News tagged 'collaborative approach'

In July 2011, Digital Outreach’s new brand Convey delivered community outreach sessions as part of a pilot campaign in Peterborough to help reduce blockages in wastewater pipes and drains. The campaign – commissioned by Anglian Water and managed by social marketing company Corporate Culture - aimed to change people’s behaviour around the waste they put down sinks and toilets.

Blockages in water pipes cause 15,000 blockages a year in the area and cost over £7m a year to clear and prevent. The campaign was very successful, with blockages reduced by more than 60% over just a few weeks. It had a significant impact on people’s attitudes and actions, with the number of people agreeing that reducing blockages is a shared responsibility rising from 52% to 92%, and the percentage saying they were making an extra effort to get rid of waste rising from 51% to 72%. (Source: Street survey, sample of 200 customers)

Anglian Water is now rolling out the project to other ‘hot spots’ where blockages are an issue for local communities. A spectacular animated light show in Peterborough marked the launch of the campaign and explained to residents why the campaign is happening.

Case study – working with the Islamic community in Peterborough
The pilot campaign included a ward in Peterborough where approximately 60% of the population is Muslim. The messaging of the campaign linked in very well with the Islamic faith, which places a high value on water, its purity and cleanliness. Convey approached Peterborough Islam to see if they could help spread the message. The organisation was only too happy to help, and local Imams spoke to over 3,000 people at Friday prayers about the importance of keeping water clean and how residents could take action to reduce contamination in the water in their own communities. Peterborough Islam’s women’s workers were also able to reach Muslim women’s groups to talk to them about putting waste like cooking fat, baby wipes and other items into the bin rather than down the sink or toilet into the water supply.



Convey will be working with Southend Association of Voluntary Services to deliver outreach in the Southend area, and will soon be engaging more voluntary and community sector organisations to help deliver the programme in Northampton, Bedford, Lincoln and Norwich. Supported by training, literature, small grants and giveaways like ‘fat traps’ to make disposing of waste easier, these organisations will cascade the message to other local groups like community groups, children’s centres, faith groups, mother and toddler groups and pre-schools.

The outreach delivered by Convey will link in with activities provided by Anglian Water such as roadshows, engagement with local businesses street teams (to talk to local businesses) and traditional marketing activities like radio/press adverts and posters.

Encouraging results from the pilot project

The results of the pilot project showed the campaign had a big impact on attitudes and behaviours around the disposal of waste.

The chart below shows the rise in concern amongst domestic customers about blockages in wastewater pipes and drains following the pilot. (Source: Street survey, 200 customers)

The chart below shows very large increases in understanding, importance, responsibility and belief that it is easy to act among domestic customers.

If you would like to be amongst the first to hear about new projects such as these, update your details on our database.

Keep It Clear is part of Anglian Water's groundbreaking Love Every Drop sustainability campaign to bring people together to put water at the heart of a new way of sustainable living.

The Home Visit Service is provided by WRVS volunteers on behalf of the Switchover Help Scheme. This service offers support to eligible people in their homes to discuss their options under the Help Scheme, assist them to use their new equipment, or be there as a chaperone when the engineer calls.

Nicola Winson is a Local Service Manager at the WRVS and co-ordinates the service in the Meridian TV region. She has worked for WRVS for five years, starting off in the Meals on Wheels service, and first got involved in the Home Visit service during the run-up to switchover in the Central TV region.

Nicola says: “WRVS’s role involves recruiting and training volunteers and co-ordinating the visits, liaising with Digital Outreach and the Help Scheme contact centre.

“We train the volunteers jointly with Digital Outreach  – we cover what WRVS expects of them, health and safety issues and so on, and Digital Outreach gives them an insight into digital switchover. They don’t need to know all the technical information that the engineers do, but they need to know why it’s happening and what people need to do. An important aspect of the service is acting as a good neighbour and making people feel comfortable. I’ve trained about 200 people so far who are keen to volunteer. We’ve met some wonderful people - they’re giving so much to help others and I hope when I get that age, someone will come out and see me!”

