Virginia Ponton:
It's challenge four and we're in the iconic London Borough of Waltham Forest, and the challenge that's been set for the contestants is to look at the council’s stronger communities approach, and all about getting the best outcomes for local residents.
Michael Barrett:
And day one is going to be full of lots of meetings for the cohort, including meeting Councillors, community action groups, senior staff here at Waltham Forest. So going to have an opportunity to learn loads around this challenge and feed that back tomorrow.
Hannah Barton:
We arrived at Waltham Forest Council, had an introductory session with the Chief Executive and Deputy Chief Executive, and then we went straight from that to a site visit on a minibus to an organisation called Project Zero. They’re a really exciting organisation doing amazing things with young people.
Hannah Futter:
Waltham Forest is a super diverse borough. The council is really really ambitious and hopefully that's reflected in the challenge that we've set contestants. We’re right at the beginning of transformational journey that will span multiple years and have a significant impact on the communities that we serve.
Adam Towers:
We've been tasked with reviewing and assessing the three pillars that council’s senior leadership have prepared to move forward and build on the already great relationships with the voluntary community sector, to target provision of essential social care to people who need it the most in this community.
Che-kwon Sterling:
I think I'm doing pretty well, it's been really intense. There's been a variety of different meetings that we've had to attend. During those meetings, I found out that the young black men are some of the most vulnerable individuals within Waltham Forest, and that they need a lot of support.
Kerry Challoner:
I have been to a community volunteer celebration event this morning, which was brilliant. It was such a good celebration of the hard work that the volunteers have been doing. So I've just met with the Youth Advisors who work across the borough and they were really inspirational. The Youth Advisors give really good advice to their peers, especially on really hard subjects such as knife crime, and gangs, anti-social, behaviour and they’re gathering information for the council.
Martin Chastney:
So I've just come out of a meeting about employment within the borough, which has been fascinating. Really interesting to hear about foundational economy that they've got here, and the challenge before the council was ensure that residents are both skilled and able to link in with jobs that there are in the borough.
Helen Gelder:
So for this challenge I'm on team Dynamic and I volunteered to be the captain. There's been three challenges already and I actually missed one of them. So I've been present for two of the challenges but it’s either now or next time, so that that's been very much in my mind. I just went for it.
Che-Kwon Sterling:
Today's been really really good. I believe the teams match really well together but it's been very intense to say the least.
Helen Gelder:
So it’s the end of the first day. It’s 10 o’clock at night. We've been presented with lots of written information and documents, and we’ve also been doing our own research. Hopefully we'll get good night’s sleep and will be fired up and raring to go.
Michael Barrett:
It's the start of day two and after a really busy day yesterday there’s not much let up today, with lots more meetings including a roundtable with senior officers to test their ideas and then there's a virtual meeting with the Welcome Hubs team.
Marelize De Beurs:
So we've just had our roundtable discussion, and we're very relieved that no big U turns are required. And had some really positive responses to some of our ideas. So feeling thrilled and feeling very ready for this presentation.
Jack Pearce:
So we went into a meeting about Welcome Hubs with several officers who are involved in various parts from Libraries from the ESOL team and other teams that are feeding into that. They've got one hub already, which is around asylum and migration, and they're looking at rolling that out. We were asking questions about things like return on investment, how they’re advertising them, how they’re trying to outreach into the community. And it backed up a lot of things that we've already been putting into our proposal.
Virginia Ponton:
It's a really broad and strategic challenge, and the teams are having to hone in to their transformation skills, their innovation skills, but also keeping it really relevant and tangible for the communities that we’re serving here in Waltham Forest. So it's a real team effort to bring all of those different elements together.
Ramisa Yazdani-Biouki:
We're doing quite well. I think we all have roles to play, and I think that's working really well. I do worry that would not being as courageous, as brave as we could be. I've heard that the borough of Waltham Forest likes to be really pioneering and groundbreaking, and I feel like we’re not quite there.
Faith Scott Deuchar:
The section that I'm responsible for is looking at the strengths-based practise model. I'm really enjoying this piece of work because Waltham Forest is taking a really exciting approach in this area. I'm using my knowledge from working in different parts of local government, so both adult social care children's, social care, and early help, to think about what that model might look like for a whole organisation, but also looking at how we can expand that beyond the council walls into the VCS and to the health sector as well.
Helen Gelder:
Team Dynamic’s vision is for a more equal borough for the London Borough of Waltham Forest. We’re proposing an additional pillar around financial sustainability and we're also looking at where we can maximise our partnerships in the place with both the health sector, the Portsmouth University, and the other partners that are working with our most vulnerable communities.
Che-kwon Sterling:
Our idea is all about utilising the three pillars that exist and building upon it. In order to do so, we have set aside Community Connectors which will go out into the borough and ensure that there’s stronger communities for instance, the use of barbers and then we'll also build upon this through a training programme that's rolled out across the organisation because it's everyone's business.
Cllr Grace Williams:
Today we chose team Dynamic. They were Dynamic, and they presented their ideas really well. We were so impressed with the idea that we should have a fourth pillar, in our strengthening communities’ approach, that we're going to look at how we could do that. So that would be, for example, how do we build a stronger foundational economy, how to work with children and young people and other groups to build their financial skills and resilience.
Che-kwon Sterling:
I'm feeling gutted, but you win some, you lose some, right? I think that we need to be a bit more radical.
Helen Gelder:
Our approach today has really been a collective approach. We’ve collaborated, so I think every member of the team has played a part in that. We’ve supported each other, we’ve explored ideas together, and that's something that we've reflected on after the challenge. It's been a long and intense 24 hours, but I'm really proud of the work that the team have done and feel a little bit elated as well.
