Birmingham Changing Futures Together (BCFT) is one of twelve Fulfilling Lives:Supporting People with Multiple Needs sites funded by The National Lottery Community Fund. The BCFT programme aims to improve the lives of people experiencing multiple and complex needs, across Birmingham. BCFT defines multiple and complex needs as people experiencing two or more ofthe following: homelessness, problematic substance use, risk of offending and mental ill health. Importantly, the programme focuses on system change, aiming to ensure that models and approaches pioneered during the project become mainstream.

Since early 2018, Revolving Doors Agency has led the local evaluation of the Birmingham Changing FuturesTogether programme. Our evaluation focused on three key aspects of the programme: 

• understanding the current experiences of people facing multiple and complex needs across Birmingham
• the impact of Psychologically Informed Environment (PIE) training on staff and their ways of working, and;
• the impact of the Every Step of the Way ‘Expert by Experience’ programme on the wider system.

We took a learning partnership approach, adapting the research as necessary, feeding back on findings on real time to understand and maximise the impact of the programme on the local system.