RCC 2 – Telephone Befriending
Proposer: Julie Rigby
Funding allocated: £3650
The Proposal:
We wanted to set up a telephone befriending service. We currently offer a one to one befriending service where our volunteers actually visit in person. Through our work we have identified the need for additional telephone befriending. This may be during the period were a new member is waiting for a volunteer to become available, when existing members from the social clubs/exercise clubs etc. aren’t well or when the older person has chosen the telephone befriending as their preferred option for contact.
We would aim to ring each member once a week for a maximum of 30 minutes; this would obviously be flexible depending on the needs of the member.
We have identified the need from our current work and from discussions with older people and other agencies that work with them.
It will primarily be older people who will benefit along with the volunteers who we will recruit and train. The community will benefit as the older people will be able to remain independent, feel involved with the community and know that they have someone checking on them. Also it will help older people with their mental health which may have an impact on the health services they access. If people’s mental health improves you usually find that some physical symptoms decrease as well.
The volunteers will gain new skills and experiences which will be transferable to other community projects and may lead to employment.
We estimate that over the first year we will befriend 30 by telephone, they will
Receive 1 phone call per week. The frequency of the phone call will be tailored to the member requesting the befriender.
We would look to increase our numbers when possible but this would be dependent on the number of volunteers we would have available to deliver the service.
What we spent the money on!
ITEM COST TOTAL
Computer
650
650
Rental on office
1000
1000
Volunteer
Expenses
500
0
Additional phone
line
1000
*553
Desk and Chair
500
500
3650
*2703
*Please note that the monies remaining for the phone line is because we managed to secure a better deal with BT. The outstanding balance is continuing to fund the phone line. Our wonderful volunteers have not claimed any expenses; we would therefore like to use the monies to continue to fund the additional room for the telephone befriending to take place.
What we achieved!
The telephone befriending service has been a success with 40 elderly and vulnerable members registered for the service in the first year. We have made a total of 211 calls throughout the year. By offering an alternative service, this has enabled us to reach more isolated people than before. Each phone call can be up to 30 minutes long and helps us to offer reassurance, a friendly ear or simply be there for a long chat to help maintain self-confidence. People tell us what a difference receiving the weekly telephone call makes to their lives.
“I appreciate you checking in – it really cheers me up”
“When you’re feeling down it’s so nice to have somebody to talk to, to get things off your chest”.
“I really enjoy me talks with Jan (telephone befriender), she is a lovely lady”.
“Thank you for ringing, it’s not often people have time to stop for a good chat!”
“It’s nice to be reassured. When you’re on your own, it’s easy to overthink things”.
“Nice of you to keep ringing – I miss having the calls if ever I’m not in. Always nice to receive a call when you don’t see many people”.
Update for 2016
Friendship at Home has been involved in the RCC Programme in several ways:
Attendance on a Change Champions Programme and through participation in Good Neighbours with representation on the Good Neighbours Board, and in the development of the local Good Neighbours projects in Hunberston and Immingham. Subsequently, Friendship at Home has been successful in bidding for other external funding from Lloyds TSB for three years; Department of Health money for 2.5 years to work in Immingham and Caistor; and nearly £.5m from Big Lottery to expand social activities and befriending. “The additional funding has enabled us to raise our profile and promote ourselves, resulting in increased demand.” “We have also secured our future and are moving to have more commissions and less reliance on grant funding.
“The RCC programme was really useful. The telephone befriending project would not have happened without it. Through the Change Champions programme we met CreativestArt and St Hugh’s and began to build a relationship with them. Before that our Befriending Project was largely office based. We have also now developed a relationship with a similar organisation in Caistor, enabling us to operate on a larger scale. We also learned to target our approach more effectively – It helped us think about pursuing sources of funding; we met new people; we had time to explore new ideas. The training gave me a chance to think about what we were trying to do, and to question our own assumptions. Having other people and projects there made the group think more broadly. We now need to get experience of more collaborative bidding for contracts, and we need the CCG to focus on developing an agreed costing methodology and approach to payment by results.”
Grant support with £3,650 allocated to the group from the RCC health and wellbeing fund to set up a telephone befriending service. The funding enabled the initial set up providing an extra phone line and volunteer expenses and the service is now self – sustainable. “The funding enabled us to get started and it has been kept going. It happened more quickly than it would have done otherwise.”
The service has successfully worked with 260 elderly and vulnerable people between October 2015 and March 2016. “The telephone befriending has been really successful.”
Volunteers had identified the need for additional telephone befriending as new members waited for volunteers to become available. “We only go to visit people when we know we can get a volunteer within 8 weeks. This has allowed us to keep in touch with people and to start a service earlier for them.” Through offering this alternative service it has enabled services to reach more isolated people than before. Older people have explained how the service has reduced their loneliness and isolation: “When you’re feeling down it’s so nice to have somebody to talk to, to get things off your chest”. “I appreciate you checking in – it really cheers me up”
Volunteers were trained and have therefore also gained new skills and experiences which are transferrable and increase employability. Each volunteer spent approximately 30 minutes with the older people and they give an average of 10 hours a week. According to the national volunteer rate, costed this over the year, this is an additional value to the service of £5,280.
Sustaining the Service
Since the establishment of our new telephone befriending service, with the funding enabling the set up costs, we have a developing relationship with BT Business Line. This has involved support in helping us to maintain the relatively low charges that will allow us to continue to increase this service.
Due to the different nature of the service, we have been able to attract 2 new regular volunteers. All of our telephone befriending volunteers give on average 10 hours per week. According to the national volunteer rate, costed this over the year, this is an additional value to our services of £5,280.
We continue to promote the new service through our social media and networking to attract new volunteers and new subscribers to the service.