peer
relationships. In Look Ahead Care and Support,
a social care provider, staff are using Time Credits
to facilitate customers to develop and lead groups
and activities, and are aligning earning and
spending to support plan goals. In Chooselife
Wales, Llanelli, Time Credits are part of every
activity run in the service including a social
enterprise delivered by users that helps fund the
service.


Integration of Time Credits through services
supports co-production as staff have a tool to
draw users into more active participation in the
design and delivery of services. In The Rise
Childrens Centre, Wiltshire, this has led to
parents delivering group activities; Parents are
now running sessions rather than just attending so
the Time Credits have encouraged them to take
more responsibility. They are delivering the
service alongside us!

In Look Ahead, customers earn Time Credits for
designing and delivering training for support staff
using their own experiences and skills, on topics
such as mental health awareness or getting out of
gangs. Time Credits have directly led to
customers leading activities in services, from craft
or cooking groups to womens support sessions,
enabling people to do more while freeing up staff
to do other things.

The outcomes reported by services and their
users as a result of embedding Time Credits
include being able to do more and significantly
increasing participation. In our evaluation, 45% of
organisations strongly agreed or agreed that Time
Credits had helped them to deliver improved
services for the same resources.

At The Rise Childrens Centre parents have
actively driven improvements in the service; We
had one volunteer come in with a plan for the
outdoor area people are starting to recognise
that we really value their skills. Look Ahead staff
reported that customers are starting to think of
their own ways of helping the service to earn time
credits sometimes its the little things that can be
really important, whereas in Chooselife Wales,
Time Credits have changed the day to day
running of the service as users are now asking for
activities that they can participate in and staying
longer at the centre.

Time Credits also enable services to offer more
opportunities to customers; as one Look Ahead
customer said, We dont have much money so
Time Credits helps us to do normal things rather
than sit in the hostel with nowhere to go. At Unity
House staff gave the example that Time credits
have meant that...[Jamie] can now take his
children swimming and pay for them. Being a
worthwhile dad is a massive thing for him and
changed how he feels his children perceive him.


Spice Case Studies: Health and Social Care
Day Services: Chooselife
Wales

Chooselife Wales are a drug and alcohol service
in the seaside area of Llanelli, providing a day
drop in centre as well as accommodation.
Volunteers have supported their work for many
years, providing support to service users,
assisting in the facilitation of family sessions,
running lunch clubs or providing a much needed
space to talk. Many volunteers have been through
the centre as service users previously.

Chooselife Wales have used Time Credits as a
means of engaging everyone at the centre, both
service users and volunteers. Service users earn
credits by delivering the lunch club, cooking
meals, laying tables and cleaning up after
sessions, running family centre activities, carrying
out litter picks and gardening and maintenance at
the services allotment. They also earn for
delivering moving and landscaping services for
Chooselifes social enterprise that helps fund the
service and raises the profile of service users as
playing a positive role in the local community.

Chooselife have embedded Time Credits into their
service delivery model so that earning or spending
run through all activities. Each service user has a
3-point action plan developed and Time Credits
are discussed when this is developed and
opportunities to earn and spend identified. This
has led to service users being more engaged in
their support.

As a staff member reports; Its hard to separate
Time Credits and Chooselife; they are part of
everything we do. They help to get things going
and build support from service users. Time Credits
are a catalyst for engagement.

Increased engagement has led to a group of
service users taking horticultural courses at the
Botanical Gardens of Wales, and staff said that If
it wasnt for Time Credits, we wouldnt know who
the committed people are, to support them to take
the course.

Spending opportunities have also made a
difference to service users and their involvement
in the service, as reported by staff; Thank you so
much for last weeks tickets for the Scarlets [rugby
game], our service users had a fantastic time and
they have become more motivated since their visit
to the game. Lindy Butler, Team Leader

Chooselife feel that Time Credits have changed
the day to day running of their services as users
are now asking for activities that they can
participate in and staying longer at the centre.
They have even had to put on more activities
throughout the day. This really supports the work
of Chooselife as they want to extend their opening
hours to provide extended support provision.




Spice Case Studies: Health and Social Care
Residential Services: Look
Ahead Care and Support

Look Ahead support about 8,000 people across
London and the South East providing care and
support through accommodation based services.
Time Credits are being integrated throughout
service delivery as a tool to implement Look
Aheads coproduction strategy and enhance
individual and service outcomes.

