2016 Winners | Mosaic Clubhouse
Mosaic Clubhouse
Winner – Managing Turnaround
Who they are
Mosaic Clubhouse in Lambeth works with people with mental health issues, based on co-production principles, to improve their wellbeing and employability. People are members rather than patients; there aren’t any clinicians or therapy involved.
The Clubhouse model seeks to address the social isolation, loss of confidence and skills, and educational and vocational disadvantages that accompany a diagnosis of mental illness. It is part of an international network of over 300 clubhouses in 32 countries all working to 36 recovery standards. All clubhouses have to be successfully accredited against these standards in order to gain a licence to operate. Mosaic is one of only 11 international training bases offering intense training to clubhouses from around the world twice a year.
Specific objectives of the model are:
• To encourage Clubhouse members to provide mutual support in their journeys towards recovery;
• To assist members to regain self-confidence, self-belief, and self-esteem by identifying their current strengths, as well as developing new skills;
• To enable members to achieve their own personal goals and improve their employability.
In particular, Mosaic provides opportunities to return to paid and voluntary employment through a successful employment programme. Members are also encouraged to access basic, further and higher education.
What they’ve achieved
In 2011, Mosaic faced a major challenge when the way mental health rehabilitation services were commissioned changed. These changes created a lot of uncertainty for Mosaic and threatened the charity’s way of working, which they describe as a “deliberately understaffed model which depends on the skills and talents of members to deliver the services”. It also meant the loss of their premises.
Mosaic’s board held true to their core values and their approach to working with people living with mental health conditions. They took proactive and collective action, leading from the front, and engaging with operational issues as needed.
For example, trustees met regularly with commissioners, scrutinising documents and bringing their experience of procurement to bear on the problem. The board made full use of appropriate tools such as the risk register and financial modelling to keep on top of the situation.
Overcoming challenges
The organisation also ensured that staff, volunteers and service users were consulted and informed throughout. Their efforts have enabled Mosaic to overcome these challenges and flourish.
Income has grown significantly and the organisation is now in a stronger financial position and has new premises. Mosaic is supporting a growing number of people and has managed to extend and embed new services.
Judges were very impressed by the way that the board embraced change and took risks while ensuring that the service was not compromised. Mosaic have managed to navigate through difficult commissioning challenges to a successful resolution without undermining its service model, or core values.
