In July, the learning from Justlife’s lived experience and co-production projects went to Parliament to speak at our all party parliamentary group for households in temporary accommodation (APPG TA). Colleagues with lived experience of homelessness from three of our recent co-produced projects - Common Ambition,Peer Research and Community Research - came together to present their systems change work directly to MPs, peers and staff from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG).
For us, this was an important opportunity to put our values into practice: creating a space where people with lived experience and expertise in systems change could speak directly to our allies in parliament, who have influence over policy and practice.
“Going to the APPG, knowing we had a positive audience - we were hoping to inspire the attendees to take the message of needing to both provide and maintain and improve temporary accommodation to their local community and council.” - Dee
About the meeting
The meeting brought together the learning, ideas and experiences that have been developed through these projects over the past few years. It was co-produced by our groups, beginning with a short introduction to Justlife’s overarching approach to lived experience and our ethical principles, followed by presentations from each of the three projects and a rich Q&A with MPs and Ministry colleagues.
The room in Portcullis House for the APPG was small and intimate and not knowing the space I felt a little nervous. However, I was confident the presentations would land well, as we'd put a lot of co-production thought into them to find the right weight and balance, while staying true to the message of change through the voice of lived experience. - Pete
One of the presentations came from our Peer Research project, where participants shared findings from their research into temporary accommodation using a creative and collaborative format.
I was teamed with Alex (Justlife) to report on the work of Peer Research Group 1 of which I am a member. We chose, scripted, and rehearsed a Q&A that we hoped would inform and engage the recipients.
I felt our presentation and format went really well, especially the fact that we had a large visual aid " The River of Life " from our original peer research work. This created a natural, informative shift in the proceedings. - Dee
The discussion that followed showed just how valuable it is when people with lived experience are able to speak directly with decision-makers. MPs, peers and Ministry colleagues asked thoughtful questions, creating space for genuine dialogue rather than simply listening to personal stories.
I wanted attendees to understand the value of lived experience and community research. I thought it was really good, and people were genuinely interested in co-production. I found the preparation went well too, and we all managed to get our points across in our presentations. I liked that some of the common ambition were able to join online too; it made it accessible. - Emma
Those in attendance were attentive and interested, raising salient points in discussion after the presentations. - Pete
Being able to share this work directly with MPs and government colleagues also meant there was an opportunity to talk about what needs to happen next. As a collective, we asked them to consider ways they could more meaningfully embed co-production into national homelessness work.
Following the APPG meeting, we sent a letter we had written together to MHCLG. We have since been invited to present the work to their directorate team in October, and are beginning conversations about how people with lived experience might contribute to the development of the government’s temporary accommodation toolkits.
Reflecting on the day, participants spoke about leaving Parliament feeling hopeful that the message had landed.
Walking back to the train station, I thought the event had gone well and was pleased that those who came to listen and learn had taken away, for me, a reinforced sense of the importance of the lived experience message, as the immediate feedback after the meeting had been so positive. - Pete
I hope the contacts we made will help to further the profile of temporary accommodation: this aided hopefully by the recent change of prime minister, and the immediate goals around rough sleeping. - Dee
It would be good to work with the APPG in future and see if any of the attendees adopt co-production and lived experience in their roles. - Emma
For us, this is what meaningful lived experience involvement should be about. It goes beyond the potential tokenism of simply inviting people into a room and asking them to tell their stories. It’s about supporting people who have the most in-depth, lived knowledge of a system to develop ideas and solutions alongside those who bring learned knowledge of systems, policy and practice.
This kind of collaboration creates opportunities for genuinely effective ideas to reach people with the power to influence change, while building accountability between communities and decision-makers.
We don’t know yet what the outcome of these conversations with government will be. But we do know that people with lived experience have developed important ideas about what needs to change, and those ideas are now being heard in places where they can genuinely make a difference. That’s a pretty exciting place to start.
This article was co-written by Pete from Common Ambition, Dee from Peer Research, Emma from Community Research, Peer Research and Common Ambition, and Alex, who is Justlife’s Lived Experience and Participation lead. If you want to get in touch about this or other lived experience work at Justlife, please contact Alex at: alex@justlife.org.uk