Time Credits are being rolled out through staff
training across Look Ahead services which include
large hostels and longer term residential services
supporting people with severe mental illnesses
and learning disabilities. The first training
programme started in February 2013 with a
second cohort of services starting in June 2013.
By December 2013, 134 customers from 18
services had earned Time Credits, with 790 hours
given to services and 214 hours of activities
accessed using Time Credits, ranging from
service based dance and pamper sessions to
visits to the Tower of London and a climbing wall.

Internal impact analysis with four services
provided unanimous agreement that Time Credits
have increased overall participation in the running
of services. Between April and June 2013,
participation increased from 19% to 31%. Both
staff and customers said that Time Credits created
more of a community feel because everyone is far
more involved in the running of the service.

Weve had a real increase in customer
participation during our residents meetings, so
from around 2 residents coming weve gone up to
about 15weve started doing those more
regularly Support Worker

Customers feel that Time Credits recognise their
input, incentivising participation, and enable them
to access something in return. Feedback has
included We dont have much money so Time
Credits helps us to do normal things rather than sit
in the hostel with no where to go and Now I take
part with more enthusiasm because I can earn
something at the end.

Time Credits have led to customers identifying
ways to make a difference in the service; Whats
great about Time Credits now is that customers
are starting to think of their own ways of helping
the service to earn time credits sometimes its
the little things that can be really important and
they enjoy earning Support Worker

I think the best thing is definitely just the residents
doing more together as a service, and you can
really feel that community spirit, you can really
sense that theyve been doing more and more
things together. Support Worker

Another very positive element of the Time Credits
development process has been the opportunity for
staff to develop new skills and share them with
other staff members; The most useful thing about
the Spice / Look Ahead Learning Programme is
sharing experience with other services. The
learning sessions are good but being with staff
and customers of other services is most important.
Peer support is key I have learnt lots from other
services and hopefully I have taught them things
as well. Support Worker


Spice Case Studies: Health and Social Care
Floating and peer support
services: KeyRing and
Terry

KeyRing supports people with learning disabilities
or mental health problems to live independently,
through a local support network of other
vulnerable people and a volunteer who helps
members of the network where needed.

Cavan is a KeyRing support volunteer in
Chippenham and encourages community
connections and social activities for the network
members. He feels Time Credits fit in perfectly,
as they enable and facilitate community
involvement.

Network members earn Time Credits for attending
and helping others to come to network meetings,
where they decide on activities and who will lead
them. This has increased participation to the
extent that Cavan reports its doubled the
turnout. Members have also earned Time Credits
for helping out at the local River Festival.

Terry has been part of the KeyRing network in
Chippenham for a couple of years. He has
experienced homelessness and mental illness and
joined the network after leaving a homeless
hostel. Last October, KeyRing met GreenSquare
Housing Association through the Time Credits
network and together they wanted to set up a joint
project. Terry suggested a wildflower meadow on
a local estate, Fieldview. KeyRing, GreenSquare
and the Wiltshire Wildlife Trust have applied for
permission and its hoped that this will offer a
useful community project that will make a
difference to local residents, as well as an
opportunity for KeyRing members and local
people to earn Time Credits.

Terry has also started using the Time Credits hes
earned to hire a room in the Cause Arts centre for
the groups regular peer support meetings, as
previously they have struggled to find a space. He
feels very positive about the mutual support that
Time Credits bring to the local community, saying
at a local network event "the generosity and
kindness in this room has brought a tear to my
eye".

KeyRing members have spent Time Credits on
playing badminton and going to Chippenham FC,
although some members struggle to play sports
and there is a need for further development of
more accessible opportunities locally. A recent
spending trip to London, however, illustrates the
collaboration within and between groups that Time
Credits can support. 7 people from KeyRing
attended the trip, 4 who went using Time Credits
provided through a pool donated by the rest of the
KeyRing group, and 3 who went using Time
Credits donated from the Wiltshire and Swindon
History Centre, who heard at the network meeting
that KeyRing members had not been able to earn
enough credits but wanted to go.




Spice Case Studies: Health and Social Care
Community Health
Champions: Queens Park

The Community Champions scheme is a project
based in Queens Park focused mainly on the
Mozart Estate area, and aimed at promoting
health and wellbeing, by peer to peer
engagement. There are currently 20 Champions
involved who care about the health and wellbeing
of their families, friends and neighbours. As well
as spreading important health messages and
signposting people to services, the team run
activity sessions on themes like healthy eating,
active play and dental health for children.



