Impact of community reporting and lived experiences in the Jönköping pilot

(This section is a summary and built upon Cosie-project delivery D4.3 Analysis report of the Community Reporter insight stories collated)

“The relationship between staff and service users is key”, says one worker for the social services in Jönköping. The staff “must be interested in meeting new people” when they work with people with disabilities. Staff reflections in Jönköping, frame interpersonal relationships as being at the centre of successful services, echoing an understanding of service delivery as a relational service.

Jönköping service approach is “starting with the needs of the individuals”. This offers a way of building types of relational services, and the staff member suggests that a co-creation process is one way to achieve this, but that it requires “time and space” to do so.

The stories in Jönköping show that their services have already started to demonstrate change and good practice in this area. To be able to promote change there is a need to support the staff to be open to change and for the service as a whole to find “motivation to make necessary changes”. However, change can take time and “it’s not easy to take theory into practice”, but is sometimes necessary in order to provide a good, person-centred service. The essence of supporting staff lies in increasing their knowledge, which in turn will improve support for the people who access the service, a service personal argues. This awareness of the labour (both mental and emotional) required from staff members in order to alter the way that services are provided is important in order to safeguard the interests and well being of staff as well as the people they support. One way to achieve this change is to give beneficiaries a voice through lived experiences.

In the Swedish pilot, officials and social services workers wanted to make use of community reporting to give citizens a voice as they work towards improving social services. Many of the stories in Jönköping were about individuals wanting to feel in control of their daily life and feel accepted by the society in which they live. The experiences reported in Jönköping were focused on individual opportunities and excitements, but also of loss and fear. A co-creating service culture should bear in mind that individuals may be carrying different traumatic experiences and may be in need for support networks. Community reporting tools may facilitate and empower individuals in expressing needs that might be difficult to express in a traditional service delivery culture. Stories of lived experience reported in Jönköping can be harnessed in the design of support services. It became clear that issues of respect and equality in society are highly valued by citizens, and that opportunities to work, volunteer and study are instrumental in helping beneficiaries to feel more welcome in society and therefore more self-confident.

Some extracts

In one story, a man described his work for a children’s charity how it helped him to live out his belief that it is “important that people are treated equally in society”. When discussing the support that she receives, one woman offered the idea that she wanted to be “treated like a human being”.

One theme that emerged from the stories was the ways in which people worked to maintain control of their lives and how they find positives in their situation. These stories from people accessing services showed how they wanted to be treated as capable and autonomous individuals.

Another story highlights how a man likes to go on trips and discusses the “joy and meaning” that they give to him. How they enhance his world with “an understanding of everyday life”.

These stories provide a counter to negative stereotypes about vulnerable and marginalised people and demonstrate models of coping strategies that service providers can support and promote. Some of these stories reveal the ways in which social services support people to help them maintain control in their lives. Which in turn leads to them viewing the interventions in a positive light.

One woman, talks about how she values care, trust, curiosity and balance in her support, and welcomes the fact that staff in her group home are curious and empathetic. She finds that the staff give her support to “balance” her day so that she does not become overwhelmed by her mental health problems. The importance of trust between an individual accessing a service and staff that delivers a service is emphasised in this story. When there is a relationship of trust it is easier to accept negative feelings.

This story contains many important learning points for staff about what qualities the people they support need to see from them, and suggests that relationships between professionals and citizens will take time and effort from both sides to reach their full potential. The positive impact of when this is achieved cannot be overstated though, as one person themselves described – “it might save my life, living here”.

Several stories point for a need for better communication between individuals and the authorities: ideally in co-created services we would look for citizens to not only fully understand the processes and procedures that they are working through, but also for their voice to be heard in the process, championed and amplified by support services.

Some examples made by community reporting: