Demand for a Good Neighbour Scheme is usually identified in Parish Plans, though some schemes have come about from a direct approach from parish councils and other local groups. The co-ordinator post has received funding from a variety of sources over the past seven years including the East of England Development Agency (EEDA), the European Social Fund (ESF), Suffolk County Council, PCTs across the county, Suffolk Rural Transport Partnership, Lloyds TSB, Mid Suffolk District Council and Local Strategic Partnership (LSP), West Suffolk and Babergh LSPs, the Rank Foundation and the Charles Hayward Foundation.

Suffolk ACRE has developed a toolkit which helps communities to set up and launch their own scheme, and provide guidelines for volunteers. Since the Good Neighbour Scheme was featured on The One Show on BBC 1 the toolkit has been gone out to 14 other organisations outside the county. Nat and Robert are always happy to give a brief presentation to parish councils or a group of interested residents about how the scheme works and who are the principal beneficiaries. They will also sit in at meetings of steering groups as an advisor and help to source a start-up grant of at least £500 for each scheme. This is to cover the costs of a mobile phone, Public Liability Insurance, CRB and ISA checks on volunteers (through SAVO), identity cards for volunteers, stationery and any promotional material. Most start-up grants have been sourced from county councillors’ Locality Budgets as well as a variety of other sources. Once it is up and running each scheme needs to be self sustaining through fund-raising and donations. The co-ordinators continue to maintain contact with all schemes after launch and invite each scheme to attend an annual forum where volunteers can come and share examples of good practice and discuss solutions to common problems.

Each scheme raises a team of volunteers who are willing to help others in their community. Volunteers can choose in which way or ways they would like to help so they don’t feel over-burdened. The only service for which there is a charge is giving lifts, for which the driver is compensated directly by the client at up to 40 pence a mile as compensation for fuel and running costs.

The scheme revolves around a mobile phone, which is held in turn by a core group of volunteers who match the need of a caller to a volunteer who has offered to help in that particular way. It is a system which spreads the load and does not put pressure on any volunteer to do everything on the list. In some areas where mobile signals are poor, schemes use a land line which can be diverted on a rota basis.

The Good Neighbour Scheme has expanded across the county with 21 individual Good Neighbour Schemes up and running in Suffolk. The first to launch was at Stradbroke, and other schemes include Aldringham-cum-Thorpe, Barrow & Denham, Bildeston, Botesdale & Rickinghall, Chevington, Cookley & Walpole, Finningham, Glemsford, Honington & Sapiston, Earl Stonham, Lakenheath, Long Melford, Rattlesden, Shotley & Erwarton, Stowupland, Tattingstone, Harkstead & Lower Holbrook, Ufford, The Triangle in Ipswich, and Wickham Market. These schemes have recruited more than 600 volunteers who in turn support thousands of Suffolk people.

A new development has been the first urban pilots of the Good Neighbour Scheme. The Triangle Good Neighbour Scheme which is centred on The Triangle Living Water drop-in Centre continues to work with the people of the Chantry Park area of Ipswich.

The original co-ordinator of the schemes, Gavin Hodge who helped to set up most of the schemes running today, describes the Good Neighbour Schemes in this way: "Every community has good-hearted people who automatically help their neighbours, but the aim of the Good Neighbour Scheme is to fill any gaps in this network of care in a community and to put help within reach of every resident of a community.”

Good Neighbour Schemes provide a structured way of volunteering with support from Suffolk ACRE. All volunteers are subject to CRB checks to help build confidence in the scheme locally. It is important for a scheme to be formally set up using the Suffolk ACRE method. The establishing of a constitution and bank account allows the scheme to take out insurance. Public Liability insurance protects both the volunteers and members of the public.

As a result of work with the Good Neighbour Scheme Suffolk ACRE was invited to join the Safe & Sound Group, a police-led multi-agency panel which combats distraction burglaries. Consequently, individual Good Neighbour Schemes have signed up to an initiative called Nominated Neighbour which helps safeguard elderly and vulnerable people from bogus doorstep callers. Suffolk ACRE is also involved with the Suffolk Older People's Strategic Partnership Board which advises on policy for older people in the county, and the Rural Coffee Caravan Information Project. This is a unique service comprising a mobile resource which visits Suffolk villages, providing a focal point for villages that lack basic facilities and acting as a source of information on local services, training, courses, and self-help. The manager and volunteer staff can signpost visitors to the caravan to a wide variety of help available in the county, such as resources for carers. Free coffee, tea and cakes are provided and donations requested.