The Pod - Print version

About The Pod

‘What THE POD do is innovative, radical and socially engaged’ NHS England  

Sitting within Coventry City Council Adult Social Care and significantly funded by the Integrated Care Systems (ICS).  The Pod, is an award-winning secondary mental health social brokerage and cultural hub which represents a new progressive and values driven within local authority adult social care, one that focuses on critical connections and a shift from service user/patient to citizenship and agency. 

Committed to a human centred and rights-based approach to secondary mental health relationships and see’s The Pod deliver this through an innovative, unique and dynamic personalised social brokerage model.  The Pod aims to build individual, organisational and/or societal capacity for creativity, innovation, compassion and activism and each arm of their work asserts the importance of cultivating authentic connection with the city, its creatives, entrepreneurs, academics, industry leaders, change makers, quiet activists and the under heard. As an outcome of The Pod’s approach unexpected (and often unconventional) bridges to sector experts, employment, just things that matter are forged, sustained and made real.  

 ‘[The Pod] challenges national assumptions around what and how social care can deliver’ (TLAP) 

 The Pod have asserted National influence through work with TLAP, Public Health England, National Development Team For Social Inclusion In Mental Health, Local Government Association and presenting to the Health and Social Care Committee in Parliament. We aim to secure fast, firm and sustainable outcomes. 

The Pod believe that recovery and regeneration are totally intertwined and is determined to create conditions in which everyone has voice and can thrive – the city is its people. 

In 2014 to forge a more radical, purposeful, environmentally conscious and regenerative connection with the city, The Pod launched its social activism program ‘Food Union’ and its sister program Time Union, this dynamic union of likeminded people were, and remain pivotal in the evolution of The Pod Café - moving it from training kitchen to its status now as a café celebrated nationally for its unique take on ‘soil to table’ vegan cuisine and social eating.

‘Food Union – as the name implies – uses the simple power of food to bring communities together, to find healthier ways of producing and eating food, but also of thinking about and enacting community and civic identity’ Dr Chris Maughan.

‘The quiet activism of THE POD is also a deep activism, a unique case of civic care for people, places, land and multi-species, at a time when civic care is aggressively being eroded through calls to austerity, auditing and capital’ Dr Nirmal Puwar, Reader in Sociology, Goldsmiths, University of London.  Self-proclaimed Writer As Resident in Coventry

If you are a Care Coordinator and you would like to refer a person you are currently working with, please complete The Pod referral form [/thepodreferralpack]

Mental Health Social Brokerage and Social Advocacy

The Pod works with adults living with severe and/or enduring mental ill-health (bipolar, psychosis, schizophrenia), achieving outcomes through one-to-one appointments with clear time-bound goals and milestones with a focus on outcomes.

The Pod uses an asset-based, solution-focused model rooted within personalisation to enable connections, nurture aspiration and build resilience. Provoking individuals to step outside their comfort zones, reimagine their lives and move away from the subculture of services into mainstream society.

The Pod works with citizens of Coventry on a referral basis from Care Programme Approach (CPA) Care Coordinators within Coventry Integrated Practice Unit (IPU) [https://www.covwarkpt.nhs.uk/search/text-content/ipu-integrated-practice-unit--754] as well as from the Crisis and Home Treatment Team [https://www.covwarkpt.nhs.uk/service-detail/health-service/psychological-services-3/] as a part of the Social Interventions Collective (SICol). Playing a critical role in the integrated pathway to ensure that people transition from service user or patient to citizen.

Social brokerage

This human-centred approach creates opportunity to rethink relationships. Restoring agency, using their strengths and assets to inform solution focussed thinking. Provoking people to move away from the subculture of services into mainstream society. Social Brokerage reframes what should be expected of a mental health services. Social Brokerage has a focus on the city - its people, assets and outcomes. Social Brokerage is being part of something bigger.

Social advocacy

A rights-based approach enabling Citizens to recognise and address inequity within society. Seeking to challenge power imbalance and provoke different and crucial conversations. Mobilising relevant key agencies and professionals. This approach ensures roles and responsibilities are clear and time framed, so that decision-making processes are inclusive and transparent and if necessary, asserting the need for fast track access, ensuring the citizen remains central to discussions and decisions.

Intertwine

Nobody's life is a straight line, like society, it’s dynamic. The push and pull relates as much to our passions as they do to the pressures placed upon us by society. In that sense, the human perspectives and strategies experienced tested through Social Advocacy and Social Brokerage can be used to navigate life. Using Statutory Assessments as a framework for dialogue to enhance understanding and outcomes for the citizen.

Not on services but instead:

• Social activism
• Social mobilisation
• Social brokerage

Not on care but instead:

• Connectivity – Bringing people, skills, neighbourhoods together (working without boundaries)
• Cultivation – Recognising that everyone has something to offer (promoting personal and social growth)
• Change - Enabling people to thrive (bringing value to a variety of ways of doing things)

Interfaces

Integrated Practice Units

Our Personalisation and Recovery pathway incorporates Foundation Assessments including Strengths And Needs Assessment. The investment offered is solution-focused, personalised and responsive. We aim to optimize a person's relationship with their community of interest and build sustainable networks. We create sustainable bridges to universal and purposeful opportunities or employment. Social Brokerage involves research, appraisal, reflection, critical debate. Social Brokerage utilised mixed economy investment which may include Direct Payment applications. This is proven to reduce dependency on, or revolving usage of, both secondary mental health and specialist health and social care commissioned services by building resilience.