Ted Flanagan who manages the project believes
the Community Champions model works well as
it empowers passionate local people to spread
important health messages within their community
whilst making new friends and gaining valuable
experience. In return for their time and energy the
Champions are supported with their own personal
development and career aspirations. Time Credits
provide an additional incentive and have proved
very popular amongst the growing team. The
programme plans to incorporate regular
opportunities for group spending socials going
forwards.

Community Champion Keeda thinks being local
volunteers gives the project unique value; I
believe people enjoy speaking to us because we
are local volunteers, they feel more comfortable
talking to us and are more inclined to listen to us. I
get to learn more as well through the training and
have learned lots of things I didnt know before.
.

People have been using their Time Credits to go
to access leisure activities in the local area that
they have not used before, or did not have the
money to attend such as the local cinema. One
champion said, I used to come here before I had
my children but havent had the money too for a
long time; its nice to be able to do something for
me.

Queens Park Community Champions have also
been spreading the word about Time Credits to
other groups of Champions in Westminster and
their NHS funders and because of these links we
have recently started working with another group
in the Church Street ward in Westminster.


Disability Day Services:
PLUS










PLUS are a service provider to approximately 200
people with learning disabilities and mental health
problems in Lewisham. They wanted to use Time
Credits to deepen the involvement of service

users in their service delivery. People are now
earning credits for participating in a decision
making committee, interviewing staff and co-
delivering services.

PLUS have seen Time Credits having a positive
impact on people's confidence and wellbeing, as
well as supporting new friendships.
"Happy, cheerful...If you get four its good for two
people, they go bowling with you and you make
friends. Its a good idea. Not sitting at home
looking at the four walls indoors, you can go and
earn credits." Service user

"Its given them some independence and
choice...it has given them so much
encouragement to participate in day to day life
and encouragement in saying, yes, I can do these
things. Support worker


Spice Case Studies: Health and Social Care

Building Social Capital:
Peter Thompson

Peter is from Kings Lynn and volunteers at the
West Norfolk Community Bank, part of the Norfolk
Credit Union. Following experience of depression
and a breakdown that led to him losing his job and
spending time in prison, he was invited to
volunteer when he went to join the credit union.
Peter felt he had:

lots of skills that were going to waste. I needed to
be with people, and I wasnt having any contact
with them. The Credit Union couldnt exist without
volunteers, so to be able to say thanks is a really
good thing. Its saying, we appreciate your time,
so weve joined this scheme

He also feels they can be used to deepen
volunteering in organisations:

It adds another side to volunteering - it supports
that social and networking side of it that you dont
usually get outside of a workplace. It gives
volunteering an added dimensionit makes it a
richer experience.

Its opened up new
opportunities to
me. I do things
now I wouldnt
have done
otherwise, like
going to the gym
regularly, because
I wouldnt have
been able to afford
it. Its opened up
social avenues
Ive now got a
group of nodding
acquaintances at
the gym, which
helps you to anchor yourself, to anchor your place
in society, and your sense of identity.

Its had an impact on both sides. Ive also been
able to thank people who are helping me out. Its
nice to be able to give things to people and Time
Credits have enabled me to do that. Im giving my
family show tickets booked with Time Credits for
Christmas, and without that I wouldnt have been
able to give them anythingIm going to take my
son to watch a football match I remember doing
the same thing with my dad at about that age.

Older People: Age UK
Lancashire and Chorley
Older Peoples Forum

Age UK runs a range of services across
Lancashire including the Chorley Lifestyle Centre,
a drop-in day service for over 50s offering lunch,
tea and coffee, social activities and classes such
as IT, singing, games, a luncheon club and
external speakers. Many of these activities are
delivered by volunteers, the majority of whom are
older people.







Its nice to be thanked for your time and I can do
Tai-chi now, it gives me chance to try new things
with other people Member

Chorley Older Peoples Forum is also part of the
Time Credits network and aims to give a voice to
older people in Chorley, influencing service
provision, particularly with the council, on their
behalf. Currently members are earning Time
Credits for the day to day running of forum
meetings and occasional events, but the forum
has ambitions for Time Credits to bring in more
people to play an active role in shaping its work
and to represent older people in the local
community.









Spice Case Studies: Health and Social Care

Carers: Kelvin Wheelan

Kelvins mother has vascular dementia and he has
been her full-time carer for 5 years. Being a carer
has had a financial impact as he is unable to go
out to work and depends on carers allowance,
and has also had an impact on his life in other
ways, as he has to be available 24 hours a day. In
his own words:

youre on call 24/7, youre always watching the
clock or your mobile phone, hoping you wont get
that call

Kelvin is a member of Carers Lewisham and
attends coffee mornings, fundraising activities and
meetings, for example with SLaM (South London
and Maudsley NHS Trust) and the DWP
(Department of Work & Pensions) where carers
are invited to feed in their experiences and
opinions. Kelvin has earned Time Credits for
these meetings, and he feels they have really
encouraged participation from carers:

Getting them [Time Credits] makes you feel you
can say something, that you are being listened to.

