‘Time2Trade' for the 'time rich and cash poor'

While most of us are familiar with modern marketplaces such as e-bay, Time Banks are still less known but spreading quickly as public agencies increasingly recognise their benefits. Time banking involves participants ‘depositing’ time in a bank, accrued through providing practical help and support to other time bank members. They can then ‘withdraw’ their time credits to utilise skills and support offered by other participants. No pricing system exists in a Timebank with everybody’s skills being valued equally at: 1 hour to 1 credit. This is not an extension of the Black Economy in which high quality skills are exchanged outside of the purview of the taxman. Time2Trade’s purpose is to give people who are not part of the market economy – for reasons of unemployment, deprivation, sickness or lack of self-esteem – access to basic services and opportunities to have a more purposeful, social, and healthy life in a ‘cash-free’ economy.

The Time Bank Time2Trade in Sandwell provides a model for healthcare commissioners and providers in the UK and elsewhere how to deal with increasing health inequalities as levels of income inequality have risen in most OECD countries.

Time 2 Trade was established in 2002 in Sandwell in order to tackle problems with health and well-being, and to provide residents with access to skills and services present in their community. It was established with a view to help strengthen and renew community networks vital to the social and physical health of a community.

The Metropolitan Borough of Sandwell is located in the West Midlands, around five miles from the centre of the City of Birmingham. The Borough is one of the most disadvantaged areas in the country, with high levels of social problems and of chronic disease such as Coronary Heart Disease and diabetes. The 2001 Census reported that 22% of Sandwell residents had a limiting long-term illness and over one in ten people’s general health was rated as ‘not good’. Also, Sandwell is one of the most deprived Boroughs in England. On the 2004 Department for Communities and Local Government Indices of Multiple Deprivation Sandwell’s average score ranked it at 16th most deprived local authority out of a total of 326. Sandwell also has higher Job Seekers Allowance claimants’, overall unemployment, and lower economic activity rates than average at the regional and national levels.

The aims of the Timebank are to:

• Promote well-being and improved health outcomes through enabling greater activity, learning, and access to healthy living opportunities.
• Tackle health inequalities through providing opportunities and empowering people to take greater control of their health and wellbeing. 
• Foster social inclusion through encouraging activity within the community. This provides an opportunity for individuals, such as those with learning disabilities that often face barriers to become a part of the community and older people who feel lonely and isolated from other generations.
• Promote dignity and independence allowing people to live in their homes longer.
• Enable greater access to goods and services to members of the community who are cash poor.

The Time Bank is located at the heart of the community on West Bromwich High Street in the same building as a credit union. Sharing a similar clientele as the credit union and being in such a busy area makes it easy for individuals to sign up, and for members to stay in touch. Effective communication with residents is crucial to the success of the time bank. Dan Grainger ensures that its members are regularly informed about new ways to be involved and past successes through ‘Time 2 Read’ bulletins and social events. Dan has also grown the scope of the activities provided and the size of the Time 2 Trade has been through the development of links with third sector and statutory organisations. Currently Time 2 Trade has 20 active organisations and well over 200 members.

Active organisations are able to earn time credits from providing members with services, but members are also able to earn credits by helping to volunteer and run activities at these organisations.

The following is a list of some of the active organisations partnered to the timebank:

• Sandwell PCT: Time 2 Trade is involved with many of the PCT health projects on healthy eating (Eatwell in Sandwell), community exercise, laughter workshops, and befriending schemes.
• Charlemont Community Centre and Bridging the Gap community organisation in the area: these community centres have been a venue for social events and classes to take place. Timebank members have been able to earn credits through providing services at these events (e.g. DJ-ing and running stalls at community events). Also Bridging the Gap has done a great deal of work to get young people in the community to join the Time Bank.
• Ryders Green day centre for the elderly: offering respite care.
• Sandwell Probation service: for ex-offenders to do volunteer work in the community.
• Sure Start Centres:  Time 2 Trade has been linked to one Sure Start to help provide services for young parents using the centre, such as through helping with coffee mornings and fundraising. As part of plans to increase the Time Bank’s coverage Dan has recently made links with another centre in Sandwell.
• YMCA: providing access to gym facilities.

Time 2 Trades future efforts towards increasing its efficiency and impact include developing a web-based operation that will provide its members with more up to date opportunities to volunteer services and utilise services.  However, Dan is keen to ensure that Time 2 Trade does not exceed its natural boundaries and overstretch its capacity.

Time2Trade is an innovative co-production initiative which helps public service providers to get in touch with so-called ‘hard-to-reach’ groups.  This makes Time2Trade also different from most other timebanking schemes in the UK which are mainly focused on community self-help exchanges and work around public services but not WITH public services. The Time2Trade co-production approach has produced results in a cost effective way, which would not be possible through traditional service delivery..

This section will outline how the Timebank has built social capital, improved health and well- being, tackling social isolation, combated health inequalities, empowered its members, and enabled individuals to improve their skills and qualifications.

