First, a definition: Collaboration is the act of two or more individuals or organisations working together to achieve a shared goal or common objective. It combines diverse skills, expertise, and perspectives to create an outcome that would be difficult to achieve alone.
Collaboration needed between Cash beehives!
The continuous filament combines (really close collaboration) to form a beehive.
Starting a Shed is about individuals deciding to work together to create a Shed. Starting with nothing more than an idea. New Shedders join one-by-one, often by word of mouth There is help from organisations but they are supporting roles. The driver has to be the small group of first Shedders (without a Shed!). It is often frustrating work with many barriers to overcome but, as progress is made, it is satisfying and there is a sense of improved wellbeing in individuals and the group. That builds confidence and the Shed begins to get noticed, not least by healthcare professionals for patients needing a wellbeing lift. The Shed then begins to have a relationships with other organisations (though usually with individuals in those organisations). With administrations, surgeries, funders, voluntary groups, other supporting individuals (sometimes family members who see the difference). The process of maturing over probably two years or more.
The collaboration we are moving towards in this blog is deeper, co-working – working together as separate, accountable organisations that may well have different styles of operation but to the same end. A common purpose. All our Sheds have worked with referral agencies and self-referral or as we prefer “introducers”. Referring has the connotation of passing a patient to the responsibility of another, either permanently or at least while an investigation/diagnosis/treatment is done. Sheds are community organisations run by those who attend. They have a 40 year plus history in Australia and approaching 20 in the UK. Sheds are not a franchise; they are their own masters usually with a charitable status. Their purpose is to do men good; their wellbeing. They do not employ (if they do then it is a place of employment for that person and subject to direct HSE regulation and with it the voluntary, fun element for many would go out of it. Governments, authorities and indeed HSE recognise the role of Sheds and the excellent safety record they have. In 10 years of Sheds in Whitby district and Norton, there have been no serious accidents – just a splinter or scrape. In contrast, there has been a few hundred men helped to cope with social isolation. Sheds are about mental health and self managing it in the company of others,
- Synchronous: when participants interact in real-time, such as in face-to-face meetings, video calls, or live brainstorming sessions.
- Asynchronous: when people work on a project independently at different times, sharing updates through shared workspaces, emails, or version-controlled documents.
Sorry for the words!
Norton Shed has been 90% in the second category since it started in 2022, in collaboration with local Social Prescribing Link Workers. The 10% synchronous is when introductions are made and arrangements are made in real time. We had something similar when the first Whitby Shed started in Sleights. There was an embryo NYCC service called “Living Well”.
The matter of Social Prescribing came up at one of the UK Men’s Sheds Association about 6 or 7 years ago. There were feelings from some Sheds that Social Prescribing might/with a mental health service who would lead to pressure and “dumping” of patients on Sheds – being subsumed into the NHS machine! Graham was able state his good experience with Living Well, although attitudes were a little different with a mental health service who were unwilling to accompany a patient to visit the Shed. They were initially reluctant to give information about the person before they came for reasons of GDPR (General Data Protection Regulations). We had to point out that it was an arrangement wee could not work with because people introduced need to fit in with others. A Shed is a family, not a service. We collaborated to find a way that meant the individual was not passed on to us but stayed for a while under the MH service.
As we move into new models of health provision, such as the Government’s Neighbourhood Health strategy (see below), one of the main matters to be resolved is how the NHS/administrations can work with the voluntary sector where the way of working is quite different.
That brings in the matter of how collaboration is achieved to the satisfaction of different partners with different characteristics.
Core Principles : Effective collaborative working generally relies on five primary principles
- Trust: Building a foundation where team members feel safe to share and brainstorm openly.
- Respect: Valuing the varying skills and unique perspectives that every individual brings to the group.
- Willingness: An active, proactive commitment from all parties to contribute to the greater good.
- Empowerment: Giving participants the autonomy to make decisions and take ownership of their respective tasks.
- Communication: Ensuring active communication – listening, clear updates, and constructive feedback loops.
That’s it. Norton Shed would agree. It’s what we do to the best of our ability.
We have another example of a collaboration that is evolving and developing based on these principles. It is with Macmillan Cancer S)North East). It’s a story where trust was the mechanism that brought the Shed and Macmillan together. As the Social Prescribing (Community Care Team) expanded, some specialisms were created. One was for cancer support and pointing patients to activities that might distract them from what is going on in their lives – that is not so different for others without cancer. That Social Prescribing Link Worker and the Shed came up with the idea of a cancer morning at the Shed and we were introduced to Macmillan, Two years on now and we have a Cancer Portal, a way to introduce men with a cancer diagnosis to the Shed. A 3 way partnership blossomed and is continuing.
)
The decade long Neighbourhood Health strategy is in its early stages – 46 localities across the UK exploring their views on what Neighbourhood Health might look like for them. Their neighbourhoods, partners, resources, their as-is situation etc. Stockton central and Portrack is one of the 46. So, it is something that is being worked on as a paper exercise and pulling in interest. And there is now a Shed that has started there.
Below is an extract from the Government guidance document. It deals with the workforce and describes some of the possible changes there may be required in their working practices. Much less silo thinking and perf with GPs and community health services, and GPs will work with INTs alongside district nurses and others.