People may need a home visit for a variety of reasons: “It could be that they don’t have family, or don’t hear very well – for example we had one lady who had tried to call the Help Scheme, but couldn’t hear what the person on the other end of the phone was saying,” says Nicola. “Some people have memory problems. A lot of older people just don’t like dealing with people over the phone. Our volunteers are comfortable working with people with these sorts of problems and are used to hearing “Who are you?” when they turn up at the door of someone they’ve arranged a visit with! But people soon remember the smiley face coming to the door.”

A home visit service is arranged when someone who is eligible for the Help Scheme gets in touch with the contact centre and requests one. The contact centre then contacts Nicola, who arranges a trained and trusted volunteer to provide the support.

Nicola says that people are happy when they know it’s a WRVS volunteer who will come and see them. “We have a big profile – older people and vulnerable people trust WRVS – they know who we are. It’s not just about providing the service, but about being a good neighbour and giving ongoing support.

“Sometimes, people have asked us direct for the help because they are too worried to ring the call centre, or a friend has told them about it. One lady rang and asked for a home visit, and was impressed with the lovely volunteer and told her neighbour, who thought “I want that!” and rang us direct.  When this happens, I ring the Help Scheme on their behalf and ask them to ring the person and confirm this with them.

The volunteers have built people’s confidence about switchover and the Help Scheme. “About 90% of our visits so far have been for a volunteer to talk the person through the Help Scheme letter and discuss their options,” says Nicola. “When they get that form through the door, some people think “oh help!” and are daunted by it, and feel they can’t do it. But when they get that face to face support and someone is talking them through it, it builds their confidence and they feel able to go ahead with the installation. Most people we have visited have felt able to deal with the Help Scheme direct after it has been explained to them.”

Being involved in the home visit service benefits WRVS and its volunteers as well as the people they support. Nicola says: “Working on this project is raising the profile of WRVS, which is an advantage to us and our service users. We have also recruited more volunteers and have been able to keep existing volunteers involved who are sadly without a role at this current time. People volunteer for different reasons but they all get satisfaction from the volunteering – the company, the feeling of being useful and helping others, all lifts morale and they see the difference they are making to people’s lives.

“We’ve got some wonderful volunteers. We have a young man – John - in the Meridian Region who has Downs syndrome and really wanted to help out. I rang his mum and had a chat and they both came along to the training session. At the end of it, his mum actually became a WRVS volunteer! They said that they would work in a pair. John had such a big smile on his face, like he had just won the Lottery, and was so happy that he could help somebody else.”

It also brings wider benefits to the eligible people that they support. “Through this service, we’re reaching people who we’ve never reached before - finding people who are really isolated but could do with some services. Recently, I visited a lady who told me she had an appointment at a hospital and was telling me how much it cost to get there. She asked if WRVS run a bus service and although we don’t, I was able to tell her there is an NHS bus where you just pay £5 and can be driven to any hospital appointment within that city.”

Volunteer profile – Norma and Ian Kennedy

Norma and Ian are a husband and wife in their 70s who volunteer for the Home Library Service, which brings books to people who are housebound. Norma says, “I do this with my husband Ian because I don’t drive.” They got involved with the Home Visit service when notes were sent round asking for volunteers to help. Norma said, “Having done the home visits through the library, we’ve got used to going to people’s houses and how to approach them. We’ve built up quite a relationship with the people we’ve supported.”

So far, Norma and Ian have supported three people under the Home Visit service, providing each of them with options advice. Norma said: “All of them had a basic idea, but wanted to be sure before they committed themselves. We’re in our 70s ourselves so we don’t talk about ‘older people’ – it’s more about the language, and talking it through. What seems to a technical person to be layman’s terms is still more than us ‘mere mortals’ understand!”

