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4 07, 2019

Multiple Disadvantage Day, Take One

By |2019-07-04T09:15:28+00:00July 4th, 2019|Categories: Blog|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , |

Chris Milner joined the Fulfilling Lives national evaluation team in February 2019. In his first blog he explores the role of art and emotion in recovery and raising awareness. 

The first Multiple Disadvantage Day took place on July 3rd 2019. The day marked an important stepping stone towards tackling the stigma associated with complex experiences of homelessness, offending, substance misuse and mental ill-health. These disadvantages are so often co-existing that it is essential that they are addressed together, and that we #seethefullpicture. By raising awareness of the reasons behind people’s circumstances, Multiple Disadvantage day aimed to encourage people to think before making a judgement.

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20 06, 2019

Homelessness: We Know the Issues, but What About the Solutions?

By |2019-06-24T15:36:33+00:00June 20th, 2019|Categories: Blog|Tags: , , , , , |

Homelessness is in the news and has caught the public’s concern. But what I find frustrating is that relatively little is discussed about the solutions. Partnerships delivering the Fulfilling Lives programme have helped to make significant progress in reducing homelessness and rough sleeping. Among Fulfilling Lives beneficiaries we see a reduction in rough sleeping from 25 per cent to 17 per cent during their first year on the programme. I feel that partnership efforts deserve to play a central role in the discussion.

Our report, Promising Practice, explored how Fulfilling Lives partnerships have used Housing First approaches. Overall, the evidence suggests a high level of tenancy sustainment amongst Housing First beneficiaries.

Housing First is a client-centred model that supports individuals into independent […]

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2 05, 2019

Why we need to invest in multiple needs – new briefing out now

By |2021-04-01T09:22:46+00:00May 2nd, 2019|Categories: News, Project Evaluation|Tags: , , , , , |

This is the first in a series of briefings on multiple needs, drawing on data collected by Fulfilling Lives partnerships on their beneficiaries. In this briefing we explore the substantial cost to the public purse created by misdirected and avoidable use of public services, as well as the human, social and economic costs.

The briefing also looks at how, after getting support from Fulfilling Lives for nearly a year, people have fewer negative interactions with public services, including fewer arrests, convictions, evictions and visits to A&E.

To note: this briefing was updated in March 2021. The updated briefing which uses more recent data and looks at outcomes over a longer period of time can be read here.

 

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29 03, 2019

Contagion of Hope

By |2019-05-14T08:34:48+00:00March 29th, 2019|Categories: Blog|Tags: , , , , , |

Beth Collinson will be joining the Fulfilling Lives national evaluation team from April 2019 leading on our learning programme. In this, her first blog, she talks about the inspiration gained from attending a recent event held by one of the Fulfilling Lives partnerships.

Throughout my PhD, the social contagion of recovery (from substance misuse), became a predominant element of my work. In one of my first presentations, I explained that just as human emotions like happiness can be contagious, recovery is too. A colleague of mine (Professor David Best) explains in his work that the social contagion of recovery has the potential for “transmitting hope and the belief that recovery is possible even to those who are not yet ready to commit to abstinence“.

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30 01, 2019

New report published: “Promising practice”, with key findings from local evaluations to date

By |2019-05-07T13:41:14+00:00January 30th, 2019|Categories: News|Tags: , , , , , , |

The national evaluation team have published key findings from local evaluations in their latest report, Promising Practice. The report:

  • Highlights approaches and interventions that appear promising based on local evaluation evidence;
  • Shares learning on successful implementation of these approaches;
  • Considers how different interventions are contributing the the programme’s systems change ambitions; and
  • Informs further evaluation activities.

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28 01, 2019

Frontline workforce – it’s a question of pragmatism

By |2019-05-14T08:45:23+00:00January 28th, 2019|Categories: Blog|Tags: , , , , , , |

Having purpose, an eye for detail and a sense of curiosity are the Fulfilling Lives workforce attributes I have flagged as desirable in previous blogs. Time is often at a premium for staff. Smaller caseloads and flexibility are ways of extending the time available to beneficiaries. Which brings me round to another attribute for the practitioner which, is pragmatism.

As I said in the item on curiosity, practitioners engaged with the evaluation of theory not only contribute to better practice but ensure theory is grounded in pragmatism. Thereby theory becomes better as well. People become less inclined to say: ‘that is alright in theory, but it doesn’t work in practice’. A pragmatic practitioner doesn’t just know the theory, but they act on it because it works.

