The No Wrong Door action learning partnership was launched in September and is testing out how to create cross-sector, integrated services in four places in Scotland, with local results informing a blueprint for joined-up service delivery nationwide.
The programme aims to make it easier for people to get support when they face severe and multiple disadvantage – when their lives are shaped by poverty, trauma, violence or abuse, or they face other barriers including homelessness, addiction and discrimination.
These disadvantages often overlap but the current model of services that are paid for and provided in different sectors doesn’t reflect their reality. It means people often have to share their stories repeatedly to access all the support they need, it’s costly and it deepens inequality. There needs to be No Wrong Door to getting help.
Homeless Network Scotland Head of Partnerships and Consulting Grant Campbell writes about the need to explore how we can join up services to ensure people facing such challenges get the support they need more easily.
All the way through my career I’ve had the privilege of working alongside some brilliant people. At Homework Network Scotland that also extends to those beyond our organisation and to the many partners and collaborators we work alongside. I’m fortunate enough to be connected in with people and organisations doing amazing things in what is currently an increasingly difficult context.
Many people acknowledge that most, if not all of our statutory services are on their knees, and gone are the days of shiny new ‘pilots’ with five years of secure funding to add a new service somewhere. Controversially, I’m glad!
Now I’m not saying that services don’t need money – they do. Our statutory services need significant funding as do our commissioned third sector partners. Yet if all we do is pursue more funding, there will never be enough money to build the system that we need.
How often have we listened to our political leaders talk about ‘record funding’ for their departments? It doesn’t matter – the hole is always bigger than the money we pour into it.
Increasingly in meetings, no matter the agenda, the conversation seems to always drift towards the siloed nature of the work we do in the care sectors. This is the itch that I feel we need to scratch.
Many of us know it, but we all just play along with how we’ve always done things. We fight our corner, compete for our budgets and argue for additional funding for X at the cost of Y.
I’ve yet to meet anyone who disagrees with this, but who’s prepared to take a different approach if you’re the only one? That’s why we need to go together.
As the old proverb goes, if you want to travel fast, go alone, if you want to travel far, go together. I’m encouraged by this, not least because this journey certainly doesn’t feel fast from my perspective.
Homeless Network Scotland has been steadily working with partners across Scotland towards this different approach… towards No Wrong Door.
Together we’re not only testing change, bending rules (might have broken some…sorry) but we’re determined to learn from failing fast, learn from our mistakes, fixing them and move forward.
The ambition is not only to see significant change in the few areas that we’re working in, but also to build a framework from our learning which shapes decision making across Scotland for the future. We imagine an established No Wrong Door Approach Framework which informs funders, commissioners, service delivery, law makers, and many more.
To this end, we’ve established a National Learning Set, which meets again in the new year. Using the Human Learning Systems approach we’re bravely curious about what works and what doesn’t. Learning wht it will take to break down barriers between siloes and creating paths through the maze for others to follow.
In our current context, this isn’t the time for defeatism. I’m not advocating a naïve ‘talking it up’ approach, pretending all is well. Rather, we need to resist the temptation to fold inwards and extend out to others. We not only need to recognise the connection between poverty, education, housing, mental health, community justice, addiction and health, we need to plan, fund and deliver services that address these issues together.
Watch a 3-minute video briefing on No Wrong Door Scotland ⬇
