How Have Systems Changed In Newcastle and Gateshead?

18/07/16

Juliette Hough is an associate of the New Economics Foundation who conducts qualitative and quantitative research and evaluations. She specialises in research with disadvantaged groups of people, including those experiencing homelessness, drug and alcohol issues, mental health issues, poverty and inequality, and has an MSc in Social Research Methods and over ten years' experience as an influential researcher in this field. The research presented in this report builds on a previous selective review of the literature conducted by the New Economics Foundation for Changing Lives and reported in Changing Systems for people with multiple needs: Learning from the literature.

The Newcastle and Gateshead systems change project has identified a number of principles underpinning its programme development and approach to systems change. These include:

Meeting and understanding the needs of beneficiaries, based on service user involvement and the Experts by Experience group (which is made up of people with personal experience of multiple and complex needs).
Using a combination of first order change (focused on improving current provision using existing models) and second order change (involving changes in practice and culture within or across organisations).
The continuous practice of reflection by programme members.
An ongoing dialogue with partners around influencing and evidencing potential change as opposed to directing change, resulting in a process of evolution and gradual change.
Working with others to build movements and act as a platform for change.
Using learning to adapt what we do and share with the wider community, including through conducting and evaluating pilots.
Organisations are made up of people, and in order to change behaviour we must influence organisation culture to enable the people to effect systems change.

This research aims to answer the question: How have systems changed through the Newcastle and Gateshead Fulfilling Lives project, and How can this learning inform the future of the programme?

This report explores in detail three selected areas of the system that the Newcastle and Gateshead Fulfilling Lives project is attempting to influence. It identifies barriers to and facilitators of systems change experienced by the project overall, and presents an emerging theory of systems change for the project.

Research was conducted in April and May 2016 and consisted of workshops and in-depth telephone interviews with selected external stakeholders (including local authorities, voluntary sector organisations and statutory services), Fulfilling Lives project staff, the Chair of the project’s Strategic Group and members of the Experts by Experience group (a reference group for the project), and a review of selected project documentation. The research will be repeated in Spring 2017.

The report is available to download as a summary report or a full version report.