Hafod Housing, based in Cardiff, have joined forces with Bromford to explore the potential of neighbourhood coaching. Hafod developed their approach partly based on our model, but both organisations have begun taking it in interesting new directions - so we thought it was time to set up a knowledge and learning partnership.
Through workshops, visits, and a "buddy system" across our respective teams, we aim to:
Reach a consensus on what coaching is (and what it’s not); what are its active ingredients; what enables it; what gets in the way?
Look at the evolution of roles and how they need to adapt to the current social and economic context
Consider whether there are there directions coaching hasn’t taken yet that could be fruitful (e.g. moving more actively into public health)?
We are also keen to explore:
Wider organisational structures, systems and processes and how they support coaching (or could do more to support it)
Culture and mindset – what is needed in an organisation to allow coaching to flourish?
Last week marked the second of our meetings, with 30 colleagues from Hafod and Bromford meeting virtually to hear about the relaunched Hafod coaching principles and the impact of their ‘income coaching’. See below for a short clip of the discussion:
Ceri Jones, Financial Wellbeing and Income Manager described income coaching to us: “We changed our procedure, we changed our letters, we changed the language in our letters. We encourage engagement, less use of the enforcement style terminology. And really importantly, I think, we gave autonomy to the income coaches within the procedure, so it's not just working through that step one to eight. It's about tailoring the approach to the individual set of circumstances.”
Hafod have zero evictions for rent arrears since the approach was launched.
One thing that grabbed the attention of many on the Bromford side was the ease of access to small pots of ‘can-do’ budgets - with each coach given a Barclaycard with £500 on it annually:
As Ceri said “ Our hardship fund tends to be used for financial crisis intervention. So your food, your fuel, your clothing, your household items, emergency household items, rent incentives, maybe clear someone in arrears to allow them to move to a more suitable accommodation, that type of thing. But then our coaching budget is for things like data for phones, contributions towards travel, so that people can get to job interviews for employment opportunities or for interview clothing. We've had coaches assist with the purchase of items for customers who want to set up their own business. One didn't have access to a printer to start. We've purchased counseling sessions for people who are struggling to wait for counseling sessions via the NHS. We've paid for food pantry subscriptions, and we've paid for paint and other items to help people decorate homes who may not have insurance, where they might have a leak or something like that. So things that help the mental health and wellbeing as well of our customers.”
Jon Dickin and Helen Minchin are to arrange a visit to Cardiff with a couple of our Neighbourhood Coaches and Income Team over the summer to learn more about the approach.
The next session will focus on the learnings from the Bromford Annual Conversations - something Hafod don't presently do. Watch this space for more news.