The Brent Community of Practice [CoP] has been meeting since early 2021 and aims to support a collaborative, holistic and person-centred approach to meeting the needs of people that use services across Brent.
CoP meetings are aimed at frontline practitioners from services in Brent, or those who work with Brent residents. Participants come from any part of the sector including statutory, charitable and community groups, and include homelessness and housing, substance misuse, mental health, exiting prostitution, immigration, community support, food banks and a vast array of other services. The main aim for these meetings is to:
- Develop local partnership and a clear understanding of provision that is offered locally: each meeting has presentations from local service providers who explain what they do, who they support and how to refer to them.
- Evidence the barriers and difficulties faced by Brent residents and use these to influence strategic change through discussion and deep dives.
- Learn together through reflection, presentations, bitesize teaching sessions and case studies so that we can all Brent staff can feel capable to have the conversation with individuals about their needs and suggest services that can meet these needs
Each session has a theme suggested by participants and which reflects the needs of those who we work with. Recent themes include young people, LGBTQI+, Domestic Abuse, No Recourse to Public Funds and Offenders.
Our first meeting focused on Mental Health and gave the opportunity for colleagues to learn about what services are available in the borough, as well as to impact local provision by sharing their experiences of barriers and needs for those who they work with. We had over 40 local partners in the ‘room’ and presentations by colleagues from psychological therapies, community mental health team and Brent SMART service. Since then, the CoP has grown and developed into a space for learning, sharing information, and understanding each other’s roles, with a mailing list of professionals covering over 100 local services. The knowledge shared and gained in these sessions is an important part of the service offer in Brent, and our commitment to constantly learn and develop.
If you have any ideas for future meetings, would like present or have any questions about these meetings please contact us.
You can browse resources from Brent Community of Practice below. The documents listed here are those presented in Community of Practice meetings and have been created and shared by the presenting service.