All in for Change is a team of people with personal and frontline experience of homelessness who work to influence change in the way we address and resolve homelessness in Scotland. The Team first met in December 2019 to help close the gap between policy and action on the ground – to act as a bridge between the Scottish Government and people who access and provide support.
Since forming – and despite hurdles like the Covid-19 pandemic and the housing emergency – the Change Team has stayed passionate about pushing for change and ensuring that lived experience expertise is integral to policy making and culture change.
The Team is represented on the Homelessness Prevention Strategy Group (HPSG) and other government working groups, and contributed to the Ending Homelessness Together Plan. All in for Change has influenced policy around rapid rehousing and temporary accommodation, given evidence to the Scottish Parliament and played a major role in developing the Ask and Act prevention duties in the Housing Bill now going through parliament.
Through national roadshows, the Team gathers evidence of what is working for people experiencing homelessness and the workers who support them – and what could be better. The Team has set out 4 New Directions to end homelessness in Scotland and measures progress towards these goals.
To celebrate 5 years of All in for Change, Homeless Network Scotland’s Michelle Major and Change Leads Shea Moran and David Pentland – who have been there from the start – reflect on the value of the Team’s work and how it has grown to meet the challenging conditions we face.
Michelle: Thinking back to the first Change Team retreat in December 2019, none of us could have known the challenges ahead of us. We were filled with optimism, motivated by a new plan to end homelessness in Scotland.
We were ready to contribute to decision-making by ensuring the voices and realities of homelessness across our communities were represented and heard by those with power to make change.
Within just a few months, the world as we knew it changed, with the Covid pandemic and lockdown. The way we responded to homelessness, and to rough sleeping particularly, was unrecognisable compared to the “business as usual” approach we were used to.
Facilitating the team throughout this time was a challenge and also an inspiration – the speed people were able to adapt, and how quickly we could understand how the ever-changing landscape was impacting people experiencing homelessness showcased the true value of All in for Change – a mechanism to tap into what really matters to people and what really works in services supporting people.
While that feels like a lifetime ago, I believe that experience was formative for all of us, All in for Change included. It set the tone and showed us all what we are capable of.
Since then, the grit and personality of the Change Team has grown and evolved, and membership has naturally changed with time too.
But we’ve never lost the magic of the team, the ability to speak truth to power, to be cooperative and challenging at the same time, to always tell it like it is.
Undoubtedly that’s down to the brilliant people who have chosen to join us, to dedicate their personal time or professional time to the team, to making things better and ultimately to playing a part in ending homelessness in Scotland.
I truly feel that facilitating the Change Team is a privilege – personally it’s the first time I had the opportunity to get involved in something in its development stage and watch it grow into a vibrant team.
Meeting the team each month at our Change Team retreats is always the best day of the month, where we are challenged to investigate the gaps in policy implementation, to learn, to prioritise and to influence at a national level.
And going into our fifth year, we are ready to level up – our national roadshow where we record progress towards the Ending Homelessness Together action plan in 2025 will be stronger than ever with a peer research programme supporting it.
We are ready to create solid evidence about what works and what matters to people experiencing homelessness across Scotland, and to work with our partners to make sure that evidence is able to influence the changes we all want to see – a fairer society where homelessness is not business as usual, and is responded to like the emergency it truly is.
Shea: Mad to believe that the Change Team is five! It’s amazing to see how far the Change Team has come, how much we’ve accomplished in that time, and how far our reach has grown since that first meeting.
I never imagined that a group of frontline workers and folks with lived experience would have so much influence and respect within the sector.
Although I probably should have expected it when you’ve got someone like me helping out 😉
I’m still in the group because I think it serves as a great template for how engagement with lived experience and frontline workers should be done.
Everyone in the group is equal, people feel comfortable enough to express their opinions and know that those views will be respected or that they can receive constructive feedback or criticism!
David: I have been involved in All in for Change since December 2019. I had no real concept of the inner workings of our Scottish Government prior to joining the team. I have learned so much about policy and legislation as a result of my involvement.
Some of the high points in my involvement include being part of the Prevention Commission where we came up with the concept of ‘Ask and Act’ as well as other homelessness prevention duties.
The roadshows were also a real privilege to attend and facilitate. Meeting frontline workers and people experiencing homelessness from across the country was a real eye-opener and really embedded some of the overarching priorities that the team had to highlight.
And they highlighted the outstanding achievements of some local authorities where despite obvious challenges, they were doing their utmost to make individual experiences of homelessness the best they could be given the circumstances.
Lastly but most importantly, we couldn’t do what we do without the facilitation of Homeless Network Scotland and the large input we get from the Scottish Government.
