Homelessness - pathways and prevention Ellen Daly & Rikke Iversholt

 Housekeeping  Agenda  A brief intro to IRISS  Innovation and evidence  Homelessness project input WELCOME! About today

Agenda 10am Weaving innovation and evidence together 10.30am Lesley McAleenan and Willie Dunn 11am Emma Dore 11.30am Katy Hetherington Noon Group work Lunch 1.15pm Lesley Anderson and colleagues 2pm Evidence bites from project 2.30pm Group work: what does this mean in practice 3pm Group work: Shaping the next steps

IRISS is a third sector organisation promoting positive outcomes for the people supported by Scotland’s social services.

We work to deliver 3 key outcomes:  embed a culture of collaboration, openness to new ideas  ensure everyone has the knowledge, tools and skills to effectively use evidence and to innovate  place people at the centre of the design of services and support

The idea: 3 points  Look back, investigate and celebrate innovation  Look forward and highlight what needs to be done  Evidence some of the good work that is happening The homelessness project

Weaving together innovation and evidence Both identified as ways to improve practice Rarely discussed together

Innovation Implies a real change in how work is done Uses new knowledge, organisation or process to develop changes in the way people are supported New to sector, scale or place Characterised as incremental, moderate or radical. Evidence Relates to knowledge and understanding In social services this relates to everything from published research, practitioner wisdom, to the lived experience of people who access support.

Mixed methods and methodologies. Action research, organisational ethnography, co-production, human centred design, service design, experience based design, focus groups, case studies and storytelling can all be used to facilitate the weaving of innovation and evidence. New technology.

Collaboration and buy-in

Willie Dunn, MARC & Lesley McAleenan, CRNS

Emma Dore, Shelter

Katy Heatherington, NHS Health Scotland

Group work 1)What evidence do you use to drive forward innovative work? 1)How have you used it? 1) What evidence have you generated about changes / new practice?  25 minutes  Assign a scribe for each table  Feedback key points

Lunch

Lesley Anderson & colleagues, Cyrenians

Key evidence bites from Pathways and Prevention project

Case studies 1.Trauma-informed practice and homelessness (Trauma Team, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde) 2.Personality Disorder and homelessness (Personality Disorder and Homelessness Team, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde) 3.SmartLiving (Falkirk Council and LinkLiving Ltd) 4.Nightstop Edinburgh: preventing youth homelessness (Edinburgh City Council and Rock Trust) 5.Making a house a home (Midlothian Advice and Resource Centre and Midlothian Council) 6.Navigate (Peer Mentoring and Advocacy Service, Glasgow Homelessness Network) 7.Cyrenians Communities: farm and city (Edinburgh Cyrenians) 7.A Personal approach to homelessness (Simon Community Scotland)

Homelessness: what makes a difference when we talk about… Prevention Innovation Partnerships Person-centred approaches

Prevention

Flickr: Iñaki Quenerapú ‘There’s a changing tide…it’s about life skills…if we went into schools to talk about homelessness, it’s a complete turn-off…but if you talk about independent living…’

Flickr: woodleywonderworks Prevention – it should be there as part of education, not for housing to pick up once the horse has bolted…’

Flickr: Diane Cordell ‘…your relationships are like a mirror back on yourself… they’re the key.’

Flickr: krystianmajewski ‘an awareness of the needs of people who have experience of trauma and homelessness…’

Flickr: bhamsandwich ‘It is an established fact that if people have furniture in their homes they will sustain their tenancy more. That’s a fact.’

Flickr: Aoife_Mags ‘Make the transition as normal and supported as possible… a much smoother pathway to independent living’

Homelessness prevention -Independent living -Education -Relationships -Health -Sustainability of support (prevent the revolving door) -Transitions – make them planned and safe

Innovation

“It was an idea of a bit of paper” “We sort of made it up!” “We didn’t even think we were offering a volunteer programme, it was just ‘lets get young people and we’ll do this work!”

“It takes a bit of guts.” “…the bleeding obvious!’ “…a small resource with a big task”

“What could we have done differently?” “Really? That works?!” “If we’re measuring things… we can make changes”

Homelessness innovation  Train to build capacity in other services  Suspending judgment  Risk taking  Reflective practice  Going beyond improvement measures  Trying something new  Capturing and recording  Co-designing processes and services

Partnership working

“Information sharing is the biggest challenge and the most important thing to make it work” “Staff talking to each other is a must” “expectation exchange”

“…openness from other services… to learn, to engage, to work jointly…” “…it makes sense in homelessness to work across those boundaries” “…getting a good contact…”

“there was clearly a missing link between these services and people too scared to open up... that’s where we come in.”

Homelessness partnerships  Identifying the appropriate person to ensure sustained collaboration and impact  Learning and reflecting together  Inter-agency collaboration (widely across services)  Setting and agreeing objectives  Importance of peer-led to fill communications gap

Person-centred approaches

“…for us it’s all about the conversations” “We had to get our criteria to fit these people, rather than get these people to fit our criteria “ “We a community: volunteers and residents together” “This isn’t just a homelessness, youth issue… it’s a people thing”

“The role of people with lived-experience is the critical one.” “…always look at what they can do” “Clients have a choice, and that is the important bit.”

Homelessness person-centred approaches  Eligibility can exclude as well as qualify a person for services  Lived experience breaks down the barrier between a person and services  Asset based approaches  Choice and dignity  Relationship-focus  No such thing as ‘one size fits all’

Group work 1)What do these points from the evidence mean in your context? 2) What are the practical barriers and enablers to changing the way we work / innovating in response to evidence?  3 key points from each table  20 mins, then feedback

Group work: next steps 1. Volunteering, peer-led interventions and lived experience. 2. Scoping event Monday 1st June, Brunswick House 3. Surfacing thoughts, ideas, advice and guidance to help think through the ‘how’.  3 key points from each table  20 mins, then feedback

Contact us Ellen Daly Rikke Iversholt