Referral process

• Conversation - Discussion between individual and their Care Programme Approach (CPA) Care Coordinator.
• Action - Web based Referral Form  [https://myaccount.coventry.gov.uk/en/service/The_Pod_referral]completed by Care Coordinator
• Response - Development Worker allocated to individual.

Moving forward

First planning meeting at The Pod - Social Brokerage and Development Worker relationship explained in greater detail. Individual, Care Coordinator and Development Worker must be present to discuss desired outcomes and reason for referral.

The development worker's relationship with the individual continues over a series of meetings on an appointment basis, over a fixed timeframe.

The Care Coordinator is involved throughout the length of time that the Pod works with a person and may need to attend milestone meetings and support Direct Payment applications [http://www.coventry.gov.uk/directpayments].

If you are a Care Coordinator and you would like to refer a person you are currently working with, please complete The Pod referral form [https://www.coventry.gov.uk/thepodreferralpack].

SICol – a collaboration between the Home Treatment Team, Axholme Services and The Pod

 SICol was awarded funds from The Midlands Crisis Alternatives Transformation Funding (NHS England) to increase the capacity and diversity of services in the local crisis pathway. This followed on from and supported the successful pilot that had been operational for a number of months to address new ways of supporting adults in distress to achieve robust outcomes. The collective approach to the work undertaken extends beyond the usual service boundaries with the most appropriate professional allocated to work with an individual. The emphasis on combined professional leadership with social advocacy and support led to recruitment to three new and critical positions. SICol is in the process of forming an alliance with the AMHP Service and Inpatient Services to address inequalities to reduce the disproportionate detention of black males.

Underpinning values

The service focuses on recovery model and believes:

• Accessing investment of time from The Pod is a step on the individual's recovery journey and not the end destination.
• That all people have capacity to develop personal resilience and to manage their mental health and wellbeing
• That people have the right to be included and the right to their place in community and access universal and mainstream opportunities (which include training, education and employment)
• That people should be able to exercise choice and control and every opportunity should be explored to optimise choice and control
• That Citizens have the right to design and manage their own route to recovery and that to facilitate this Citizens should have opportunity to be connect to and have critical conversations with appropriate field experts and exercise relevant statutory rights
• That Citizens have a right to access the Needs And Wellbeing Assessment and direct payments should this enable them to achieve their outcomes
• That people have the right to autonomy and to take positive risks
• Everyone's recovery journey is unique and our work should be personalised, responsive and honest
• That we need to have robust relationships with referring practitioners so we can collaboratively accelerate Citizens recovery journeys
• Connectivity needs to be optimised to enable lateral thinking with relationships based upon mutual respect increase the likelihood and impact of positive risk taking.
• That citizens know their rights, know how and empowered to exercise those rights
• That professional interventions should personalised; proportionate and timely

Referral form for Care Coordinators [http://myaccount.coventry.gov.uk/en/service/The_Pod_referral_pack]

Impact and outcomes

The Pod, Coventry’s national award-winning mental health service, is committed to working in a collaborative and personalised way. Each year we work directly with 180 people referred to us by care co-ordinators. However, as a public-facing service our footfall exceeds 15,000 – this is important as it provides the impetus for collaboration, co-production, connectivity and partnership – recovery and regeneration are intertwined.

There is extensive qualitative and quantitative evidence in regards to the outcomes achieved through this way of working, with clear evidence of less service dependency for people and a reduced number of readmissions into acute mental health services and reliance on outpatient appointments or other supportive health services.

Referral form for Care Coordinators [/thepodreferralpack].

Creating social change

The Pod manages two projects open to everyone in the city. People across the city were given the opportunity to vote on the project brands and strapline. Events were held to allow people to contribute ideas and steer the projects. ‘Cultivate, Connect and Change’ was the winning strap line, everyone that voted or contributed agreed these three words embodied the aims and philosophy of the projects.

• Cultivate – Recognising that everyone has something to offer (promoting personal and social growth).
• Connect – Bringing people, skills, neighbourhoods together (working without boundaries).
• Change – Enabling people to thrive (bringing value to a variety of ways of doing things).

Projects

• Quiet Activism (Est. 2015) [http://www.coventry.gov.uk/quietactivism]
• Food Union Coventry (Est. 2014) [http://www.coventry.gov.uk/foodunion]
• Time Union Coventry (Est. 2014) [http://www.coventry.gov.uk/timeunion]

Reviews and awards

• Winner of the Coventry Community Cohesion Awards – Public Sector - The Revive Cafe - The POD, Coventry City Council (2014)
• Christine Eade – winner - UK National Mental Health Leader prize at the National Positive Practice Awards (2014)
• Christine Eade – Coventry City Council – Winner – Mental Health Leader Award 2013

What people say about us

“Revive Café promotes shared appreciation and positive relationships between all of its patrons, irrespective of their varied backgrounds.  It also promotes positive attitudes towards people with mental ill health”.

Coventry Library Services, Coventry City Council

“A unique atmosphere.  When I visit, I somehow manage to feel both relaxed and excited at the same time. There is always something going on, people performing or practising, other groups are obviously debating or finalizing something. The facilities are exceptional, and the food is real quality with a very competitive price. I have taken my staff to experience the facility and they frequently go back. Definitely one to try!”.

Whitefriars Housing

“Revive Café is a great venue not just for fresh and wholesome food but for a whole range of events during the day and evening that bring together people from all walks of life across the city.”

Coventry Refugee and Migrant Centre

“Great food, great atmosphere!

Revive is a fantastic place to meet new people with new ideas”.

Coventry University

“The Pod is a unique, innovative, social brokerage service -

personalization oozes through every pore.”

Peers Review 2014