The Sinfin area is isolated from the centre of Derby and service provision was fragmented and difficult to access. It is one of the areas of greatest social deprivation which had benefited from limited regeneration initiatives.

The Base aims to cost-effectively provide a single point of contact for people to access local services and provide a neighbourhood resource as a meeting place and training facility.

The project adapted to form a community support service and information centre used by a range of service providers. It created a new post, that of Integrated Service Link Officer, to supervise individual cases as a single point of contact to ensure better access to local services.

Derby City Partnership, the LSP for the area, set up the Sinfin Neighbourhood Services Link. The Sinfin Branch Library was chosen because the facility was underused and the service in need of modernisation. The Base was set up in the library (and the building modified) and the project staffed.

The aim was to provide a one point contact meaning that individuals would deal with one person who would act as the advocate for that enquiry and steer it through to a satisfactory conclusion.

By using and adapting an existing building costs were minimised.

An increasing number of agencies are using the Base, up from 7 to 10 in four months. Numbers using the library and the borrowing rate of books are also increasing. Greater service integration is taking place. In one scenario, 7 different service providers were involved in a case co-ordinated by the Base officer.

The next stage in the project is to utilise IT to capture the expertise being developed at the Base to make it available to a wider audience using information kiosks in areas of high footfall.

The community

Derby City Council
Jovica Prastalo (Neighbourhood Co-ordinator Old & New Sinfinv)

//2004

case

Urban Policy > Social inclusion & integration

Community development