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ve been a lived experience practitioner for 18 years, and it’ s been a tough call,’ Jamie Poole, lived experience project lead for Surrey County Council’ s Changing Futures programme, told the conference’ s first session. Pervading stigma had meant sometimes overhearing things like‘ you’ d better hide the petty cash’, he said.‘ That’ s some of the stuff we encounter, so we’ re about changing cultures and educating people.’

Changing Futures was a joint £ 91.8m initiative between the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government( MHCLG) and the National Lottery’ s community fund. Operating in 15 areas, it was designed to improve the lives of people experiencing multiple disadvantage, he said. The objectives were to test and innovate new approaches, with wraparound support available

for up to two years.‘ We really work around a trauma-informed relational model where the support isn’ t rationed.

‘ Everybody comes with complex problems,’ he told delegates, which is why it was important to widen the net to include things like adverse childhood experiences( ACEs).‘ We’ re looking to go upstream. We’ re an adult service but we need to look at interventions much earlier.’ What‘ multiple disadvantage’ ultimately meant was‘ multiple disadvantage to the service’, he said.‘ Services like to turn it around and say it’ s about the individual – that they don’ t meet the criteria because of their many challenges’.

SYSTEM CHANGE The initiative’ s objectives were not only to meet the needs of people who had fallen through the gaps in the system, but lasting system

change.‘ Don’ t open the gate and then shut it again,’ he stated.‘ Open it and then smash the fence down – disrupt it, challenge it. We need lived experience to be at the forefront of developing and commissioning, not just tokenism.’

The team had worked to get the local five-year Joint Strategic Needs Assessment( JSNA) document co-produced, he said.‘ Lots of people are signing up to this, and our Changing Futures lived experience group started to do some peer research training to get involved with a co-produced document that could really be a game changer in our area. But we had to be really robust with our methodology, because we knew this ship needed to be watertight.’

However, the‘ efficacy and authenticity of the document shone through’, he told the conference. The’ golden strand’ was lived experience – and the

fact that the governance had been led by lived experience meant that‘ they couldn’ t challenge it within the system, because the evidence was saying it. There was a genuine moral justice.’ Comprehensive independent reviews were vital, he said, rather than services simply‘ marking their own homework – of course they’ re going to say it’ s good. Let’ s have some proper research around what’ s working and what’ s not. Let’ s be brave and make it more inclusive. We’ re very early in our journey, but we’ re really moving forward, and there’ s a momentum there to really make this happen and make the system more accountable.’

SENSE OF PURPOSE‘ Where I found myself was never the place I wanted to be,’ said Zack Haider community development director for