You are here: What we do
Problems including mental ill-health, drug and alcohol abuse, crime, homelessness and domestic violence can so often amplify each other, trapping some of society’s most vulnerable people in the downward spiral of the Revolving Door.
We are not a service provider but our fresh thinking helps other organisations make a life-changing difference. Our work as a charity sets us apart because, unlike others, we don’t just focus on any single problem. Instead, we look at the person and their whole spectrum of individual needs ─ help with alcohol problems and mental health difficulties at the same time, for example.
The experiences of those who have been through the system – and often been failed by it ─ are at the centre of everything we do. With their unique insights, they now play an active part in changing things for the better.
CREATING SERVICES THAT FIT USER NEEDS
By focusing on user insight we ensure that services put people’s real needs first. For example, we’re working with NHS England Health and Justice East Midlands to fully embed lived experience into their commissioning and procurement.
COPRODUCING TO IMPROVE SERVICES
An example is our Peer Research Commissioning Together project involving offenders and ex-offenders in the service commissioning process at Wandsworth and Barking & Dagenham. The aim is to improve health and reduce reoffending through more effective integration of services and improved pathways in the community.
EVALUATING TO CREATE IMPACT
We evaluate services that we think are interesting or innovative with the potential to make an impact, as with our evaluation of the St Mungo’s ACE project in Bristol.
CHANGING PRACTICE
We do this by harnessing the unique insights of people with lived experience.
For example, peer support for Liaison and Diversion (which is now being piloted prior to potential national roll-out) was introduced as a result of the sustained advocacy of our Lived Experience Team.
SHARING LEARNING AND PERSPECTIVES
Through our research network we bring together academics and researchers from all the sectors and disciplines we work across.
IMPROVING RESPONSES TO THOSE IN THE REVOLVING DOOR
We work with policy and decision makers to improve the effectiveness of response within the system, for example through our recent project mapping and reviewing of Police and Crime Commissioner plans.
DRIVING POLICY CHANGE
Our consultation response to the HMCTS Assisted Digital programme highlighted that people in the Revolving Door of crisis and offending often face multiple and complex needs. This can cause or exacerbate difficulties in accessing digital channels. Some aspects of the programme’s proposals risked limiting, rather than increasing, access to justice and this led directly to changes in the proposal.
GROWING THE EVIDENCE BASE
We review and summarise literature to contribute to the national evidence base supporting those with multiple and complex needs.
INFLUENCING LEGAL DECISIONS
When working with the Public Law Project, for example, we submitted evidence which led to a high court ruling that an amendment to the Personal Independence Payment ‘cannot be objectively justified’.
INFORMING SERVICE DESIGN THROUGH USER RESEARCH
We’re currently working with HM Courts and Tribunals Service to help design their “Assisted Digital” support. This provides access to new online courts services for people who are normally digitally excluded.
PROVIDING A CRITICAL FRIEND FOR LOCAL STAKEHOLDERS
We work alongside services as a learning partner, using research to support local stakeholders in the improvement of their own systems and services. The York Pathways multiple and complex needs partnership is an example.
PROVIDING THOUGHT LEADERSHIP
With our expertise in multiple and complex needs we’re regularly invited onto steering groups and advisory boards including the Ministerial Advisory Board on Female Offenders, chaired by Dr Philip Lee, and the Advisory Panels for Hard Edges 2 and Synergi.
Why we're here
Together we can end the Revolving Door
WHAT WE KNOW
Over 150 people share their lived experience with us through our forums and projects
