Lorraine Goldberg is CEO at the Carers Centre SA Ltd. They support informal carers who look after a relative, friend, or neighbour who could not cope with day-to-day life without their care and support.
Lorraine is working in partnership with other local organisations in an Early Help Consortium brought together by BD Collective.
Tell me about the Early Help Consortium
The Early Help Consortium is part of the Collective, our network of networks. The Consortium’s focus is ensuring families get the best help, when they need it, to prevent a crisis.
BD Collective gave us the information about the Local Authority’s contract criteria, so everyone had the chance to be part of it. We looked at it together in a very fair, open, transparent way.
What made it fair and open as opposed to other types of commissioning partnership?
It was fair because it was open for anyone if they felt that they met the criteria and they could deliver the project. Some looked at it more closely and decided, actually, it’s not for me.
We’ve done consortium working in the past, and we haven’t been successful at the end of it. But this time, I felt that we weren’t going to be wasting our time. It was a chance to do something together.
What made you confident it wasn’t a waste of time?
Well, there was money on the table, and it was specifically for Barking and Dagenham. It made a lot of sense that organisations that were established in Barking and Dagenham, would be able to collectively go for the bid.
In that case, if BD Collective wasn’t there, do you think you’d have reached out to those same people in the consortium for the bid?
No, and the reason is that although we all knew each other, in the current climate we have all gone our own ways. Sticking our heads into the cause that we work for.
In my case that’s care, we serve carers in the borough. I make sure that we are doing all that we can to survive, to ensure that the Carers Centre does what it set out to do.
We have all had to work so hard to get the money in and keep organisations going. As leaders, we didn’t have time for the other stuff. In the past I’d go to a meeting, say hello to local leaders, but not huge amounts went on. I’d come away thinking that really didn’t serve a purpose. I had to get on with what I needed to do for carers.
Then why did you get involved in BD Collective? What was it that sounded different about it?
It didn’t feel like it was being run by any particular organisation. We all got together to get it off the ground and now it is what we envisaged it would be: a network. We’re all equal. Any one of us can take a lead or create something, or the community can come in and create their own thing, that’s what I love about it.
Say you had, for example, a block of flats in Barking and Dagenham run by a private company, but they’re not running it very well… Loads of things going wrong and the residents are upset. The company’s not listening to them. Those residents could come to us and say “Look, we’re really, struggling. Can you offer us a venue where we meet up to sort it out?”
A typical BD Collective response would be “We’ve got a venue, you can meet here whenever you need it. We believe in what you’re doing.”
Then they can do something about it for themselves. Imagine … Wouldn’t it be amazing if they end up managing the flats? Take control over how it’s run, security, the grounds around it; they’re given a budget to make things better; they get someone who comes to their meetings and listens.
Amazing. Tell me more about your motivations for the borough?
Everyone in the Collective, we’ve always felt in our heart that whatever we do, it’s to make the community that we’re working in – that lots of us live in – better. More resilient.
Maybe we lost track of that a little bit with everything that’s being going on in the past few years. The Collective enables us to revisit those values.
It’s the voluntary sector, at its best. We think about the community first. Then we work around all the other stuff, costs to our organisation; how we manage things together.
What kind of future do you imagine for residents living in Barking and Dagenham?
It’s a fact that we want a more resilient, healthy, and wealthy borough for people that live here. It’s all linked, isn’t it? If you’ve got more money in your pocket, you can buy healthier food and have a different mindset about looking after yourself.
With all the change in the borough, the developments, the film studios… I’d like to see people looking at the borough as a place to get a good job, especially for our young people.
For us to be a more empowered borough, like the example of the block of flats. We need those community groups that come together to feel confident – with a bit of help from the Collective to start – to make that change and to find solutions. This is about what people can do for themselves.
How do you think civil society can contribute to that?
The worst thing ever is people in a dire situation feeling no one is listening. Civil society has always been a listening ear. But this is bigger. Services are dwindling and people are in need. It’s more important than ever.
It’s important people know they can come together and make changes. BD Collective aren’t the gatekeepers, and we don’t hold the big budgets. We just help them: a venue, some hospitality, an introduction.
What do you think it would take for civil society to take the lead?
We’ve started it with the Early Help Consortium. That was a brave decision for the council.
We can do it because we’re in the community, we’re visible and that’s important. We’re trusted by people because we get it, and we can be more flexible. That’s why we’re successful. We get an awful lot of compliments because we give people a service they want.
The next step is for institutions – the Local Authority, Health Services – to pass more to us.
What excites you most about BD Collective?
BD Collective makes me feel I’m not wasting my time. It’s a different outlook on what we can do together and there are still new things emerging.
Most of all I want to see people who live here forming groups and the Collective facilitating and nurturing them if needed. Whatever it may be, whatever the community wish for. That’s exciting.
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