26 March, 2010
The first ever National Handyperson Conference took place on 24 March 2010 at the Royal College of Physicians in London.
This one-day event was funded by the Home Office and Communities and Local Government. Attended by 160 delegates, the event was fully booked, with handypersons, service managers and commissioners attending to celebrate what has been achieved so far and debate the next steps in the development of handyperson services nationally.
Foundations Director Steve Malone gave delegates a warm welcome to the conference, saying: "It's fantastic to see the whole of the handyperson sector here today - from handypersons themselves to service managers and commissioners of handyperson services."
Steve also announced that Foundations has been appointed as a scheme operator for TrustMark for the handyperson sector. This means that handyperson services being validated under the Quality Mark scheme can now choose to undertake TrustMark validation as part of the process. Steve said: "This provides some great opportunities for handyperson services. The TrustMark website has over 300,000 click-throughs a month, giving handyperson services which are registered on the site access to thousands of self-funding customers. This service is available to all handyperson services, not just those run by home improvement agencies."
For more information, read our news article.
Lord Bill McKenzie (Communities and Local Government) spoke about the role of handypersons in an ageing society. He said: "The key for handyperson services is the huge difference they make to older people's lives, even if the work being done in some cases is minor. Handypersons are extremely effective and should become part of the core services provided by local authorities."
The Handyperson Financial Benefits Toolkit
Lord McKenzie launched the Handyperson Financial Benefits Toolkit, which was commissioned by Communities and Local Government and developed by Cassiopeia Consultancy. The toolkit enables users to understand the benefits (both financial and uncosted) derived from handyperson services and use this to develop a business case. It includes a guidance document on using the tool, understanding the evidence and developing a business case.
Lord McKenzie said: "In very simplistic terms, the toolkit will help to identify the potential pound-for-pound savings handypersons can make for other service providers such as Adult Social Care, Primary Care Trusts, NHS, Police and Fire and Rescue, as well as a range of other potential beneficiaries. It should also help to provide the evidence that commissioners will need to help direct funding towards handypersons."
You can read more about the benefits tool in the article ‘The handyperson financial benefits toolkit - how it works' written by James Stock, Handyperson Co-ordinator for the North West. Please also get in touch with your nearest regional handyperson co-ordinator for more guidance on using the toolkit.
Lord Bill McKenzie's speech was followed by Julian Corner from the Crime Strategy Unit at the Home Office who spoke about the achievements of the Home Office's Securing Homes: Action Against Burglary initiative. Handyperson services across England were engaged in this initiative through the Safer Homes Fund, a programme of work that comes to an end on 31 March 2010, which set out to secure 60,000 homes against burglary by providing measures such as locks and spyholes, and information and advice to vulnerable people about avoiding burglary. Julian talked about the ‘incalculable' impact handyperson services have on the lives of older people in making them feel more confident and secure in their homes. Julian also emphasised that the Home Office will continue to support community organisations to tackle burglary.
Ian Powell from Bassac (British Association of Settlements and Social Action Centres) also delivered a plenary address about working with partners across the third sector. Ian talked to delegates about how Community Anchors such Peckham Settlement and Bishop Creighton House can add value to the work of handyperson services as they can use intelligence handypersons pick up about the needs of communities they work in to develop new services and empower communities.
Delegates were spoilt for choice on which sessions to attend, with 11 different workshops to choose from! All the sessions were very well attended, but particularly popular workshops included:
interactive workshops held by Cassiopeia Consultancy to give delegates an insight into what the handyperson financial benefits tool can do for providers and commissioners
a session on predictive modelling and joint commissioning focusing on the Manchester enhanced handyperson pilot and run by Lesley Lancelott and James Stock, Manchester City Council
a session looking at how the Rochdale enhanced handyperson pilot operates, run by Paul Gordziejewicz of Rochdale HIA, and
‘Why the third sector makes a difference' run by Litsa Worral (GGCCE) and Steve Hodgson (Metropolitan Police).
Presentations from the plenary and workshop sessions are now available on the Foundations website.
The day ended with a panel and audience debate focusing on what can be done to help handyperson services thrive. Chaired by Andy Chaplin, Interim Director of Foundations, the panel included Kurt Horder (Handypersons for Older People, Communities and Local Government), Keith Williams (Handyperson Co-ordinator for London) and Kirsten Firth (Private Sector Housing Projects Co-ordinator, South East London Housing Partnership). Topics raised included whether or not to charge for handyperson services, ways of diversifying funding sources and the need to promote handyperson services locally and nationally.
Foundations will be holding a series of workshops in June 2010 to give commissioners and providers of handyperson services insight and practical skills to enable them to make sustainable business cases for handyperson services locally.
Speakers will include Cassiopiea Consultancy (the creators of the Handyperson Financial Benefits Toolkit), the CLG funded Handyperson Regional Co-ordinators and peer-led sessions delivered by local commissioners and service providers.
For more information visit the training section of our website.
Thanks to all of you who have already given us your evaluation forms. We have received some excellent feedback and some useful suggestions for future handyperson conferences.
"A valuable day - thank you."
"It was great to have a specialised event."
"Really well organised and covered lots of interesting topics."
If you attended the handyperson conference, please do send us your evaluation form as this will help us to plan future events.
