In October 2024, we brought together residents in temporary accommodation with Housing Options staff in Kensington & Chelsea to share experiences and become involved in our participatory policymaking project, using Legislative Theatre.
You can read our initial blog about the process here: “While we work towards long-term solutions to end homelessness, we must also address the realities of those experiencing it right now.” | Groundswell.
We are pleased to share our final report, summarising the project process, our learnings and recommendations, and also highlighting what real change has occurred in the borough as a result, over the past six months. Read the full report here.
The final proposals agreed at the event included:
- Improved accessibility of the Temporary Accommodation Team for residents in need.
- More staff resources to enhance the triage process and ensure better support at the first point of contact.
- A review of bureaucratic barriers, including simplifying existing systems and forms.
- Exploration of new recruitment practices that recognise and value lived experience.
But has anything changed?
Over the past six months, we have been pleased to hear the progress being made in the borough against the original proposals.
Progress has included increased TA Team accessibility, increased staff resource to improve the triage process for residents requesting help, a review of existing systems and forms to reduce bureaucracy, and explorations of piloting recognising lived experience in recruitment.
Kojo Sarpong, Director of Housing Needs, highlighted progress now made:
“I am pleased the say all the recommendations derived from the legislative theatre, have been implemented by the Council.
For example, we have implemented our Homelessness Prevention Hub, which has multi-disciplined officers responsible for providing housing advice and preventing homelessness. There has been an improvement in the quality of service delivered to residents at the various access points.
And we have recently undergone a systems analysis of the service provided to residents and the volume of forms required to be completed. This all remains under review for development and next steps.
We have received positive praise about the work and our willingness to open ourselves up to scrutiny with residents in this way.”
We’re extremely pleased to see and hear about the progress being made. As Katy Rubin responded: “The key to a strong participatory democracy process is follow-through and transparency throughout the implementation stage, so it’s wonderful to see the concrete and positive progress made by Kensington and Chelsea and partners on the proposals.”
Thanks once again to everyone who has been involved, and to the funders and supporters of the project.
We are encouraged to see many other local authorities, regional and national government bodies and organisations engaging with Legislative Theatre for policy issues, with similarly rapid and tangible results; and we’re excited to explore next steps with the approach.
It’s also positive is that more regional and national government bodies are exploring and embracing the importance of lived experience participation in policy making. We are pleased to have fed into the GLA’s Rough Sleeping Action Plan (see the launch with our Lived experience panel and Mayor here) and the forthcoming MHCLG’s homeless strategy – and we are encouraged to see a real growth in appetite for participation and lived experience at the core of policy development.
For more information on this project, contact Michael Chandler on: [email protected]
Thank you to Homeless Link for featuring us on their blog, talking about this amazing project, 6 months on.