Section A: The organisations and groups within the partnership Lead applicant Name of Organisation: Care4freedom Type of Organisation: CIC Contact details: Contact - Tony Fitzgerald Email - [email protected]
Phone - 07436 092 217 Address - 2nd floor, front office, 12a Chequer Street St Albans Hertfordshire, AL1 3XZ Summary of Care4freedom ( C4F ) is a social enterprise offering care and support within the organisation: community. C4F have developed a service to combat the issue of Compulsive Hoarding Disorder in Hertfordshire, C4F have worked over the past 3 years with other agencies developing the Welwyn and Hatfield Hoarding Partnership and a Hoarding protocol for use by professionals. C4F are the frontline of the partnership providing practical and emotional support to clients affected by Compulsive Hoarding disorder. Partner 1 Name of Organisation: Welwyn and Hatfield Community Housing Trust
Type of Organisation: Housing trust Contact details: Contact - Tracey Campion Email - [email protected]
Phone - 01707 357 072 Address - The Campus, Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, AL8 6AE Summary of Welwyn and Hatfield community housing trust are now part of Welwyn and Hatfield organisation: council. Our role within the partnership is as the founding member to chair meetings and take minutes etc., providing referrals and assistance to C4F during clearances. Partner 2 Name of Organisation: Herts Fire and Rescue service
Type of Organisation: Statutory service/Fire service
Contact details: Contact - Karen Valencia Email - [email protected]
Address - SFAR 019 Ground floor Farnham house, Six hills way, Stevenage, SG1 2FG Summary of To provide fire safety advice and safety checks in hoarded situations. organisation: Partner 3 Name of Organisation: Hertfordshire Police Constabulary
Type of Organisation: Statutory Service/Police Contact details: Contact - Sue Foster Email - [email protected]
Phone - 01707 638 616 Address - Sue Foster 8520Older Person Liaison Officer Hertfordshire Constabulary HQ Stanborough Road WGC, AL8 6XF Summary of To provide advice on Rogue trading involved with hoarders. organisation: Partner 4
Name of Organisation: Welwyn Hatfield Borough council Type of Organisation: Environmental Health/ Statutory service
Contact details: Contact - Jeanette Hollingsworth Email - [email protected]
Phone - 01707 357 204 Address - Team Leader Public Health and Protection Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council, The Campus Council Offices, Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, AL8 6LE Partner 5 Name of Organisation: Adult Care services
Type of Organisation: Statutory service/HCC
Contact details: Contact - Karen Allen
Section B: Partnerships & Stories What the partnership is achieving and learning
1. Your partnership’s project or initiative.
The Welwyn and Hatfield hoarding project aim to tackle the problem of compulsive hoarding in the borough of Welwyn and Hatfield with a Holistic, understanding and caring approach. Providing both practical and emotional support to clients and their families, rebuilding relationships with local communities and statutory services. Members of the project gather once a month to discuss cases and decide on the best course of action to be taken. Referrals are taken from any member of the project and once a practical intervention is decided upon a referral is made to Care4freedom who will then visit the property to make an assessment and then plan any works to commence with the client. The project has developed a Hoarding protocol to be used by professionals which is now being rolled out across the county and is already in use in several different boroughs.
2. How did your partnership come about and develop?
The Welwyn and Hatfield Hoarding project began 2 years ago when a number of properties were flagged as being a health and safety risk to both clients and professionals. Welwyn and Hatfield community housing trust and Jeanette Hollingsworth a public health and protection officer approached HFRS who agreed that these properties were a risk in both fire and general safety, the partnership grew from here with Care4freedom being asked to join soon after to provide the frontline of the project , We were then joined by Sue Foster the older persons liaison officer from Herts Police Constabulary who was able to show links between Hoarding and people who are victims of rogue trading and deception crimes, soon after Karen Allen from Adult care services joined who has been able to help with personal budgets for clients and other aspects of the social care system, we have grown slowly but surely and now have representatives from the mental health team HPFT, Age UK and Herts county council . We have developed into a mature partnership which is tackling a problem which is usually hidden but has huge social impact for families and neighbours as well as the wider
3. Impact. Please describe what outcomes you are achieving, your impact or how you are making a difference.
Ms C was a Hoarder of everything including all of her rubbish for several years, there was also a heavy presence rat urine and the property was cold and damp with various repairs to the properties services and property needed, it was also noted that Ms C had an 11-year-old daughter living at the address. A full clearance of the rubbish and a deep clean was decided upon during which Ms C was taught how to keep her home clean and tidy, all areas were cleaned and disinfected, rubbish removed and vermin control were brought in to tackle the rat problem. The clearance took around 3 weeks and Ms C was left with a clean safe home for both her and her daughter. Mrs S is a widow and pensioner with hoarding issues, her home was found to be near overflowing with clutter and Mrs S had only 1 working plug point which was heavily overloaded, C4F worked with Mrs S for about 5 months managing to clear the property and see her electricity restored to the property avoiding Fire/accident in the future. Mr U is an ex service man who suffers from PTSD, a pensioner and a hoarder. Mr U had become the victim of repeated crimes/burglary’s and Police needed to install cameras at his property but were unable to do so due to the clutter inside. C4F cleared the property enabling cameras to be installed and preventing further crimes and making Mr U safer and happier.
4. How partnership working is helping you to achieve more.
The project has allowed members to access services that they may not have had access to before. Police and Trading Standards have been able to refer properties that were an obvious target for rogue traders before the clearance and to gain access to fit cameras/security equipment. Fire service has been able to refer properties that pose a fire risk both to have been able to use the service to clear properties that would be a risk not only to occupiers/neighbour’s but also to attending Fire crews ( Fires in a hoarded reach a far greater temperature than in a non-hoarded house ). The service is saving money for other services including NHS, HFRS, Local councils /County council by preventing slips trips and falls, reducing fire risk, improving cleanliness in homes preventing disease and sickness. Care4freedom have been able to access many more referrals from a wide range of referrers and in turn have been able to refer clients back to other services e.g. fire safety checks for clients or help from the police where clients are at risk of crime. The development of our hoarding protocol has helped both C4F and referrers to accurately assess properties and the risk involved as well as making the referral process easier and smoother for professionals. The Hoarding protocol is now being rolled out across Hertfordshire and is already being used by several local councils and housing associations.
5. How you are making sure that the partnership is working effectively.
Client input is always welcomed and quality assurance forms are left with all clients as well as our compliments and complaints procedure. Any comments are reflected upon during meetings. Clients are encouraged to play an active role in the clearance, the process puts the client in control of the clearance. Police services have been accessed on several occasions when large amounts of money have been found during a clearance to ensure the safeguarding of both client and staff. Fire services are regularly called upon to provide home safety checks.
6. What you are learning from each other.
The partnership has now started to mature and partners have learnt to share information with each other while still keeping client confidentiality, how to access each other’s service and how to deal with the issue of hoarding across the county. We have used each other’s protocols, policies and procedures to develop our own protocol for use by referring professionals. Each member of the project has their own knowledge and approach towards the issue and the exchange of this knowledge is essential to the project’s success. We hope that as the protocol is rolled out across the county that this sharing of information continues to add strength to the project.