Sinking and Swimming Understanding Britain’s Unmet Needs Will Norman

1. Sinking and Swimming Understanding Britain’s Unmet Needs Will Norman

2. Anational study looking at unmet material and psychological needs – to guide foundations, policy and priorities for action and innovation.

3. Consortium of Programme Funders Baring Foundation                            Barrow Cadbury Trust   Bedford Charity (The Harpur Trust) Big Lottery Fund City Bridge Trust    City Parochial Foundation       Comic Relief        Economic and Social Research Council John Lyon’s Charity                          Joseph Rowntree Foundation      LankellyChase Foundation                        Northern Rock Foundation Wates Foundation Consortium of Programme Advisors Lord Moser, Senior Advisor Prof Suzanne Fitzpatrick, York University Prof Ian Gough, University of Bath Prof Danny Dorling, Sheffield University Karen Dunnell, Head of ONS Prof Mike Savage, Manchester University Norman Glass, CEO of NatCen Peter Taylor-Gooby, University of Kent Prof Roger Jowell, City University  Prof Ruth Lister, Loughborough University

4. Statistical analysis, ethnography and analysis of causes • Futures analysis – what needs are set to intensify Case studies – transitions (in England and Scotland - care, prison, bereavement), night working, London (teenagers, refugees, older people), Teesside (families), Bedford (teenagers), Wales (workless families). Real life, public perspectives Front line workers Local agencies’ knowledge ‘Expert’ knowledge

5. Analysis

6. Percentage of UK individuals in relative poverty after housing costs 1979 to 2007/08. Source ONS Social Trends 2009

7. UK distribution of household income – average up, stretched at the top, sagging at the bottom.

8. Percentages of households who cannot afford basic possessions and activities by [unadjusted] household income (2007/08)

9. UK distribution of psychological well being – most contented but long and thickening tail of unhappiness, loneliness and stress.

10. The bottom million? Percentage responses to questions on emotional support 2007/08 Source: BHPS analysis

11. Percentage of UK sample with poor psychological well being (high GHQ12) by selected variables (2006/07)

12. Case Studies

13. Digging deeper into the lives of groups identified as facing serious unmet needs

14. Transitions – from care, prison, bereavement… Showing the importance of preparation, bridging relationships, assets to help after the transition and also how rare these are

15. Bedford (teenagers/NEETs): showing importance of help-seeking, resilience, attitude, social networks

16. Teesside (low income families) – showing strength of family and informal social supports

17. South Wales (workless households) – showing extent of worklessness, relative resilience but lack of adaptive resilience

18. London (refugees) – showing lack of cash, importance of religious and family networks, importance of access to technology – eg mobile phones

19. Older people (several case studies) emphasising loneliness and isolation, atrophy of traditional supports

20. Nightworkers - looking at the social needs and pressures associated with regularly working at night looking at whether the needs encountered by service providers differ during the night

21. Futures

22. Long period of constrained public funding. Pressures on housing, inequality, fuel and food prices, ageing, diversity, but also ...

23. Anxiety and Depressions – Doubling in a generation

24. Obesity – Doubling in a new generation

25. Every particular example needs to be understood in three dimensions …

26. External Activation Identification Internal activation Demand expression Availability Satisfaction Satisfier provided in full, in time and effectively Process Need felt or identified Need acknowledged as satisfiable and a priority for action Need expressed effectively as demand for existing satisfier Need satisfied Satisfier available, affordable, accessible, offered and accepted I am getting Y as promised Y seems to work, my need is being met Subjective experience I’m suffering or if I don’t get this sorted I will suffer This need can be met. I have a right to have it met and it is important that it be met. I want it met. Here is my need X, please provide me with satisfier Y to which I am entitled by virtue of Z They are offering me Y in an acceptable way at an acceptable time, place and price and with acceptable reciprocal demands Service provided partially, badly or at the wrong time, service different from that promised Need more complex than thought, dependent upon resolution of other needs, only temporarily met, or met in a way that causes more need Potential barriers Lack of knowledge, absence of perceived suffering, cognitive or mental health impairment, denial Lack of awareness and motivation, pride, stigma, mistrust, bad previous experience, competing priorities, hyper-stress, culture, perverse incentives, fatalism, learned helplessness Lack of confidence, assertiveness, power, opportunity, support, legitimacy, knowledge, language determination or organization; wrong approach, strategy, timing or data Non-existence of satisfier, rationing, expense, ineligibility, inaccessibility, exclusion, conditionality Conceptual framework for understanding how needs are met – and what can go wrong

27. Implications and directions for action • Support organisations providing preparation, bridges and support for difficult transitions • Back projects that tackle isolation – help to connect the disconnected • Support projects providing access with ‘no wrong door’ • Support projects that enhance resilience and psychological fitness

28. Implications and directions for action • Rethink welfare provision through the lens of wellbeing • Support the provision of new and old necessities • Invest in better social accounts

29. What next? Ageing: linking research, programmes and new ventures (with primary focus on transitions, new service models, psychological/psycho-social needs, long-term conditions, and community support) Transitions to adulthood: linking research, programmes and new ventures, with a particular emphasis on preparation, bridging roles, and supports for transitions, building on work on transition to adulthood, teenage pregnancy, youth crime work.

30. Resilience • Personal attitudes, skills, dispositions • Close networks • Assets (financial and other) • We want to explore what’s known about it, how it can be enhanced, the roles of different kinds of voluntary organisation, professions etc.

31. Replication & Innovation We’ve identified the problems that are getting worse. How do we solve them? • Clear need, effective response, government unwilling to act. • Emerging models and potential commissioning by government. • Needs where solutions don’t work well require experimentation and genuine innovation.

32. The Young Foundation’s business is social innovation: finding and developing new and better ways of meeting pressing unmet needs. We undertake research to identify and understand unmet social needs and then develop practical initiatives and institutions to address them – in fields as diverse as health and education, housing and cities. Our work combines research, applied work and practical action. For more information go to: youngfoundation.org