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27 06, 2018

The need for change: Reflections from the newest member of the national evaluation team

By |2019-05-14T10:23:56+00:00June 27th, 2018|Categories: Blog, News|Tags: , , , , , , , |

It’s now six months since I joined the Fulfilling Lives national evaluation team. My background is in community and criminal justice research, so I have a degree of familiarity with the target group. I have evaluated initiatives to help re-engagement on release from prison, to provide pathways to education and ultimately employment, and to help with accommodation and independent living. Offenders often have chaotic lifestyles and multiple needs including experience of homelessness, alcohol and/or drug dependency, and/or mental health issues. You can often find childhood trauma, special educational needs or attachment issues as well. What struck me time and time again when listening to offenders and their workers tell me their stories was the lack of coherent support available to people who are in desperate […]

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26 04, 2018

Latest Report from the Fulfilling Lives National Evaluation Published

By |2019-05-14T10:40:06+00:00April 26th, 2018|Categories: News, Project Evaluation|Tags: , , , , , , |

The latest national evaluation report on the Fulfilling Lives (Supporting People with Multiple Needs) programme, published today by CFE, shows continuing high demand for help. The 12 funded projects have successfully engaged with nearly 3,000 people affected by homelessness, substance misuse, offending and mental ill health.

Beneficiaries who remain with the programme show clear signs of progress, but this takes time and substantial resource. Project staff often need to spend extended periods of time with beneficiaries and have to be flexible to cope with chaotic lives. However some beneficiaries have needs for which they will always require support. What constitutes success varies from person to person and in many cases, success is about developing strategies, resilience and understanding to effectively manage their needs.

The report includes clear […]

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1 02, 2018

Frontline Workforce – it’s a question of curiosity

By |2019-05-14T08:36:25+00:00February 1st, 2018|Categories: Blog|Tags: , , , , , |

At the centre of the Fulfilling Lives (Multiple Needs) programme is evaluation and here the workforce is on the frontline. For it is they who source, collate and complete the two key measures –  the Homelessness Outcomes Star and the NDT Assessment – with the service beneficiaries. Frontline workers say something they enjoy about the programme is the move away from a purely target driven approach. To make the most of this we need to make sure that the essential evaluation is not a chore. Not tasks that are completed as an add-on to a day’s work but ones that are integral to the way of working alongside beneficiaries and peer workers.

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31 05, 2017

Exactly what is it the frontline staff do that makes a difference?

By |2019-05-14T09:18:30+00:00May 31st, 2017|Categories: Blog|Tags: , |

Helen Gavaghan, Senior Engagement Worker at Inspiring Change Manchester (ICM), gives an inkling of some of the things workers do to support people to think about change. She says some ‘traditional’ approaches need challenging and staff freed up to be open about working with both their own and their client’s lived experience. She concludes by suggesting learning about what it is that staff are doing is collected and brought together as a tool-kit for other practitioners.

In the Fulfilling Lives (Multiple Needs) projects, when considering the learning that is being fed back overall, I feel there could be more detailed examination of what the frontline project workers do that makes a difference to people’s lives. I believe that there is some valuable learning that could be collected and shared […]

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20 03, 2017

Individuals with lived experience to present at national conference in May

By |2019-05-14T10:29:11+00:00March 20th, 2017|Categories: News|Tags: , , |

The National Expert Citizen’s Group is a group of individuals with lived experience of homelessness, substance misuse, mental ill health and offending behaviour. The group is comprised of individuals from the 12 funded project areas for the Big Lottery Fund’s ‘Fulfilling Lives: Supporting people with multiple needs’. CFE Research facilitates the group. Members from the group have been accepted to run a workshop at the 2017 Multiple Needs summit in Milton Keynes. Sarah Robinson, the group’s facilitator (and research manager on the programme’s National Evaluation), will be supporting two group members to lead and present at their first national conference.

http://www.homeless.org.uk/events/tackling-multiple-disadvantage

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17 06, 2014

Carers are individuals in the Act

By |2019-05-14T10:10:01+00:00June 17th, 2014|Categories: Blog|Tags: , , , , , , |

It is, perhaps, self-evident that people with complex needs frequently require correspondingly multiple and complex responses…. wrote Henwood and Hudson in their 2009 CSCI study Keeping it personal. Now as Carers’ Week passes we have, in the Care Act, the strongest rights yet for carers. When put together with the duty of assessment for young carers, in the Children and Families Act, the legislative framework is suitably reflective of the very complexity identified for policy makers five years ago. It is a challenge for the Fulfilling Lives: supporting people with multiple needs evaluation to explore, understand and share how project investment resolves the problematic issues of real life complexity. Those involved in caring relationships shaped by homelessness, […]

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28 05, 2014

It’s Complicated – the Care Act and Multiple Needs

By |2019-05-14T10:18:55+00:00May 28th, 2014|Categories: Blog|Tags: , , , , , , , |

The parliamentary ‘ping-pong’ is over, amendments agreed between the Lords and the Commons and the Care Act has Royal Assent.  Everyone – local authorities, NHS bodies, public, voluntary and private organisations – are busy assessing the potential impact of the new law on what they do. How will it help/hinder; what are the gaps; what are the costs; what will we do now and what can wait; which clauses take priority; who is going to do what and how will we cope? The questions go on and the project and risk management training is put to the test. Projects will be making similar judgements themselves and the national evaluation team too will be considering how it might impact on our work on Fulfilling Lives; Supporting […]

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