sinking and swimming understanding britain’s unmet needs will norman

The Young Foundation 2009

Sinking and SwimmingUnderstanding Britain’s Unmet NeedsWill Norman


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


Consortium of Programme FundersBaring Foundation Barrow Cadbury Trust Bedford Charity (The Harpur Trust)Big Lottery FundCity 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 AdvisorsLord Moser, Senior AdvisorProf Suzanne Fitzpatrick, York UniversityProf Ian Gough, University of BathProf Danny Dorling, Sheffield UniversityKaren Dunnell, Head of ONS

Prof Mike Savage, Manchester UniversityNorman Glass, CEO of NatCen

Peter Taylor-Gooby, University of KentProf Roger Jowell, City University Prof Ruth Lister, Loughborough University


• 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


Analysis


Percentage of UK individuals in relative poverty after housing costs 1979 to 2007/08.

Source ONS Social Trends 2009


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


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


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


The bottom million?Percentage responses to questions on emotional support 2007/08

Source: BHPS analysis


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


Case Studies


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


Transitions – from care, prison, bereavement…

Showing the importance of preparation, bridging relationships, assets to help after the transition and also how rare these are


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


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


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


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


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


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


Futures


Long period of constrained public funding.

Pressures on housing, inequality, fuel and food prices, ageing, diversity, but also ...


Anxiety and Depressions – Doubling in a generation


Obesity – Doubling in a new generation


Every particular example needs to be understood in three dimensions …


Conceptual framework for understanding how needs are met – and what can go wrong

Need felt or identified

Satisfaction

Demand expression

Availability External Activation

Identification

Process

Internal activation

Subjective experience

Potential barriers

Need expressed

effectively as demand for

existing satisfier

Need acknowledg

ed as satisfiable

and a priority for

action

Need satisfied

Satisfier provided in full, in time

and effectively

Satisfier available,

affordable, accessible, offered and

accepted

I am getting Y as

promised

They are offering me Y

in an acceptable way at an

acceptable time, place

and price and with

acceptable reciprocal demands

Here is my need X, please

provide me with satisfier Y to which I am entitled by virtue of

Z

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.

I’m suffering or

if I don’t get this

sorted I will suffer

Y seems to work, my need is being met

Lack of knowledge, absence of perceived suffering,

cognitive or mental health

impairment, denial

Service provided partially,

badly or at the wrong

time, service

different from that promised

Non-existence of

satisfier, rationing, expense,

ineligibility, inaccessibility

, exclusion, conditionality

Lack of confidence, assertivenes

s, power, opportunity,

support, legitimacy, knowledge, language

determination or

organization; wrong

approach, strategy, timing or

data

Lack of awareness

and motivation,

pride, stigma,

mistrust, bad previous

experience, competing priorities,

hyper-stress, culture, perverse

incentives, fatalism, learned

helplessness

Need more complex

than thought,

dependent upon

resolution of other

needs, only temporarily met, or met

in a way that causes more need


Implications and directions for action1. Support organisations

providing preparation, bridges and support for difficult transitions

2. Back projects that tackle isolation – help to connect the disconnected

3. Support projects providing access with ‘no wrong door’

4. Support projects that enhance resilience and psychological fitness


Implications and directions for action5. Rethink welfare provision

through the lens of wellbeing 6. Support the provision of new

and old necessities7. Invest in better social accounts


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.


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.


Replication & InnovationWe’ve identified the problems that are getting worse. How do we solve them?

1. Clear need, effective response, government unwilling to act.

2. Emerging models and potential commissioning by government.

3. Needs where solutions don’t work well require experimentation and genuine innovation.


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

sinking and swimming understanding britain’s unmet needs will norman

Documents

young foundation

bhps analysis slide

loughborough university

case studies slide

serious unmet needs

statistical analysis

psychological needs

teesside families