We are accustomed to reading reports on the unprecedented challenges facing the NHS and social services, along with the ever present caveat, ‘the increasing ageing population’. Framed in this way the future of health and social care is grim – conjuring images of a dystopia where many of the most vulnerable are forgotten and neglected.

Yet we can absolutely change this. I have had an incredible personal experience of working alongside a community which collaborated with organisations to effectively combat crime, improve the local environment and support each other to learn and build education, careers, health and wellbeing. If this is possible in one disadvantaged community over a few years, surely a healthier, more socially just society with vibrant, caring communities can be built?

The research project I developed as part of my Clore Social Leadership Fellowship has provided me with a golden opportunity to delve more into this question. The main findings were as follows:

Projects carried out in isolation will have limited impact

Firstly the paper explores the concept of wellbeing and how wellbeing is achieved. It then goes on to explore some of the practical ways in which individuals, families and communities can be supported. It argues that projects carried out in isolation will always have limited impact and will not lead to systemic change nor the building of resilience in individuals, families or communities. In other words, doing sophisticated, cutting edge person centred planning with individuals will have limited impact if the family and community with which they live are not able to be inclusive, supportive and enabling. Equally, great community projects are not enough if very vulnerable individuals are not supported. This diagram aims to demonstrate the interdependence of individuals, families, communities and services as well as local and national government.

Bespoke solutions with individuals, families and communities mean getting it right first time thereby reducing waste and costs

Systemic change is rarely achieved because working in silos can be perceived to be easier to comprehend, organise and deliver. This paper aims to show how systemic change can be implemented and shows that it is not a daunting utopian ideal. It also emphasises that rolling out large scale programmes with no regard to local context is an expensive mistake.

We need a greater focus on coproducing social outcomes, based on what matters to people rather than coproducing services

Organisations and institutions focus time and energy on consulting about their strategies and services; in more recent years they have been looking at way to coproduce services. However, this paper argues that more systemic change will be achieved if the focus is on the wellbeing of people and communities rather than services. Services can then be shaped around people and communities in a way that is supportive rather than undermining.

Distributive leadership

Aneurin Bevan said that the ‘purpose of getting power is giving it away’. Supporting people to take a lead in their own lives, their own families and communities is our biggest challenge as we have built a culture of centralised leadership. We have to consciously learn to give power away as leaders of organisations as well as to take more control of our own lives, as citizens.

Taking more placed-based, relational approaches are of fundamental importance if we are to achieve sustainable wellbeing

Finally, the paper sets out the challenge to both the public and voluntary sectors to invest in people and communities whilst reducing unnecessary costs. The recommendations show how:

• The voluntary sector, local and national government can move towards empowering individuals, families and communities simultaneously in a more skilful and adaptable way than ever before.
• Governments can develop a new approach to accountability that enables leadership and innovation at all levels rather than stifling it.
  
  

You can download the full provocation piece here. Please share your comments below about this blog and research, or you can join the conversation with Jenny on Twitter.

Crisis and Glasgow Homelessness Network have announced their intention to create a new dedicated body that is sector-led (by homelessness specialists from charities, government, research bodies and others) to improve the lives of people affected by homelessness by instigating a shift in resources to evidence-based solutions. As part of her Clore Social Leadership fellowship, Ligia Teixeira explains why.

For the past few months I’ve been working on a project to build the case for a new Centre for Homelessness Impact. Today we release the feasibility study that is the culmination of an intense six-month project. It’s an exciting moment for us, and I wanted to explain why.

Since Crisis was created 50 years ago, we have used a variety of strategies to end homelessness, from campaigning and lobbying to delivering services directly, and producing evidence on the causes and consequences, latest trends, and the scale of the issue.

Things have changed significantly since the mid-1960s, when homelessness first made it into the national consciousness. But the pace of change has not kept up with wider scientific and technological developments. In fields like international development, early years, or education we’ve improved our understanding of what works by applying scientific methods and a culture shift towards evidence-based practices. If the homelessness sector is to accelerate progress towards a future without homelessness we must create new roadways.

One way to achieve this is by focusing on what works by finding and funding solutions backed by evidence and data. That’s a challenge. The evidence is often weak or lacking, and in the rare examples where a programme has been tested to see if it worked the results are often ignored.

That’s why we need a new organisation that is sector led and owned to help make the use of evidence the right thing to do – it becomes the ‘new normal’. To help ensure that our values aren’t only articulated in our efforts but in our outcomes. It’s a simple idea, but with the potential to make a significant impact.

We joined forces with Glasgow Homelessness Network, a like minded organisation, to explore the desirability and feasibility of the concept. We had hundreds of rich conversations over a six-month period with people working towards ending homelessness and change-makers championing evidence-based practice in other fields. We gained valuable insights that shaped our proposals and which we share in the report published today. We have been encouraged by the widespread support for the concept, and feel there’s a unique opportunity to make this vision a reality.

