Social model support scheme that tackles barriers secures nearly £600,000 funding

A peer support scheme that has helped hundreds of disabled people in a single borough with the barriers they face in their daily lives has secured nearly £600,000 in funding over the next five years to continue its work.

Inclusion Barnet’s Touchpoint Peer Support scheme provides disabled people with one-to-one support from other disabled people to help them with up to five goals they want to achieve.

Up to last August, the north London scheme had helped more than 750 disabled people access education, social care, access to the local community or other support, with even more helped in the last year.

Now the extra funding is set to help another 800 people in the borough over the next five years.

In contrast with some traditional mental health peer support schemes, which tend to focus on “recovery”, Touchpoint is based on a social model approach that focuses on “dismantling barriers and helping people access the local services or community resources they need”.

The peer support worker works one-to-one with the disabled person over 12 weeks to help them address the barriers preventing them reaching their goals.

The service – which is open to anyone living, working or studying in Barnet – has been running since 2018, with financial support from the National Lottery and Barnet council.

Caroline Collier (pictured), Inclusion Barnet’s chief executive, said: “It’s reaching a whole cohort of disabled people who might not necessarily hit the thresholds for statutory support, but might equally not find what they need within universal services.

“So there’s a kind of group in the middle, who could otherwise end up really under-served.”

Others who benefit are those with higher support needs, who have tried and failed to engage with services, often because of the attitudinal barriers they are confronted with.

Among those who have benefited from Touchpoint are a disabled person with a learning difficulty who did not think they could access further education but was supported to take a college course.

Others have been helped with their benefits, or to leave bed and breakfast accommodation and find stable and accessible housing.

Sometimes, it is as simple as signposting someone to support they were not aware of within the community.

Another disabled person would never leave his home alone and never wanted to, but now – thanks to support from Touchpoint – he enjoys a daily walk around his neighbourhood.

Keely Parnaby, Inclusion Barnet’s head of peer services, said: “It can be as simple as that; enjoying the kind of rights the rest of us – who don’t face the same barriers – expect to have.”

In June, the scheme heard that The Henry Smith Charity had agreed three years’ funding worth nearly £180,000.

And the National Lottery has now confirmed another £395,000 funding for Touchpoint over five years.

The two awards, as well as continuing smaller-scale funding from the council, will guarantee Touchpoint’s survival.

Collier said Inclusion Barnet was grateful to the National Lottery, Henry Smith, and the council.

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