Simon Community Scotland, 472 Ballater Street, Glasgow, G5 0QW
T: 0141 418 6980<\/p>\n
Engagement and inclusion<\/h3>\n
Simon Community Scotland (SCS) aims to engage with the most vulnerable people with complex needs who \u2018struggle to maintain any contact with services\u2019. They believe\u00a0that it is not the responsibility of the person experiencing homelessness to adapt to\u00a0services, but that the service should adapt\u00a0to the\u00a0individual’s needs and circumstances.<\/p>\n
‘I don\u2019t like the term \u2018difficult to engage\u2019.\u00a0 They struggle to maintain contact with us because we don\u2019t get it right for them basically.\u00a0 That\u2019s the way I like to think about it.\u00a0 That\u2019s the kind of stuff that we really focus on\u2026’<\/em><\/p>\n SCS\u00a0also work with people with ongoing substance misuse problems, particularly alcohol. However, this is not seen as a reason for exclusion:<\/p>\n ‘We were passionate advocates of the non-exclusion agenda\u2026 We work with people who have lifelong addiction challenges and I constantly use the analogy, that we also work with people with mental health issues, if they suffer a relapse in their mental health, do we say now you have to leave because you\u2019re not well?’<\/em><\/p>\n SCS has moved away from the deficit model suggested by the term \u2018non-exclusion\u2019 towards a more positive message which has happened in other sectors:<\/p>\n ‘If you do an Human Resources analogy, it\u2019s the difference between absence management and attendance management that we went for.\u00a0 That shift had happened in Human Resources so we did the same in the Community that we\u2019ve stopped talking about non-exclusion. We now talk about active inclusion.’<\/em><\/p>\n SCS understands the value and power of lived experience of homelessness which many of its employees have, but also importantly, is brought into the organisation by volunteers.\u00a0The work of the volunteers is vital to the approach and effectiveness of SCS.<\/p>\n ‘You come in looking for some help and advice and it should be a peer volunteer that is the first person that you talk to.\u00a0 They do the meet and greet and be a listening ear and if, for any reason you have to wait because the place is busy, they\u2019ll sit with you and talk with you.’<\/em><\/p>\n The volunteer programme exists because of calls from people with experience of homelessness:<\/p>\n ‘The reason that we did it in the first place is when we were developing the Rough Sleepers Vulnerable People (RSVP) model was when we talked to as many groups… I think we ended up talking to about fifty-six service users from all different settings and different age groups and gender balances and different routes into services.\u00a0 We talked about peer volunteers and everybody said, yeah talk to somebody who\u2019s been there. Talk to somebody who\u2019s not paid to be there\u2026 They\u2019re just doing because they\u2019ve been there and they want to help us. That was a really important message that came out…’<\/em><\/p>\n The volunteer role is highly valued and treated with the same respect as a paid job at SCS.<\/p>\n ‘The recruitment process is virtually the same as it is for any member of staff. It\u2019s just as robust and just as demanding.\u00a0 People do value that.\u00a0 They talk a lot about having got the job as a peer volunteer\u2026 It\u2019s a serious role and the training package covers a lot of the core elements that we would give to staff as well.’<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n One of challenges of the volunteer programme is its turnover which is testament to its success:<\/p>\n ‘At the moment everybody has got jobs and moved on and left us! People either got houses or jobs or moved onto other education programmes all in a few weeks which is fantastic.’<\/em><\/p>\n SCS recognises the importance of choice for people experiencing homelessness, especially in light of the personalisation and Self-Directed Support agendas in Scotland, the principles of which should be accessible to those experiencing homelessness.<\/p>\n ‘Probably the one care group\u2026 the one defining group within social care that have absolutely zero choice at the moment.’<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Having choice can be a positive first step for some people to get control back in their life. SCS received funding from Scottish Government to carry out research on Self-Directed Support and homelessness in 2014. When discussing choice and Self-Directed Support with people experiencing homelessness, some \u2018insightful questions, insightful ideas and thoughts about what they may use the budget for\u2019<\/em> were uncovered:<\/p>\n ‘It still gives me tingles, stuff like people saying could I use that for rehab?\u00a0 Could I use that to choose the time, the place and the provider for rehab because when I\u2019ve had to do that before I\u2019ve said I want it and the place has not been there and then when the place has become available I\u2019ve not been ready\u2019. That\u2019s hugely powerful.”<\/em><\/p>\n Choice is the bedrock of personalisation. SCS has a culture which has \u2018a core of personalisation\u2019<\/em> and \u2018a mantra of everything that we decide as an organisation and an individual within an organisation, you should be able to draw either a direct line or a dotted line to an impact for service users.\u00a0 If we can\u2019t do that we have to ask why we\u2019re doing it\u2026\u2019<\/em> What helped develop this culture in its early days was \u2018talking about it\u2026 triggered by the fact that we were excluding a lot of people.’<\/em><\/p>\n ‘Talking about expectations, being really clear, seeing the person, that very individualised, very personalised context.\u00a0 It came from that minute you meet somebody.\u00a0 We wrote up an approach.’<\/em><\/p>\n Shifting the culture of the organisation had its challenges where \u2018some of it had to be imposed and that didn\u2019t go incredibly well in some cases.\u2019<\/em> A culture with personalisation at the core meant that staff had to use \u2018much more judgement\u2026 much more discussion and much more thinking about the person\u2019<\/em> which at times was challenging:<\/p>\n ‘People wanted rules.