Organisations are simply collections of people who are working, to a lesser or greater extent, toward a common set of goals.  While organisational policies often clearly define the actions to take in common situations, sometimes the context is exceptional requiring staff and managers to apply their judgement.  The aim is to achieve something consistent with the spirit of the policies leading to defensible decision that achieves the outcomes understood to be consistent with the aims of the organisation.

We are, however, also creatures of habit.

Using precedent is a way we navigate though complexity to manage the personal and professional risks associated with using judgement.  These socially circumscribed understandings then often become unwritten additions to the system for exceptions handling. Part of the culture. A part of […]

Gary Morris, programme manager of Waves of Hope reflects on what they have learned about delivery and transition as the programme comes to an end this December. 

It was a cold winter morning when the email from National Lottery Community Fund came through agreeing a six month continuation period for the Liverpool Fulfilling lives programme “Waves of Hope”. The agreement meant two things, firstly more time to plan for the transition of over 100 service users out of the programme and secondly to give more time to the Core Strategy Group to prepare to deliver the learning and legacy outcomes to the wider multiple disadvantage sector. During that time a lot has been achieved: the almost 100 per cent delivery of the transition plan which enables […]

Dr Ray Middleton is the Workforce Development Lead for the National Lottery Community Fund’s Fulfilling Lives programme in Newcastle and Gateshead (FLNG). With a special interest in trauma-informed care, Ray is piloting a programme to develop Psychologically Informed Environments (PIE) in frontline services combining an innovative ‘Open Dialogue’ approach to mental health with PIE using the ‘Ladder4Life’ framework he developed.

A Psychologically Informed Environment (PIE) is a space which considers ‘the psychological make up – the thinking, emotions, personalities and past experience – of its participants in the way that it operates’ (Johnson et al., 2012).

As described in my last blog at FLNG we have long been enthusiastic promoters of PIE and have used our experience to develop and deliver a PIE training programme that supports other local […]

Dr Ray Middleton is the Workforce Development Lead for the National Lottery Community Fund’s Fulfilling Lives programme in Newcastle and Gateshead (FLNG). With a special interest in trauma-informed care, Ray is piloting a programme to develop Psychologically Informed Environments (PIE) in frontline services combining an innovative ‘Open Dialogue’ approach to mental health with PIE using the ‘Ladder4Life’ framework he developed.

A Psychologically Informed Environment (PIE) is a space which considers ‘the psychological make up – the thinking, emotions, personalities and past experience – of its participants in the way that it operates’ (Johnson et al., 2012).

FLNG have been enthusiastic promoters of PIE since our programme began in 2014.  Evidence from our initial PIE pilots in 2016 (described in this report) highlighted the need for good […]

Sarah Robinson (CFE) and Wayne Richmond and Nicola Plumb (Blackpool Fulfilling Lives) share their reflections on a National Expert Citizens’ Group Workshop

On Monday 28^th and Tuesday 29^th November 2016 CFE facilitated a two day workshop for the National Expert Citizens’ Group (NECG). The NECG is a group of individuals with lived experience of multiple needs; the group is formed by representatives from each of the 12 funded Fulfilling Lives project areas. The Monday was a training and planning day for the experts by experience. The day focused on training delegates to chair meetings/events and facilitate workshops at events. It was an opportunity to build the confidence and skills of the experts. The activities used to test their skills focused on deciding the direction of […]

In the first of a series of blogs, Vic Citarella considers the crucial role of the workforce in Fulfilling Lives for people with multiple and complex needs. Vic is keen to start a dialogue with projects on this topic. You can get in touch with him using the details below.

“The CFE and University of Sheffield 2nd annual report into the national evaluation of Fulfilling Lives: Supporting people with multiple needs programme has chapters on ‘interventions and approaches’ and on ‘working the frontline’. The report says it raises as many questions as it answers but without doubt it pinpoints the workforce and what they do as the mission critical factor in the projects. More is promised by way of research and future evaluation. That means, among […]

In the hunt for a bike for my daughter the typing of “kids bikes” in Google returned just shy of 78 million results in less than one second! After years in research I still find it extraordinary the number of sources of information that are returned when performing any internet search (“kids bike bells” a meagre 1.5 million returns in 0.76).

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Chatting with friends over the weekend the topic turned to the works of Keanu Reeves (don’t ask) and his big break: the film Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure (1989!). We all agreed that the central philosophy of ‘Be excellent to each other’ was a pretty sound one.

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I am part of the National Expert Citizens Group (NECG). This is a group which draws people from all twelve Fulfilling Lives areas together to learn and try to influence on issues which are important to us. We all bring our own skills and expertise but the one thing that we have in common is that we all have lived experience of multiple needs.

On Friday 29th January we came together in Stoke-on-Trent to meet with Home Office representatives and Public Health England. On the agenda: The National Drug Strategy Review due to be published in March 2016.
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