BSWN’s ‘Make It Work’ Programme Achieves a Staggering £377k increase in Economic Benefit for the Black & Minoritised Adult Social Care Sector in Bristol
BSWN Brings Evidence of a Successful Equitable Approach to Commissioning Adult Social Care in its Newly Launched Learning & Evaluation Report
Image taking during the Make it Work Learning & Evaluation report launch at Bristol City Hall.
[BRISTOL, JULY 2023] – On Friday 9th June, Black South West Network (BSWN) was joined by approximately 30 key strategic stakeholders at Bristol City Hall for the official launch of the ‘Make it Work’ programme’s Learning & Evaluation Report.
The report brings a conclusion to the first 2-year delivery of the Make it Work pilot & testing programme, which is aimed at exploring innovative avenues to embed equity within the Adult Social Care (ASC) market in Bristol. In practice, the report provides:
A systemic examination of contracting barriers identified by Black and Minoritised ASC providers.
The state of the Black and Minoritised ASC sector before and after the programme intervention.
A demonstration of the MiW programme equitable approach and how it was designed to respond.
In addition, the report includes the programme’s key impact indicators and achievements, such as:
The programme participants’ turnover increased by £377k in successful contracts in less than 2 years, which led to the employment of 52 new Black and Minoritised workers.
The programme achieved an 89% successful outcome in increasing contract-readiness among its participants.
At the end of the 2 years, 98% of participants stated they would strongly recommend the MiW programme to their colleagues.
Image of (left to right) Lanre Amosu (Nurses on Call, Sado Jirde (BSWN Director), Nura Abe (Autism Independence), and Tutu Adebiyi (Lead Consultant).
“The Make it Work programme has been an opportunity for an exciting exploration into equitable alternative approaches to commissioning and procurement. The learning this programme has brought has been beneficial on all sides, for the commissioners and procurement team as well as for Black and Minoritised organisations. It has provided the safe space to hold honest conversations about what has been working but most importantly what has not been working for communities. BSWN is very proud of the outstanding impact that Make it Work has already brought to people’s lives.”
On the launch event date, the audience included representation from all key ASC agencies in the city and the agenda included contributions from Bristol City Council’s senior leadership’s representative Hugh Evans, Executive Director of the Adults and Communities Directorate and Councillor Helen Holland, Cabinet Member with responsibility for Adult Social Care and Integrated System.
“The Make It Work event was so inspiring, showing us just what is possible by working together, with people and groups who know their communities much better than bigger organisations do. All of the objectives that we had set out were met, and exceeded. These included; growing a more diverse and local workforce, opening up work and training opportunities to all of our communities, and meeting the care needs of people in a more culturally appropriate way. To have the work verified by academics, who were so complimentary about what Bristol has done in this field, was also very satisfying. Hopefully others will learn from this work, and we can continue to grow our own workforce.”
The report has been funded by Bristol City Council and produced by BSWN.