by Becky Ward
How can our research influence policy?
The Centre for Homelessness Research and Practice team (see below) recently met with Prof John Denham, former Cabinet Minister, to work through the process of using our research and practice to propose some new policy initiatives. We want to ensure that government policy reflects the need for homelessness services to be psychologically informed and the homelessness workforce is psychologically equipped to serve all those experiencing homelessness. With the current iteration of the Rough Sleeping Initiative due to end in 2025, we have a timely opportunity to engage with what comes next.
John has a wealth of experience, and he asked the hard questions, pushing us with each answer to get to specific actions, with specific people, with specific information. The question, ‘How will we know if we’ve won?’ really stuck out and helped us hone our target. We also discussed ‘Who is the decision-maker?’ and ‘Who influences the decision-maker?’ We are now mapping all the influencers, potential supporters, opponents and neutrals, intermediaries and obstacles.
We are working to build a larger, coherent body of training and practice activity from our programme of research underpinning this policy approach – with published research, more papers currently being reviewed, and collecting more data. Sharing the experiences of women, young people, peer mentors, frontline workers, organisational leads and civil servants across our Homelessness Community of Practice (HCoP), in our monthly webinars and skills workshops has drawn more people (over 250 members in the HCoP) to discuss a psychological approach to homelessness. Our annual conference on 6 June 2024 in Brighton will also include speakers from across the sector tackling the complexity of homelessness and the interaction of individuals with the system.
John also encouraged the CHRP team to find ways to be more visible. Two members of our team had just been to a mass lobby of parliament the previous day, meeting other homelessness organisations and MPs to discuss the needs and challenges within homelessness. The team met with Dr Alan Whitehead, MP, and discussed ways that he could represent our requests in parliament, as well as raising a question to Felicity Buchan, MP, following her presentation.
John recently provided a University-wide seminar Policy Masterclass (run by Public Policy Southampton) which provided a simple toolkit to get started with influencing policy. We would definitely recommend these to others interested in making the connection between research and policy.
The Centre for Homelessness Research and Practice (CHRP) at the University of Southampton
X/ formerly Twitter: @chrphomeless
Professor Nick Maguire, Dr Stephanie Barker, Dr Becky Ward, Jennifer Tarabay, Frances Greenway, Elizabeth Scott, Ofelia Ruxandra, Gabriella Orsini