Real lives driving change: how can lived experience shape policy?
Last week Revolving Doors joined fellow charities Humankind, Groundswell and Amnesty UK at Labour Conference, hosting a fringe panel where members of our organisations discussed how using lived experience is crucial to tackling unmet health and social needs.
We were fortunate to have Minister for Prisons, Parole and Reducing Reoffending Lord James Timpson chairing the panel and to be joined by Deputy Mayor of Manchester Kate Green, who sat as a panellist alongside Ruth, Jamesy and Stephen, lived experience experts from Humankind, Groundswell and Revolving Doors respectively. With over 70 attendees, we’re proud to have shared the importance and practical value of lived experience and would like to thank everyone who attended.
Read more about our reflections on the event and the powerful conversations had by our panellists and contributors:
“Those closest to the problem are often furthest away from the ability to provide the solutions […] we know what needs to be done and what will work because we’ve been through it.”
As Labour settles into government, holding its first party conference in power for 15 years, we wanted to take the opportunity to show the power that can be unlocked by consulting those with lived experience. The work of our members across the justice system, health, homelessness and human rights is evidence that co-production between policymakers and those with real, personal experience of an issue offers vast opportunity to drive meaningful change in people’s lives.
By pairing senior politicians with lived experience experts on our panel, we brought a successful demonstration of co-production into the heart of Labour conference. More powerful than that, though, was what our panellists had to say about the role of lived experience in tackling multiple disadvantage.
The panel opened with a welcome from Prisons Minister James Timpson, who explained how his own experience running Timpsons and his work on prison reform has demonstrated the value of second chances and the power and insight that lived experience engagement can bring.
We then heard from Ruth Kent, a Life Experience Council member from Humankind. Sharing her personal background not only of recovery from alcohol use but of a professional career in human-centred design, Ruth explained how shaping policy with real-life experience leads to higher-quality, wider-reaching services.
“Service design without service user input is just guessing. And who can afford to guess?”
Stephen Riley, a Revolving Doors peer research associate who recently worked with us in Liverpool on the Building Bridges, Safer Communities project and peer research report, was the next panellist to speak. He shared how his personal experience of the justice system has shaped his career as a peer researcher, and explained how peer research enables access to marginalised groups and communities whose insights are crucial to cracking hard policy issues, but who might be sceptical of outsiders attempting to represent their views:
“I believe it is really important not just to use including lived experience as a tick box exercise to fulfil a contractual requirement but as an essential tool in service design and policy making. Peer research and lived experience can create a diversity of thought and lead to more rounded, inclusive decision making that can improve outcomes for all, services, the people who use them and the Exchequer too.”
Jamesy Dillon, a lived experience volunteer from Groundswell, was the last of our lived experience panellists. Jamesy spoke about how involving people with lived experience in policymaking helps to break down incorrect assumptions and understand a broader range of experience, creating more appropriate solutions and approaches which boost the skills and self-esteem of participants.
Explaining the practical aspects of lived experience involvement, Jamesy highlighted the need for a trauma-informed approach that resists tokenism and provides support for those taking part. As an example of this, he shared more about Amnesty and Groundswell’s recently-launched lived experience charter on ending homelessness.
“Just because we’ve all experienced homelessness doesn’t mean we want to be involved and supported in the same way. So, before you involve people you need to think why you’re involving people and how you can involve people in different ways to make sure you have a diverse range of experiences.”
Rounding off the session, Deputy Mayor for Manchester Kate Green spoke about how projects in Manchester are embedding lived experience in service design and delivery, including work to support women and girls, and their multi-service hubs for people on probation. Revolving Doors has been working with commissioners in Greater Manchester to support the design, development and procurement of rehabilitative and resettlement support services for probation. We are pleased to see positive practice via these hubs which are shaped by feedback from service users and are successfully bringing down reoffending rates and turning people away from the cycle of crisis and crime.
Our panellists’ speeches were followed by a Q&A where event attendees expanded the discussion with examples of successful lived experience policy involvement in their own areas, and raised questions about ensuring diversity is taken into account in policy making, how lived experience can be better used and the impact when it’s done badly.
The new Labour government has the opportunity to seize the potential of lived experience, and we’re proud that our members were able to make the case so powerfully. We know the power, influence and insight unlocked when those with real, personal experience of an issue are consulted and integrated in policy development, and we’ve got the evidence to prove it.
