Horden Together Partnership, Durham County Council
Evaluation completed June 2026
This video about the Horden Together Partnership was funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. It draws upon content from the PHIRST evaluation but NIHR PHIRST had no role in funding or shaping the content.
What does the Horden Together evaluation mean for Neighbourhood Health? Read more on the Insights North East blog
Leading by Example: The Horden Together Partnership and Neighbourhood Health – Insights North East
At a glance
The Horden Together Partnership is an initiative to improve the lives of people living in Horden, a former mining village in the North East of England. Horden Together provides simplified, joined-up and person-centred support for residents in need. It aims to make the village a safer place to live, tries to rebuild trust in local services and fosters collaboration between different organisations working in Horden.
The evaluation looks at the difference Horden Together makes to the Horden community, and how this might affect council spending. The evaluation also looks at what makes Horden Together unique, and what aspects of Horden Together might work in similar left behind neighbourhoods.
What does the evaluation mean for Local Government?
This evaluation will inform Durham County Council on the working of Horden Together Partnership (HTP). It will focus on how HTP supports residents dealing with various challenges such as health issues and unstable housing. It will examine how HTP helps local people access services that are intended to improve their health and wellbeing. It will assess HTP’s use of the ‘Making Every Adult Matter’ framework to provide personalised care and 1:1 support.
The findings will help inform decisions on whether similar approaches could be adopted with other communities. They will add to the understanding of place-based and person-centred projects and how they address health inequalities.
How are the public involved in the evaluation?
With the help of Horden Together staff, a public involvement group has been established involving local residents. This group will meet approximately four times throughout the evaluation. The group will offer local insights, review evaluation findings, develop key messages, and help share knowledge effectively. They will play a key role in how we share the findings from this evaluation and will help to co-produce research outputs such as key messages, infographics or information postcards.
Evaluation Details
What is the Horden Together Partnership?
The aim of the Horden Together Partnership is to make life better for Horden residents —helping people access support when they need it, making reporting something simpler and making things work better. Horden Together provides intensive 1:1 support to residents who need it. The focus is on housing, money management, mental and physical health, drug and alcohol use, and reducing crime and antisocial behaviour. For example, they help with food provision, access to warm hubs and leisure activities, address littering and much more. They proactively engage with members of the community to solve problems.
Horden Together collaborates with over 60 organisations, helping to connect people to the right services. Horden Together has been described as an “open door” regardless of who you are. Staff “don’t just signpost but also follow people” through their journey helping them feel like their concerns matter. It is a way to help people in crisis to navigate their way through a complex system.
Why is an evaluation necessary?
The evaluation aims to understand how Horden Together works, whether its efficient. It will help everyone understand how to improve Horden Together and other similar programmes. It will also show whether Horden Together could work in other communities. The evaluation will help Durham County Council make informed decisions on how to run the programme in future.
What are the main research questions?
The research team spoke to Horden residents, people working at Horden Together and people working at Durham County Council. Everyone worked together to come up with the key questions that should be answered.
These questions are:
- How are residents using Horden Together? For example, how often do they use Horden Together? Which parts of Horden Together do people use most often? How quickly does Horden Together help solve problems?
- How does Horden Together change the way money is spent at the council?
- What makes Horden Together different from other similar programmes? For example, what are the most important “ingredients” to make it work?
How will we answer these questions?
The evaluation will have three separate parts, each focusing on different aspects of Horden Together. It will use a mix of different research methods to get a full picture of how well the project works:
1. Look at existing information
First, the evaluation will look at existing information that Horden Together has already gathered. This includes anonymous information about the people using Horden Together, how they got in touch with Horden Together, how long they stayed with Horden Together, and how Horden Together helped them. Instead of collecting new information, we will analyse what’s already there to identify patterns. It will help us better understand how Horden Together works.
2. Running costs
Secondly the evaluation will examine the costs of running Horden Together. It will then compare this to the costs that would occur if Horden Together didn’t exist to see if the partnership is cost-efficient.
3. Mapping people’s journeys
The third part will look at the journeys of people who go through Horden Together. We will do this by doing workshops with people who work with Horden Together staff and partner organisations. The workshops will help us figure out how Horden Together helps from an early stage, rather than later when people might be in a crisis. This will also help identify which parts of the programme might work in other places, and what might make it easier or more difficult to run programmes like Horden Together.
What happens with the results of the evaluation?
The evaluation will help Durham County Council understand how HTP works and how effective it is in improving the health and wellbeing of residents. It will also help explore whether a similar programme could work in other places.
We will share the findings in lots of different ways for different people within County Durham and beyond. We will work with residents, people working at Horden Together and people working at Durham County Council to find the best ways to communicate our findings. This could be through a report, a summary image or through creative ways. Our aim is to share the results and recommendations made in this evaluation so that they make a real-world impact on Horden Together and similar programmes.
Local Government / Partner(s)
Durham County Council:
- Matthew Walker, Public Health Strategic Manager
- Dr Julie Englund, Public Health Research and Evaluation Practitioner, Durham County Council and Embedded Team Member, PHIRST Elevate
- Ali Turner, Team Leader People, Horden Together
- Derek Robson, Partnership Manager, Horden Together
- Gemma Rowe, Community Engagement Coordinator, Horden Together
- Owen Cleugh, Safer Places Manager
PHIRST Elevate Research Team
Dr Andrew Williams, Dr Anna Boath, Dr Sarah Janac
Contact: phirst@ed.ac.uk