Michelle Farr

Changing Futures is a national programme funded by the Department of Levelling up, Housing and Communities, which aims to improve the lives of people who experience multiple disadvantage. Experiencing multiple disadvantage is when a person has experienced at least three of the following: 

• Homelessness 

• Substance misuse 

• Mental health issues 

• Domestic abuse 

• Contact with the criminal justice system 

Almost everyone with a history of multiple disadvantage has also experienced trauma. This can have a negative effect on their mental health, their ability to engage with services and whether they feel safe to do so. This project will be evaluating the Changing Futures programme in Bristol, which will work with organisations and people with lived experience to: 

• Improve the way that local services work, so people can access the support they need more easily 

• Help staff provide fair, accessible long-term services 

• Promote equality and diversity, and include people with lived experience in designing services 

This project will evaluate how Changing Futures Bristol uses trauma-informed approaches to more effectively support people who’ve experienced multiple disadvantage, trauma and mental distress. Working collaboratively with practitioners and people with lived experience, it will analyse how to instigate system changes to provide more trauma-informed care through multiple services. 

Project aims 

This evaluation aims to understand what helps to embed trauma-informed care at the individual, the service and the system levels. Our objectives are to: 

• Explore how organisations can support people who’ve experienced multiple disadvantage through different trauma-informed and co-production approaches 

• Identify the barriers to trauma-informed approaches, and strategies to tackle these 

• Co-produce the evaluation with practitioners, stakeholders and lived experience representatives 

• Evaluate effectiveness of implementation in terms of client outcomes, whether organisations are adopting more trauma-informed and co-production approaches, and staff well-being  

• Share learning about how to embed trauma-informed approaches across different services and systems. 

Methods: 

• Using data that is routinely collected from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing, and Communities (DLUHC) national evaluation dataset of the Changing Futures programme, which collects information on clients of Changing Futures at three-monthly intervals, to analyse whether the programme has been effective at supporting clients who’ve experienced multiple disadvantage. 

• Inviting staff involved in Changing Futures and some of its partner organisations to take part in a staff survey, interviews and observations of meetings. 

• Inviting lived experience representatives to be interviewed about their experiences of their involvement in Changing Futures. 

Benefits anticipated: We hope that our results will help to improve the recovery and wellbeing of people with multiple disadvantages by making services more trauma-informed. These services will focus on people, meet their needs and reduce health inequalities.