“One lady we went to see had a second TV and didn’t know what she was going to do with that. She was a very competent woman, but didn’t want to make the phone call, so we did that for her. The engineer came out and put a new aerial in, installed a digibox on her TV, and when we rang back she said that she was very happy and everything had gone fine.

“Another gentleman we visited was very agitated about the switchover. He had had a stroke, and had also recently fallen for a scam on his computer, which meant he had had to replace all his bank cards. The TV being switched over was the last straw. The gentleman was entitled to free help from the Help Scheme and my husband helped him and his family talk it through. His wife, grandson and daughter were there, so they understood how to help him sort it out. I rang back to check all was OK, and he had got it sorted.”

What Norma enjoys most about working on the home visit service is the difference she can make to somebody. “It’s the satisfaction you feel when people have come to a decision or if things are clearer for them when we leave than when we arrive,” she said.

Please can we take this opportunity to express our sincere thanks to all the volunteers who have been involved with this project.

Digital Outreach and its new brand Convey have successfully been audited for the prestigious ISO 9001 quality standard this month.

This gives formal recognition from outside experts that we have the systems and management processes in place to enable us to deliver a high quality service to both our clients and delivery partners. We have demonstrated that we are continually improving our management systems to deliver our outreach services in as efficient and effective a way as possible.

The ISO 9001 framework is probably the most recognised in the world for setting out the requirements a company’s quality system must meet.

Only about 5% of UK businesses have achieved this certification.

Jude Palmer, Head of Operations, said: “I am delighted that we have successfully been assessed for ISO9001. This is a great achievement for a small company and I’d like to take this opportunity to thank our clients and delivery partners on behalf of everyone at Digital Outreach – the systems and toolkits we have developed together were a big factor is us achieving ISO9001 status.”

Pam Pugh, who undertook the assessment for QMS Quality Management Systems, paid particular tribute to “the investment in people and training that enables Digital Outreach to provide an efficient service to their customers.”

The London TV region is switching to digital TV in April 2012. The region, served by the Crystal Palace transmitter, is the largest to switch yet - covering 620 square miles and containing nearly 5 million households.

To help people in the city and surrounding areas make the switch, Digital Outreach is delivering four outreach programmes in partnership with local voluntary and community sector organisations.

We have appointed five local organisations to co-ordinate the community outreach programme in the region. The London CVS Network will co-ordinate the community outreach programme in Greater London, while Surrey Community Action, COVER, Voluntary Action Within Kent and Age Concern Slough and Berkshire East will co-ordinate the programme in the more rural Home Counties.

These organisations will be working with local charities and groups to prepare people for the TV switchover, starting in September this year. They will offer free training, access to a small grants scheme and free materials to local groups, enabling them to give advice to their end users on how to switch to digital TV and apply for the Switchover Help Scheme if they are eligible.

The community outreach programme is vital in getting the message out to local communities about switchover and the Help Scheme, but some of the most isolated people fall outside of these networks and are the ‘hardest to reach’. To reach these people, we are delivering the Communities Programme. This programme uses word of mouth to generate interest among those people that the most isolated people already know and trust most – such as local shopkeepers, hairdressers, carers, and community counsellors.

In London, the Communities Programme will be managed by Fin MacGregor and delivered by Circles Network and Greater London Volunteering (Greater London) and Community Impact Buckinghamshire (for the Home Counties).

Digital Outreach organised an induction day for the organisations which are leading on delivering the outreach programmes. Valerie Walwyn, Digital Outreach’s regional manager for London, led the session which was attended by staff from the lead organisations, Digital UK and the Switchover Help Scheme.

Jude Palmer, Head of Operations at Digital Outreach, said: "We work with Digital UK and the Help Scheme to ensure the induction session provides an opportunity for everyone to meet their counterparts so they can develop good working relationships and develop a solid understanding of the work ahead. This TV region is large and diverse, which is reflected in our Lead Organisations, who really enjoyed the day and are looking forward to their work in the run-up to switchover in April 2012."

Get involved!

