Different strokes for different folks

Ben Muton-Phillips is our Data and Evaluation Officer. In this piece, he reflects on the importance of presenting data in different ways to stakeholders in a system change programme and the challenges he faces.

Changing Futures has set ambitious goals to impact every level of the system that supports people facing multiple disadvantage in Bristol. In just two years, we hope to affect the way practitioners work with clients, how services are commissioned, and most importantly we hope to impact the lives of 60 people facing multiple disadvantage.

If Changing Futures is to make an impact, the right information must get to the right people at the right time.

Our core operational focus is to pilot and embed the My Team Around Me approach. The support workers trialling this approach will need to access real-time client information that enables reflection and learning. This will help them adjust their practice to serve our clients more effectively.

If we want to create long lasting system change, we will need to convince commissioners. To do this, we will need to tell a persuasive story. If My Team Around Me works the way we think it will, the story will be one of cooperation, collaboration, and innovation. One big challenge for me, as the Data and Evaluation Officer, will be to capture the successes and failures of those supporting our clients so that we can tell this story to decision makers. Right now, we are making pragmatic decisions about what information needs collecting, in order to make the story compelling. We are considering which technological solutions we will need to help capture this information. This is a big challenge that will only be overcome with collaboration and coproduction with people with lived experience.

Finally, the data and information we use to support a person with multiple disadvantage cannot exist without the input and oversight of that person. This means Changing Futures will need to communicate with clarity, transparency, and applying the principles of trauma informed practice whilst living by the phrase “Nothing about me without me”.