\u00a0 People wanted black and white.\u00a0 Staff wanted black and white.\u00a0 Gradually, as people started to see the difference it made with particular service users, some services more than others really got that and started to see the difference, particularly in people who we would have found challenging before. Just having that slightly different way of thinking about them and talking to them.’<\/em><\/p>\n What this personalised approach looks like in practice was highlighted using \u2018two small examples of a culture shift that some staff embraced really easily and others struggled with\u2019<\/em>:<\/p>\n ‘A lady turned up having descended into extreme homelessness.. She\u2019d landed on Mars from her point of view\u2026 a set of circumstances that dropped her in this position\u2026 she didn\u2019t have an alcohol issue but what was important to her was her daily routine.\u00a0 Part of that routine was to have a glass of red wine with her dinner every night.\u00a0 The rules of the environment said she couldn\u2019t have that so she\u2019d been stripped of just about everything that you could possibly think of and they were going to take that final thing away from her as well\u2026 Under active inclusion when you take a step back and think how do you make this work for this person\u2026 We sat down and talked to her about that, we talked about the whys and wherefores of it. It was a quality of life issue, her identity.\u00a0 Staff very creatively worked out and said we think we can make this work for you but it means you can\u2019t eat in the kitchen, you would have to eat in your room.\u00a0 We got a small table and chair sorted out for her in her room and she was quite happy with that.’<\/em><\/p>\n ‘…because the building was alcohol free, the rules were very clear and if they [the residents] were found with alcohol in the building they would have been excluded previously.\u00a0 What would happen is that they were coming back about nine or ten o\u2019clock at night and just downing whatever they had\u2026 because they weren\u2019t allowed to bring it in or stashing it somewhere in the local community and then getting up really early and having disturbed sleep as well because of the anxiety of not knowing whether or not it was going to be there in the morning for them. That was the addiction that they had.\u00a0 We came to an arrangement with one or two of them from a harm reduction point of view that they would come back to the building and if they had alcohol, they would hand it over and the staff would hold it.\u00a0 We didn\u2019t do this for a lot of people, it was all risk assessed and very much on the balance of harm and in partnership with the addiction workers etc, so that for one woman in particular that meant that she slept a lot better because she knew it was there.\u00a0 She had the comfort of knowing that it was safe.\u00a0 The outcome of that was the level of trust she then built up with the staff and she\u2019s much more likely to engage with us and talk to us.\u00a0 She was coming back less inebriated at night because she wasn\u2019t trying to cram in as much as she could before she had to come back to the building.\u00a0 In the morning she was engaging with us rather than just getting out of the building to get to her supplies or get new supplies.’<\/em><\/p>\n Reflection plays an important role\u00a0in prompting the conversations which help support the culture. SCS staff are supported to reflect on their practice through pulling out examples, using incident reports and in supervision.<\/p>\n ‘It is unpicking.\u00a0 It is always going back to the person and thinking about taking a story that didn\u2019t go well, let\u2019s unpick that and see. One of the things that we do is supervision models based around their values.\u00a0 We talk about where values are supported and personalised and creative.’<\/em><\/p>\n Another aspect of the conversations at SCS are around expectations:<\/p>\n ‘We\u2019ve started a process of expectations exchange between different levels, between myself and the immediate level below and what I expect of them, what they expect of me.\u00a0 We\u2019re working on cascading that down.’<\/em><\/p>\n Importantly, SCS also reflects with other organisations to help pool resources, share ideas and make connections:<\/p>\n ‘There\u2019s a group of us together\u2026 that are the twelve specialist care and support providers for homelessness in Scotland.\u00a0 We come together to look at how we bring our collective resources into one place with a focus on prevention. It\u2019s called the HP3 group\u2026 There\u2019s no formality about it, we\u2019ve just come together… Everybody\u2019s out there just getting on with it and the really nice thing about homelessness is that\u2026 round the table people just give…The potential for joint working across the country is phenomenal.’<\/em><\/p>\n The discussion suggested a natural evolution to the development of the SCS approach to working with people experiencing homelessness rather than a conscious innovation.<\/p>\n ‘I don\u2019t know if I\u2019d use the word innovate\u2026. it was like \u2018that is just the right thing to do so we\u2019ll do it\u2019.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n![\"bridge\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.iriss.org.uk\/homelessness\/files\/2015\/06\/positive.jpg\")
Lived experience<\/h3>\n
![\"SECC](\"https:\/\/blogs.iriss.org.uk\/homelessness\/files\/2015\/06\/bridge.jpg\")
Choice<\/h3>\n
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![\"window\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.iriss.org.uk\/homelessness\/files\/2015\/06\/window.jpg\")
Culture<\/h3>\n
Example 1<\/h3>\n
![\"steps\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.iriss.org.uk\/homelessness\/files\/2015\/06\/steps.jpg\")
Example 2<\/h3>\n
![\"ice\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.iriss.org.uk\/homelessness\/files\/2015\/06\/ice1-1024x768.jpg\")
![\"shadow\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.iriss.org.uk\/homelessness\/files\/2015\/06\/shadow.jpg\")
Reflection<\/h3>\n
Innovation<\/h3>\n