2016 Conference Overview
The 2016 national evaluation conference held in Birmingham on Monday 27th June 2016 brought together stakeholders with an interest in multiple needs to share learning and reflect on the Fulfilling Lives programme and the sector more broadly. As well as giving the latest findings from the national evaluation, the conference provided an opportunity to hear from a number of excellent keynote speakers including:
- Dame Carol Black – The impact on employment outcomes of drug or alcohol addiction, and obesity.
- Katharine Sacks-Jones – Agenda: the alliance for women and girls at risk
- Maff Potts – Camerados
- National Expert Citizen’s Group, Benny Royston (Bristol), Tess Tainton (Stoke) and Sandra Morgan (Nottingham)
There was also a full programme of workshops facilitated by project staff, academics and commissioners. They covered a range of topics including new and innovative approaches to evaluation and the involvement of expert citizens in project delivery.
The conference was chaired by Julian Corner of Lankelly Chase.
Delegates
150 delegates attended from across the country, including:
- Staff at all levels from funded projects
- Project partners, including statutory bodies
- Voluntary sector organisations supporting people with multiple needs
- Policy professionals and decision-makers whose work affects people with multiple needs
- Academics and researchers with an interest in complex needs and multiple disadvantage
- People with lived experience of multiple needs
Delegates were encouraged to tweet using #multipleneeds throughout the day. This was used to create conversation amongst the attendees and also to share the learning more broadly with the sector and those who were not able to attend.
There were a total of 278 tweets during the event, not including retweets, this meant that delegates pushed #multipleneeds to be trending second on twitter, a great achievement in raising awareness of multiple needs.
.@JulianCorner: There isn't an end state.. we are modelling how we can collectively work together with bits of knowledge #multipleneeds
— Dominic Williamson (@DomWilliamson13) June 27, 2016
Never underestimate the power and importance of kindness: this is what I'm taking from fantastic panel from @NECGUK #multipleneeds
— Helen Mathie (@HelenMathie) June 27, 2016
What a great selection of speakers and workshops. Thanks @CFE_Ltd and all involved. #multipleneeds
— Oliver Hilbery (@OllieHilbery) June 27, 2016
Feedback
The conference was evaluated through gathering feedback from the contributors and through an online survey sent out to all delegates.
100% of survey respondents would recommend the next conference to a friend/colleague
Other highlights included:
- “The national experts talk interview…The experts never fail to remind us why we’re here”
- “Extremely well-organised and very high quality content”
- “Structure of the day was very well thought through with a logical flow to it and an energetic finish…which is rare at most conferences!”
- “Inspiring presentations and discussing innovative practice”
- “Excellent round table discussion with other delegates”
- “Gave me some ideas for my role”
- ”It was interesting to see what other projects were doing, and try and link it in to what work we are doing”