Local Area Coordination in England and Wales
October 2022
Updates on Local Area Coordination, the work of the Network and
the areas implementing Local Area Coordination.
In this month’s edition we’ll be covering:
- Hello and Welcome
- Publications
- Angela’s work with Learning Disability England
- Vacancies
- Events
A note from from Nick Sinclair and Tom Richards,
Director of the Local Area Coordination Network and Local Area Coordination Network Manager
Hello and welcome to the Local Area Coordination Network Newsletter! This month it’s a joint intro from us (Tom and Nick). Thanks for taking the time to read about what we’ve been up to in the last month, and what a month it’s been!
We’ve had the pleasure of spending time in person with colleagues doing Local Area Coordination in the South of England, including Thurrock, Havering and Surrey. We kicked off our road trip in Thurrock at a lovely community gathering the team had put on there, and spent the day chatting together and sharing a nice buffet, as well as hearing about the incredible achievements of local people transforming their lives whilst alongside Local Area Coordinators. While this was going on, filmmaker and friend of the Network Alistair Macdonald spent the day capturing people’s stories on camera in a way they wanted them to be told. We heard such moving and powerful testimony to the strength and power of people and community. We’re looking forward to sharing and celebrating these with you in the coming months!
Next it was off to Havering where we met colleagues, local citizens and elected members there for more filming. Again, it was moving to see the journeys people have been on together alongside Local Area Coordinators, and the trust, strength of relationship, and understanding Local Area Coordinators have built. Tom and Tracy managed to grab a quick tour of the neighbourhood and both came back absolutely drenched, but in time to hear more wonderful support from the Local Area Coordination Havering Leadership Group Chair Cllr. Gillian Ford on why Havering Council chose to invest in Local Area Coordination over other forms of support.
Final stop on the tour, and suitably energised courtesy of Toby Carvery (yum), was Surrey, where we spent the day reflecting together on Local Area Coordination practice in all its forms. Conversations spanned relationship building, identifying the natural ‘bump in’ points in a community, building a network of supporters, person-led decision making, safeguarding, and non-judgemental strength-based working. On top of this we managed to find the time to do some asset mapping and action learning sets (a busy but productive day).
We’d like to share a huge thanks to Thurrock, Havering and Surrey this month for being such good hosts, and for the inspirational examples of Local Area Coordination in action. We’d also like to thank all Local Area Coordinators, managers and leaders who have contributed to all of the other Network activity happening over the last month. Sharing your insights, ideas and innovations is what makes the Network what it is.
Enjoy the newsletter!
Nick Sinclair and Tom Richards