Through partnering with Eatwell in Sandwell Time2Trade has been able to improve its member’s dietary habits and access to healthy food Time2Trade. Eatwell in Sandwell is an award winning healthy eating campaign also funded by the PCT. This linkage means time bank members are able to purchase food up to the value of £4 using one time bank credit at Eatwell’s affiliated community cafes. This is particularly important in mitigating health inequalities for cash-poor members of Sandwell, and allowing members of the community access quality, healthy food. To ensure that healthy food community cafes maintain high standards the time bank has setup a mystery shopping service to evaluate them.  Time bank members are able to earn time credits that they can use to receive other services, whilst also being able to enjoy healthy meals. This represents a ‘win-win’ situation for the member and the PCT. The cost of a meal for the member as a reward represents a much cheaper than if the PCT operated through an agency. It also provided valuable raw data that Eatwell in Sandwell was able to use to develop their services and address their faults.

Time Bank members have also been able to earn Fruit and Veg Vouchers. These have been extremely popular – for example between September 2009 and February 2010 82 vouchers were issued amongst 32 members. For the elderly and other cash poor members this represents an extremely effective way in which they can access high quality healthy food. Also one member decided to donate his voucher for a children’s group to enjoy and another decided to donate it to an elderly people group. The Time Bank has enabled its member to use their credits to receive training in food hygiene, and health and safety training. This has built the capacity of its members to be more employable and able to put on more events.

Time2Trade has improved opportunities for its members to become physically active. Members have been able to earn credits by volunteering to help run exercise activities for Sandwell PCT. This has included exercise classes, and local walking sessions. Another way that the Time Bank seeks to provide its members with an opportunity to get exercise has been through providing its members with access to local gym facilities.  

The Time Bank has created a partnership with the local YMCA and members are able to enrol for a one month period. This allows members to use state of the art gym facilities and exploring whether using the gym is a realistic way for them to improve their fitness. If they then want to join the gym on a permanent basis the YMCA has a wide range of options available such as concessions for over 60s and those receiving certain benefits.

Time2Trade members have also been able to use their time to help improve the mental well-being of other people in the community through taking part in a befriending scheme. This scheme run by the PCT’s mental health outreach team, involves spending several hours a week in the company of someone in need of support in their recovery from the effects of mental health problems. This has proved to be a very cost effective way for the PCT to run such a scheme to ensure independence, improving mental health and providing personalised support for Sandwell residents.

The projects links with Bridging the Gap community organisation has improved the employability of the young volunteers who became members of the time bank. Volunteering the youngster are able to obtain a certificate from their activity. The Bridging the Gap certification forms part of a record of achievement for the young people which was developed by Sandwell PCT community development dept and Bridging The Gap. These certificates represent a great way to bolster these young individuals’ CV’s – and allow them to do something positive for the community.

Sandwell Primary Care Trust invests £11,325 plus the salary of Dan Grainger to the Timebank annually. This is a small investment given the benefits Time2Trade has created. Martin Knapp of the London School of Economics has produced a cost-benefit analysis of Time Banks. In his study “Building Community Capacity. Making an Economic Case”, Knapp said that “Time Banks, which use hours of time rather than pounds as a community currency, cost £450 per member per year, but can provide savings of more than £1300 per member over the same period. Participants contribute their own skill, practical help or resources in return for services provided by fellow time bank members.”

Also Time2Trade is able to make further savings by allowing Donna to earn time credits when helping do admin work. Donna works between 10 and 15 hours per week for Time2Trade earning time credits. If she did this at the minimum wage she would earn £76 (£6.08 x 12.5) per week. This saves the time bank approximately £304 per month and £3648 a year.

Learning points

Dan Grainger said that he had learned the following during his time running the Timebank:

• The project needs to be local, community-based and driven by its members to give them ownership over it and ensure their sustained involvement.
• Expectation management is important. Dan had to make sure members were realistic in the kinds of services they would receive. As members were ordinary people (often in retirement age) they couldn’t expect to get services that required high-levels of skills and training (such as plumbing or electrical work). It was important to get this clear to prevent the possibilities being alienated further along the line. Managing the expectations of Primary Care Trust has also been important.
• Where there is an imbalance in the services that are provided the Time Bank has to be creative in catering for services. This can be through buying in services or linking with other organisations.
• The size and growth of Time Banks are linked to the size of the staff that can process all of the information to allow it to run efficiently. Dan and Donna have been able to ensure that the Time Bank has grown to its current size. However, to increase the scale of the Time Bank would require additional investment in more paid staff.

Dan Grainger has written in the Medicine, Conflict and Survival Journal. The article is titled ‘ Time to trade for health’ in Volume 24, supplement 1, published in 2008 in the journal. It is available by clicking on this link.

The work of Time2Trade has been showcased on BBC Midlands Today’s news programme. Click here to see it.
   
Find out more on Governance International's Time Banking page in the Co-production Tree.

If you are interested in reading in greater depth about time banking Martin Simon, who is the Founding Advisor of Timebanking UK, has written an excellent book called ‘Your Money or Your Life: Time for Both’. Click here for more information.