Highlights from the BCFT Evaluation
The ongoing evaluation of the Birmingham Changing Futures Together (BCFT) programme has recently focused on three elements of the programme:
- an understanding of the current experiences of people with multiple and complex needs
- the impact of Psychologically Informed Environment (PIE) training on staff and their working methods
- the impact of the ‘Expert by Experience’ programme on the wider system.
This report draws together key highlights and learning for the overall programme. Lessons can be learned, and positive aspects reinforced and used to influence systems change.
Service users were more positive than before about engaging with the support available from services across Birmingham. However, some service users were not aware of the wider range of services available, and more should be done to inform people with complex needs.
The PIE training of staff was important in the wider picture of engaging often entrenched service users. Service users viewed staff who had undertaken PIE training as having an increased level of skill and compassion. And most staff reported PIE training as enabling them to read between the lines, pause and consider the best way to respond to clients.
Service users in Birmingham were very positive about the staff working with them, and PIE training has undoubtedly had an impact. The work of Lead Workers and Peer Mentors was highly valued and appeared to make tangible difference to outcomes. Stakeholders were also overwhelmingly positive about the preparedness, work ethic and desire to change the system shown by the ‘Experts by Experience’.
Despite system change being the central aim of the BCFT programme, there is a lack of understanding among stakeholders of what system change is – both as a concept and specifically in the context of Birmingham. Against this backdrop, however, there was evidence of positive impacts on service users and ‘Experts by Experience’. There was also evidence that some services were working well together, though more could be done to make this more seamless.