If you're a voluntary and community sector group and you'd like to help spread the message about switchover and the Switchover Help Scheme, please get in touch with the lead organisation delivering the Community Outreach Programme in your area.

Greater London

East London CVS Network – covering Havering, Redbridge, Barking & Dagenham, Newham, Hackney, City, Tower Hamlets, Waltham Forest, Haringey, Enfield and Barnet
Contact Andrea Chott on 020 8519 9500 or andrea.chott@elcvsnetwork.org.uk

South London CVS Partnership – covering Merton, Kingston upon Thames, Richmond upon Thames, Croydon, Lambeth, Sutton, Southwark, Greenwhich, Bexley, Lewisham and Bromley
Contact Chris Burton on 07588 813189 or chris@slcvspartnership.org.uk

Ealing CVS – covering Hounslow, Hillinghdon, Ealing, Harrow, Westminster, Kensington & Chelsea, Hammersmith & Fulham, Wandsworth, Camden, Islington and Brent
Contact Antony Bewick-Smith on 020 280 2232 or antony@ealingcvs.org.uk

Home Counties

Age Concern Slough and Berkshire East – covering East Berkshire and South Buckinghamshire
Contact Rosa Petrucci on 01753 497880 or rosa@ageconcernsabe.org.uk 

COVER – covering Essex and Hertfordshire
Contact Rachel Farr on 01223 861760 or rachel.farr@i-trust.org.uk

Surrey Community Action – covering Surrey
Contact Libby Minto on 01483 447 127 or Lminto@surreyca.org.uk

Voluntary Action Within Kent – covering Kent
Contact Jon Weller on 01892 530330 or Jon.weller@vawk.org.uk



Work with statutory and charitable organisations is vital in getting the message out to local communities about switchover and the Help Scheme, but some of the most isolated people fall outside of these networks and are the ‘hardest to reach’. To reach these people, the Help Scheme has devised the innovative ‘Communities Programme’. The programme, managed by Digital Outreach, uses word of mouth to generate interest among those people that the most isolated people already know and trust most. These ‘community supporters’ might range from local shopkeepers, hairdressers, carers, and community counsellors to drivers for community car services, postmen, GPs and psychiatric nurses.

Partnering with community organisations like Suffolk ACRE and Rural Community Councils, it facilitates a more indirect approach to reaching people than in other elements of outreach work.

Suffolk ACRE has been working on the Communities Programme in Anglia since February 2011. We spoke to Nat Lomas, Project Co-ordinator, about the impact they are making ‘on the ground’.

What does Suffolk ACRE do?

“Suffolk ACRE was established in 1937 to help communities in Suffolk identify and tackle their needs through community action.

“Basically, we help rural communities in Suffolk with things that matter to them. For example, we work with village halls, parish councils, voluntary groups, social enterprises, local transport, community transport, funding advice, good neighbour schemes, community buildings insurance, ICT support and affordable housing. We have a very rural focus, but we also have specific projects that work in more urban areas such as Ipswich, for example the Brightspace Social Enterprise Centre, Ipswich Dial a Ride and various employment and training programmes.”

Why did you get involved in the Communities Programme?

“We were contacted by Gloucester Rural Community Council, which is our equivalent in Gloucester; because they had been involved in the programme in their region and they thought it was a really useful, good project to get involved with. They thought it would be a good thing for us to get involved with because it’s helping people in rural areas who might not see the more mainstream Help Scheme advertising and publicity as they are so rurally based. The big billboards and posters are mainly in the towns so those in villages, particularly those who don’t get into the town, might not be aware that switchover is coming or that they can get some help.”

What part does your organisation play in delivering the programme?

“We’re covering the Sudbury and Tacolneston areas. We enrolled a group of volunteers and we’ve got them working out in the ‘field’ so to speak, talking to people who are ‘trusted voices’ in villages. Our 38 volunteers come from local villages and parishes, and we also have seven paid staff from Suffolk ACRE who are volunteering for the project often in their own time. We’re really lucky to have such dedicated staff and volunteers!”