Why now? Because over recent years we’ve learned a few things about what it takes to tackle today’s toughest systemic challenges. That ending homelessness faster and more effectively requires a few important culture shifts. We need to:

• take a whole government approach and to break out of siloed service and policy practices. The homelessness sector alone cannot end homelessness. It requires putting the issue on the map in areas like education, health or criminal justice
• build capacity, and take an interdisciplinary, deeply collaborative approach. This is a challenge. Professionals need support to apply evidence in real-life scenarios and existing funding mechanisms are by and large promoting competition rather than a focus on personalised solutions and effectiveness
• directly fund interventions and programmes with the best evidence behind them, and take an experimental and human-centred approach to service development. To improve positive impact we need to be able to do the right things well.
• engage people affected by homelessness more effectively in all our efforts, bring their perspectives and experiences to the heart of policy and practice. Solutions that are grounded only on the experiences of professionals and ignore the user voice and evidence are no solutions at all
• engage people and their communities more effectively in our efforts to end homelessness. There is an education job to be done, in schools, universities, mainstream services, businesses and workplaces. There is a rich resource in this space that we’re currently not tapping into. We know from trends like the sharing economy that when individuals come together to drive towards a greater goal, we can gain traction on much bigger challenges , and find new ways forward.

 

This type of systems-change work requires agility, scale and networked organisations, both within and across different social policy areas. It requires commissioners, practitioners, researchers, campaigners as well as communities who work together and do not stand still.

With the new Centre, we’re hoping to start addressing some of these issues. We’re not naive, we know it won’t be a silver bullet. Other things will also need to happen - we need housing in the right places and at a price people can afford, and stable jobs that pay fair wages. We need to address the root causes of poverty and inequality, and protect our social safety net and strong (networked) local services.

But evidence-based approaches are an important part of the solution. It’s no surprise that currently there is public scepticism about the sector’s ability to end or even significantly reduce homelessness, or positively engage with people affected by homelessness who refuse ‘standard offers’ for help. Making policy and funding decisions based on the best possible evidence and holding mainstream services accountable will help restore confidence.

This is therefore a critical moment to consider what is needed to build on our international reputation for preventing and tackling homelessness. We think Scotland is the ideal place to begin. If the Centre for Homelessness Impact works here - Scotland has taken larger strides to end homelessness than most other countries, its rights-based and assets-based approach to homelessness is widely celebrated as progressive, inclusive and ground-breaking - it will provide a model for others to follow.

This study is just the beginning of a long journey but it does show that there is both a need and a demand for a new organisation. Funding is now being sought for the project, with a view to opening the new Centre later this year.

We’ve been working on these issues for 50 years, but this could be a turning-point. It’s time to apply our collective efforts to meet the challenges of a complex homelessness system that developed organically over the years. The system must be redrawn so that we are able to improve outcomes and make even better use of today’s resources and technological advances to achieve step change in how we prevent and tackle homelessness.

Crisis and GHN hope that the new Centre, by bringing everyone to the party who feels the same way, will make us faster, more effective, and able to ground our solutions in the needs and voices of people affected by the problem.

Please click here to download Ligia’s report which she prepared as Head of Research and Evaluation at Crisis and at a 2016 Clore Social Fellow, supported Oak Foundation.

Share your comments about this blog and the report below, or contact Ligia on Twitter. This article was originally published on Crisis.

As 2016 winds down, I find myself considering the fervent sector debates that have taken place over the year in the media and beyond. One thing is clear: strong leadership is more important than ever before, and the demands on leaders are increasingly complex.

In partnership with The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, The Barrow Cadbury Trust, The Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and ACEVO, we commissioned a survey to get to grips with the leadership development issues that matter most in our sector. Richard Harries took a hard look at the results and produced his third report for us, Leadership Development in the Third Sector: Bridging Supply and Demand, which serves as a plea for more support for the sector’s tireless and hard pressed leaders.

Almost 500 medium and large charities and social enterprises responded to the survey, and what emerged from the data is a picture of a sector which has a push-pull relationship with leadership development. Although the majority of respondents stated they saw the benefits and criticality of leadership development, a lack of time and money significantly impacted their ability to invest in it. What this boils down to is that of the organisations surveyed, only 0.5% of their annual income was spent on leadership development. Furthermore when compared with the wider economy, our sector is three times less likely to invest in leadership development.

Undoubtedly there is a demand for leadership development, but time and the financial capacity to invest in it is stymied. Also, questions arise as to whether the current market offering fully serves the leadership needs of the sector. Taken together this begs the question: How do we bridge the gap in supply and demand?

Having digested leadership development lessons from the past (report 1), and how to face future sector opportunities and challenges (report 2), we have devised a 12-part strategy to transform social leadership. Coupled with this is our recently launched Social Leaders’ Capabilities Framework which sets out the capabilities we believe emerging leaders need to be truly transformational.

By sharing these assets - our three reports, the 12-part strategy, and our Framework - we are inviting the sector to make full use of them to develop leaders, and we are also petitioning leaders of all levels to continue the debate. By now we all know that leadership really matters, and we can’t afford not to act. As we head into the New Year, it is incumbent upon all of us to focus on a sure-fire way of ensuring that the organisations we love continue to serve the people they were built for.

Our Starter for 12 - How to Transform the Social Leadership of our sector (for full descriptions, please read report 3, pages 12-14):

1. Use the current challenging climate to promote the value of leadership
2. Achieve scale and critical mass quickly
3. Understand and segment the market
4. Make training affordable
5. Focus on the elements of ‘making a market’: (a) stimulate demand (b) organise supply and (c) advice and brokerage
6. Innovate - especially around digital technology
7. Invest in good infrastructure
8. Create a supportive leadership community
9. Create an appetite for leadership education
10. Adopt a policy-led and evidence-based approach to leadership
11. Know what good leadership looks like
12. Deliver a short period of sustained and substantial investment

Please share your views and comments below, on Twitter, or even contribute an opinion piece to our Leaders Now blog.