Wednesday 24th June 2020 should have been the day we welcomed up to 100 stakeholders to our 61st Annual General Meeting (AGM). The AGM is usually a joyous day where staff, association members and the public gather to reflect on and celebrate the achievements of the previous year.
When it is right and safe to do so, we look forward to welcoming our Wigan Welfare family to our new premises for our AGM celebrations. In the meantime, we’ve put together a summary of highlights from our 2019 Annual Report for our stakeholders to enjoy.
Overview
2019 saw improved accessibility to counselling and advocacy services, underpinned by strong partnership working and communication. We have strengthened our working relationships with schools, family support organisations, hospitals and care facilities. With support and funding from partner organisations we were able to expand our service offering and reach more people.
Counselling
New recruits (7 new counsellors and an experienced administrator) joined us to enhance our counselling skills base and enable us to reach more people with our services.
Schools counselling
We continue to provide counselling services in 46 schools across the borough. These are invaluable to young people struggling to cope in the modern world. 89% of clients said they felt an improvement to issues addressed as a result of their counselling.
The Red Box Scheme, a partnership between Leigh Soroptimists, Wigan Family Welfare and local schools, ensures that no girl has to miss school through period poverty. Boxes containing sanitary products, tights and underwear have been distributed to schools for girls to access.
CAMHS partnership
In January 2019, we formed a partnership with the North West Boroughs and Local Authorities Children’s and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) to help support a reduction in their waiting lists. As the two services are the major providers in mental health provision to young people across Wigan Borough, it also makes more economic sense to provide an integrated service. Our services are accessible to more young people and waiting lists are shorter as a result. The confidential sessions, which take place in a variety of local community venues, helped 169 people to discuss and manage problems with mental health, self confidence, family, bullying, and anxiety.
Mentally Healthy Schools pilot
We took part in the Greater Manchester pilot of this funded programme to provide essential counselling services in two high schools. A successful pilot led to rollout in four further schools and colleges in the borough, and requests for additional sessions at Wigan & Leigh College. We delivered a total of 381 sessions.
Child Anger and Child Bereavement and Loss
We have supported young people to deal with difficult and challenging situations, such as losing a loved one, family breakdown, changing schools and anger management. One of our newly qualified counsellors worked to build relationships with new schools so that more 5-18 year-olds can access support in familiar venues where they feel at ease. This reduced anxiety amongst service users. We simplified the referral process and moved it online making referrals easier and services more accessible. As a result, referrals increased from April 2019 onwards.
Adult Anger Management
Throughout the year, our team had a full case load and a healthy waiting list for adult anger management counselling. During sessions, clients have space to talk about how their anger impacts their life, in an open and non-judgemental way. The service continued to have a positive impact on clients’ anger levels, boosting self-esteem, confidence and decision making capabilities.
Perinatal Counselling
Our home visits supported women during and after pregnancy as well as expectant and new parents experiencing challenges and anxiety. During 2019, we offered a total of 304 counselling sessions in a variety of settings from family homes to children’s centres. Entire families have been able to access emotional and practical support, and thanks to our strong partnerships, we have been able to reach larger sections of the community.
Advocacy
Independent Mental Health Advocacy (IMHA)
We continued to provide IMHA support to adults in Wigan detained under the Mental Health Act. Our advocates worked hard to strengthen relationships with service providers to ensure clients feel empowered to make the best possible decisions when there is no-one else to support or represent them. Social workers’ praise for IMHA services focused on our flexibility, professionalism and ability to put the needs of the client first.
We carried out additional training and education with healthcare and nursing colleagues around the role and importance of the IMHA role. We will continue to do this to ensure we have a strong presence in local hospitals and nursing staff recognise the need for our services.
Independent Mental Capacity Advocacy (IMCA) and Relevant Person’s Representative (RPR)
The IMCA service continues to provide a high quality service to the community. Referrals remain constant although our court of protection work continues to increase. RPR referrals increased by 14.5% compared to 2018. This resulted in a 25% rise in client visits and telephone contact, allowing more people access to independent representation. Our team worked hard to clear down RPR waiting lists, introducing Saturday working to ensure every client’s rights and best interests could be heard and upheld.
Proud of our achievements
The Wigan Family Welfare team is rightly proud of its achievements in 2019, having made significant progress in taking our expertise out into the community where it is needed most.
If you would like to receive the full version of our 2019 Annual Report, please email admin@wiganfamilywelfare.co.uk