In some cases, we will be setting up new services, and this will require new staff roles at local level.
The neighbourhood health workforce
AI generated by us! No London red buses in Norton though!
In most cases, this is about existing staff working differently. For example, consultants in hospitals will work more closely. The shift to neighbourhood health will entail a fundamental reimagining of the roles, skills and ways of working across health and social care over the next decade. We are developing proposals for the 10 Year Workforce Plan. Our aim to make neighbourhoods great places to work, with strong leaders and teams skilled at delivering proactive, preventative and personalised care that improves health outcomes and stops need escalating. Staff will work together seamlessly across boundaries as part of multidisciplinary integrated teams, and their careers will develop fluidly through different parts of the system. People will experience better care that is easier for staff to deliver.
The shift to neighbourhood health should be felt by staff working in all parts of the health and care system, not just those based in community settings. Systems will need to ensure they have shared planning assumptions about the scale of the shift from and to different places and professions, to ensure patients feel the benefit. These will necessarily vary depending on the configuration of local services, and the 10 Year Workforce Plan will set out some aggregate assumptions and scenarios to help inform local plans. We will need to ensure we have the right modelling assumptions about the scale of the shift across all parts of the workforce, and this is currently being tested.
System leaders will need to focus on collaboration across boundaries, innovation and transformation, with the 10 Year Health Plan setting out more detail on this.
Is this us?
Probably yes, verging on the certainly yes. Elsewhere in the documents there is reference to “and others”. That is where we are now, amongst others who are providing ground level support to people. In Australia there is a clear recognition of the health and wellbeing role of Sheds. There is active involvement by local and federal authorities in the development of new Sheds. The physical premises. We have direct knowledge of this in a “twinned” Shed on the Gold Coast where they are now breaking ground on a new building costing close to £1m on a publicly owned site.
It is us because there is little for men suffering from social isolation and its mental health impact. Little for social prescribers to recommend to men.
We are encouraging new local Sheds to be established in neighbourhoods by local residents with help.
The success of neighbourhood health hinges on the NHS, local authorities and partners transforming how they work together by working collaboratively to agree a joint vision, and redesign commissioning and delivery of services at the neighbourhood level. (Government Framework document)
Below is the Government Framework document summary conclusion.
Conclusion
Creating the conditions for neighbourhood health to be universally established – and to flourish in the future – is central to the leadership challenge the NHS and local communities face over the next period.
A thriving health service in every community has always been in reach, but the conditions needed to make this a truly universal offer haven’t aligned until now.
Those conditions now exist. We have the very real opportunity to make the kind of change that will impact communities today and long into the future. But success depends on local leaders working together beyond the boundaries of their own organisations.
The motivation is simple: creating accessible services as close to home as possible will be pivotal to regaining the confidence of our local communities and our staff across the NHS and care services.
Creating the conditions. The conditions exist (it suggests). The motivation is to have accessible services as close to home as possible. That is the the longstanding goal of international Men’s Shed Associations. Local. That is why Norton Shed has been trying to help new Sheds to start where there is interest. When Men’s Sheds thrive. they help men’s lives. Protecting, rebuilding, repurposing, contributing.
It will not be easy. One of the reasons is that the success of the Men’s Sheds movement is that they are in the creative hands of men! They are, in fact, not a service. It is a family in relationship. There is a vastly different culture to statutory organisations. In many ways it is not a money issue, but it is an issue for the premises that are needed. Multi-use facilities are not really suitable for the dynamics of a Shed and its infrastructure. Much the same as for young people with the loss of many premises and services that build their sense of identity and provide a discipline structure (an order from chaos!).
Those close to the ground ion NHS and Councils understand, but that is less easy for those in upper echelons of big organisations of any kind. We live in a time poor landscape where every working minute has to be justified. That’s the system. In Sheds we give people time and they pass on to each other the same conditions. They rehabilitate each other.
It is a real opportunity to participate in change, and a much needed one, but organisations of all sizes involved need to be ready to adjust their control mechanisms. People work better when they are part of decisions and that the processes make sense to them, reflecting their values!
There’s nothing new under the sun, and as society and local communities there have been similar actions, involving collaboration at different levels, sometimes without planning or realising it.
What many primary schools do to help youngsters and their families is impressive and beyond normal education itself. Education for life.
This week there was the launch of a new venture in Norton called the Common Ground Eco Hub. We had not heard the term Common Ground before but this week there is a series of programmes on Radio 4 about it. Common Ground Eco Hub has a very similar ethos to the Shed and we will be rubbing shoulders with them and lending support. It is about people doing, not being done to. That is empowering. When the neighbourhood health initiative rolls up on our shores, we will have some of the VCSE elements to help people in place to build upon. Norton Sports Charity is another example of considerable community work in progress. The collaborations the Shed has with the Social Prescribing Link Workers and Macmillan Cancer Support are other elements too in the tapestry being woven.
Can we do it? We certainly will not unless we try and play our part. Primarily, it is a mindset change that is required. Recognising the value of things that are easily overlooked because they do not draw attention to themselves because they hardly appear on the big spend spreadsheets. The voluntary sector does an awful lot to support people and communities.
It will be an interesting next few years.
Yarm Wellness Centre hosted a Macmillan event that Norton Shed contributed to.