Kelvin spent the Time Credits he earned on
Millwall football tickets for himself and a friend,
something he previously used to be able to do
when working but can now no longer afford:

Having a day out with my mate was something I
used to take for granted. We made a whole day of
it, it was absolutely great.

Kelvins friend has also earned Time Credits and
plans to take him to another match soon in return.
Time Credits have made Kelvin feel that his
contribution to the community, in caring for his
mum, is appreciated and recognised. This came
from being given the credits by Carers Lewisham,
and the experience of spending his credits.

The support and interest shown by Jason, the
manager at Millwall, in enabling him to collect his
tickets in advance and asking him about his caring
role made him feel valued; as Kelvin said:

For him to email me, call to confirm, meet me to
collect the tickets and ask about being a carer was
very nice hes a busy man.

Kelvin has also seen other carers he knows
getting out and doing new activities such as tennis
with Time Credits. They are enabling carers to
access things they would otherwise be unable to:
Carers cant afford to do the things wed like to.



Spice Case Studies: Health and Social Care

Community Services
supporting Health and
Social Care: Arts
Partnership

The Arts Partnership is a community organisation
set up to get more local people in Chorley,
Lancashire, involved in the arts. They run a range
of dance, drama and music classes for people of
all ages and abilities and wanted to use time
credits to encourage more of their service users to
take a more active role at the centre. They also
liked the idea of thanking volunteers for giving
their time.

The Arts Partnership started using Time Credits in
August 2012 and people are now becoming
actively involved in the upkeep and maintenance
of the centre, as well as leading and supporting a
range of classes and groups, including the Music,
Arts, Drama and Dance group attended by 26
adults with learning disabilities, administration and
helping run Big Band nights where members of
the local community can spend Time Credits.

The Arts Partnership have found that Time
Credits have become a very positive medium for
confidence building for their participants, and
volunteers have
felt more valued.
One volunteer
notes, You feel
appreciated; it
means that the
couple of hours
youve given up of
your time, its
meant something
to somebody.

Time Credits have
also helped the
Arts Partnership to run activities, particularly a
youth group attended by 42 young people, some
of whom have drug and alcohol issues and others
who have Aspergers syndrome or autism. 8 young
people who used to attend the group now play an
active role in running it, earning time credits and
enabling the group to continue without extra
staffing requirements.

Time Credits have also changed the way that
service users view their involvement at the Arts
Partnership and their contributions, as the centre
manager describes; A lot of them [service users]
dont consider themselves volunteers. They dont
realise a lot of the time that theyre doing
something, so when they get something back...its
quite inspirational for them. I have done
something, and I am worthwhile.

Supported Volunteering:
Community Coffee Bar

West Norfolk Voluntary Community Action
(WNVCA) set up a community coffee bar with the
support of three local charities: Forward Day
Centre, The Purfleet Trust and CSV Vocal West
Norfolk to address a lack of volunteering
opportunities for people with health and social
care needs in Kings Lynn.

Some vulnerable people in our society do not
think they have the necessary skills to be a
volunteer. Nor do they know how to access
opportunities and what benefits volunteering can
bring to them and so this project brings
volunteering opportunities directly into the paths of
the clients who access the services of our partner
organisations Marie Connell, WNVCA



Each week
volunteers
and their
support
workers give
time to the
coffee bar.
They have
been
spending
their credits on a range of activities in the
community, including leisure and sports activities
and trips with family members. All three charities
have reported improved confidence and
communication skills among the volunteers, and
that they feel part of the community.

Meanwhile the positive impact of being able to
access new activities has also been welcomed by
the volunteers, as one states Being unemployed I
probably couldnt afford to do any fitness training
at the gym and so they [Time Credits] will be a
great help.

www.justaddspice.org

Spice Case Studies: Health and Social Care




For more information contact:





David Russell
Head of Health and Social Care
davidrussell@justaddspice.org
07429 464265
Rosie Farrer
Head of Localities
rosiefarrer@justaddspice.org
07429 313860
Ben Dineen
Head of Wales Programmes
bendineen@justaddspice.org
07919 073726