How important is Suffolk ACRE in helping eligible people access the Help Scheme in rural areas?

 “In the area we cover, a lot of people receive their TV signal from a relay transmitter so they haven’t had the chance to prepare early for digital. A lot of people are worried that they’ll lose all their channels and they are really reassured when they know someone will help them through the process. Talking to a friendly face, who they know and trust, really gives them confidence in the Help Scheme. Some people really need the help to fill in their Help Scheme forms or make a phone call to the Help Scheme. And the volunteers are only too happy to spend time with people to help them with their new equipment. One lady phoned us saying her digibox wasn’t working, but when the volunteer went round to help they found it wasn’t plugged in! So the volunteer spent a bit of time repeating what the Help Scheme engineer had explained - cups of tea were involved and everyone was happy!”

What are the biggest challenges in your area?

“There are 400-plus parishes in Suffolk, and most of these are covered by our volunteers. In the one or two areas where we are lacking in volunteers, it’s taken more time and effort to ‘get into’ the village. A lot of pubs and shops have closed which has exaggerated this impact, so sometimes it’s just houses and it’s more difficult to find the community venue that will give us a way into the community. We tend to send the staff in to these areas as often having the name of Suffolk ACRE behind them helps gain access to the village community activists. We’ve been around a long time and people know who we are.

And what is most rewarding?

“The most rewarding is getting the stories back! Volunteers love going out and doing the job, but writing up the case studies isn’t always as high a priority to them as making sure someone has had the help they are eligible for. The stories really show the impact we are having on individuals through the programme and I love knowing that, say, Doris is going to be able to carry on watching Doctors at lunchtime because of the help she’s received from us and the Help Scheme!”

Could you tell me about anyone in the 5% who your community supporters have helped to access the Help Scheme?

“One of our community supporters has been a publican for over 30 years in the area and knows a lot of people. One customer who comes in regularly with her husband had had a severe stroke in the last year, and since then the publican had almost avoided talking to the couple because he didn’t know how to interact with them. But when the couple came in for their regular meal one evening, he almost walked straight into them and had to summon up the courage to ask how things were. He noticed their drinks were on the Help Scheme beer mats and realised the lady may now be eligible for the scheme.

“The couple left that evening with the Help Scheme number, and popped back in a few weeks later to say they had booked in their appointment with the engineer and that the Help Scheme had been very helpful. This was a great outcome for everyone involved – the lady got the help she was entitled to, and the publican felt he learned something about himself and became more comfortable dealing with people who have disabilities.”   

How else has working on the programme benefited the volunteers?

“After the workshops, I’ve heard people say ‘That was a really good day’ which was nice, and I fed this back. They love going out and doing the work. For some of them, it’s really increased their confidence. They’ve started off speaking to people they know, which has given them a bit of confidence, and then moved on to speak to people who they just recognise. It’s built upon their skills and helped them become well-known in their communities.”

Has working on the Communities Programme benefited Suffolk ACRE?

“Yes, it has – before we worked on this programme our main work was dealing with groups, but this has made us aware that working with individuals is really effective and brought home the problems that some people have out there. It’s opened our eyes to some of the issues people face. It’s also widened our volunteer base and we have a really good bunch of volunteers now, who we can work with again in the future. The support from Digital Outreach has been brilliant! Debra and Taniya (from Carillion) have both been really supportive.”

What’s the best thing about working on the Communities Programme?

“Apart from the fact that we are helping people through the switchover by supporting them to access the Help Scheme, the best thing for me is all the new people I get to meet. I’ve met every single volunteer, and have met lots of other people through going to group meetings and regional meetings – including people in Cambridgeshire ACRE and Norfolk ACRE who I’d never previously met. Before this programme, I didn’t get out of the office much, but I’ve really enjoyed it. I’ve also done some volunteering myself and got to know people in my own village, which has been really rewarding.”