Adur & Worthing Councils win Gold at prestigious IESE Awards 2016

Adur & Worthing Councils picked up two awards on Wednesday (2nd March 2016) evening at the Improvement and Efficiency Social Enterprise (IESE) Awards in Central London.

Adur & Worthing Councils won the gold award in the Transforming Access to Services category in recognition of work by the Worthing & Adur Rough Sleepers Team (RST).  A multi-agency team who provide intensive personalised support to around 15 - 40 entrenched rough sleepers in the local area.

In early 2015 the RST team secured a £10,000 grant from the Design Council to fund a project: Redesigning Services for the Street Community in Worthing.  As a result, a number of innovative prototype projects were initiated including a Street Market stall run by members of the street community.     

The team are made up of the Adur & Worthing Council’s Housing Outreach Coordinator, Council Officers, Worthing Churches Homeless Project (WCHP) staff, Addiction Services and the Police.  

The team were led by John Mitchell, Adur & Worthing Councils Director for Communities who adds “It is wonderful to have our work formally recognised in this way: we are using Design Council thinking and Systems Leadership learning supported by the King's Fund to deliver really innovative services and interventions. More importantly the great team work by a wide range of partners in housing, health and community safety is achieving better outcomes for some of the most vulnerable members of our society.”

John Holmstrom, Chief Executive of Worthing Churches Homeless Projects said “I am thrilled that we won this award.  It is very telling Adur and Worthing Councils invited  one of their third sector partners to  the awards evening.  This reflects the essence of the close multi agency partnership working that the Rough Sleepers Team has developed.  The innovations started continue to flourish and make a difference.  The national rough sleeper figures from November 2015 have just been published.  Over the last year there has been a 30% increase nationally, but in the local area there has been no increase.  We will continue to work hard together to bring the figures down further.”

Councillor Dr Heather Mercer, Executive Member for Customer Services, Worthing Borough Council adds “I am very proud of the effective partnerships the RST team have formed, in working towards a better outcome for some of the most disadvantaged members of our community and I am delighted that their hard work and commitment has been recognised in this award.”

In addition, Councillor Daniel Humphreys Leader of Worthing Borough Council witnessed Paul Brewer, Adur & Worthing Councils Director of Digital & Resources pick up the  Bronze Innovation Award on behalf of the Councils.  Councillor Humphreys added “This award is in recognition of the new cloud technology platforms that Paul and his team have  implemented across the Councils.  It has proved to be hugely beneficial to residents and staff alike, and has contributed to savings of approximately £208k to date.  I am delighted we have won this award.”

Paul Brewer said "I'm so delighted our digital programme has won this award.  We're at the beginning of a very exciting journey to help our services 'go digital' and to receive this recognition so soon is fantastic.  Being able to build great digital services ourselves is a powerful shift from having to rely on external suppliers.  That's the shift we've successfully made and I'm extremely excited about the work we will do over the next year."