Hertfordshire Slipper Swap & provision of social care information
1. Organisation Introduction
Name: Chris Perera, Social Care Information Librarian, Hertfordshire Libraries & Heritage Services
Who you support: Hertfordshire residents
How you support: The provision of social care information
District(s) covered: Hertfordshire
2. Age-Friendly Overview
Social Care Information points in all libraries; large events such as Slipper Swaps for Falls Prevention and CareFest; one-off library events around specific awareness dates e.g. Dementia Awareness Week walks and talks; heritage and local studies events by HALS; the purchase of Health & Wellbeing stock for older people including digital stock with accessibility functions and audiobooks; social inclusion groups in most libraries to prevent social isolation; Move Yourself to Better Health with John Molyneux; a Home Library Service for the housebound; a reminiscence collection to aid with memory loss; dementia friends and other relevant training for staff;
3. Objectives
Improving accessibility, reducing social isolation, enhancing community engagement, preventing falls, improving mental health, providing information and signposting to relevant services.
4. Implementation
Many of our initiatives are ongoing and a core part of our library offer. We have a formal partnership with Adult Care Services and work collaboratively with them. We are putting together a formal partnership with the Alzheimer’s Society, who deliver our dementia friends training and assist us in making libraries dementia friendly spaces. We also partner with many other organisations for events in libraries such as Age UK, Carers in Herts, HILS, fire crews, PCSOs, Communities First and others. Some organisations (such as Herts Healthy Hubs) hire stalls in libraries to deliver information.
5. Challenges
Publicity is often our biggest challenge, but we use a combination of word-of-mouth, posters and leaflets in libraries and local community boards, social media and sometimes, our Corporate Comms to get the word out.
6. Outcomes
Slipper Swaps in 2023 were an undoubted success, with attendance and quantity of slippers given out proving that the appetite for these events has grown. There are a number of potential contributing aspects to this year’s success, but it is most likely to have been a combination of factors given the huge amount of goodwill from residents, partner organisations and staff teams. Many people now appear to recognise Slipper Swaps as a brand, and they get very good word of mouth, with almost universally positive feedback. Library teams value these events, promoting them with great enthusiasm and fully involving themselves on the day. There was a substantial amount of publicity due to the involvement of HCC Communications Team, illustrating that publicity in a variety of media is vital right up to the day of the event. It is also likely that continued rises in the cost of living may have contributed to attendance.
CareFest 24 - There was strong positive feedback from organisations and participants that it was a good balance of partner organisations giving out health advice and demonstrations on all aspects of mind and body. Many of the feedback forms showed that participants intended to pass on information indicating the presence of a good number of carers. Leafleting outside the libraries and in nearby locations such as busy high streets increased footfall and produced many positive comments about libraries and what a good idea the event was from those unable to attend. Many of the participants stayed in the library for a substantial part of these two-hour events (often over an hour) and received targeted advice from organisations they may have been unaware of.
The “Move Yourself to Better Health” drop-ins at Letchworth were very successful over the 4 months that they ran, and the program has now expanded to 4 further libraries. Attendees provided positive feedback, appreciating the opportunity to speak with John Molyneux, who was engaging, easy to talk to, and offered helpful suggestions and tips. John set up in the reference area, which accommodated the attendees well (4, 5, 8, and 8 per session), allowing him to demonstrate stretches and provide advice for muscular issues. The library staff directed interested borrowers to the sessions, and a display of John’s books at the entrance served as a great conversation starter. Each session lasted an hour, which was a comfortable length for the group.
A more general overview would be that we attract a substantial number of older people to our libraries throughout the year with a variety of offers, including social groups, all of which contribute to combatting social isolation.
7. Lessons Learned
We have many initiatives in the library service so insights gained would probably vary too widely for the purposes of this document.
8. Future Plans
We will continue with our established events and explore new possibilities by remaining open to suggestions, while maintaining healthy community links by working with our partners.
For more information: Libraries and archives | Hertfordshire County Council