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A Better Start Southend
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The value of including people with lived experience in service design and delivery

Learnings from A Better Start Southend.

Benefits of Co-production

Co-production is a bridge between the decision makers and the people in the community who have the real-life experience of living with those decisions in practice. Lived experience is the first-hand knowledge that people have gained through their day to day lives. This type of knowledge is invaluable. It allows members of a community to provide insights that cannot be gained through textbooks or formal training. For example, someone who has experienced homelessness can provide real and valuable insights into the challenges that people experiencing homelessness can face when accessing services.

 

Co-producing services and delivering services with lived-experience input can help service providers better understand the needs of their customers, clients, service users and patients and develop more effective solutions that can really meet those needs. Listening to people’s lived experiences can help to build trust between service providers and people. When people feel that their experiences are being heard and valued, they are more likely to engage with services and to feel that they are being supported in a meaningful way.

The ABSS Approach

Over the past ten years, A Better Start Southend (ABSS) made co-production a fundamental part of how services were designed and delivered in Southend. By working in genuine partnership with parents and carers, ABSS ensured that lived experience was not only heard but placed at the heart of decision-making.  

 

By working in genuine partnership with parents and carers, ABSS ensured that lived experience was not only listened to but placed right at the heart of decision-making. This approach transformed the way services were shaped, placing families in the role of experts and collaborators, rather than simply recipients of support. The Peer Support Project was an example of a service delivered by parents as experts.

The ABSS Peer Support Project:
Lived experience embedded in project delivery

The Social and Communication Peer Support Worker team offers focused support to families with children under five with social and communication needs in the City of Southend. The team builds relationships with families by visiting them at home and offering one-to-one personalised support.

 

The team also accompanies families to appointments, offering guidance on accessing local services, organisations and activities, as well as offering specialised workshops on various topics and assistance with applying for grants and benefits.

 

The University of Essex evaluation1 of the ABSS Peer Support Worker project reports that it has been highly successful in achieving its aim to offer focused support to families with children who have social and communication needs. Qualitative and quantitative data insights indicate that key to this success is the lived experience of Peer Support Workers who have personal experience as parents of children with similar needs.

 

This lived experience enhances their ability to support parents and contributes to an environment where parents feel valued and empowered to share their own experiences in a supportive and caring community of peers.

 

The peer support model delivered by skilled and knowledgeable parents who have a shared lived experience is hugely valuable in fostering parental personal growth and contributes to improved parental psychological and emotional wellbeing.

 

In the ABSS Peer Support Project, the staff were themselves parents of children on the autistic spectrum or children with social and communication needs. Their unique ‘live’ perspective on the issues faced by the families they support, enabled the service to be tailored to meet each family’s needs in a meaningful way.

 

Parents who had been supported through the Peer Support Project spoke highly about their experience with Peer Support Workers. Positive experiences of the projects were also associated with the non-judgemental, person-centred approach taken by Peer Support Workers. Parents felt empowered, valued and supported by their approach.

 

An important contributing factor was the lived experience of project staff who had personal experience of caring for a child with extra needs. Parents reported feeling supported, ‘seen‘ and understood because the Peer Support Workers could relate to their experience:

“I do feel more prepared. I feel like I’m not going in blind now, because of these weekly calls with her, and any questions that I’ve had she’s answered so honestly, because she’s been through it as a mother herself to an autistic child.”
Parent
“I’ve been seeing her each week, and it is someone who has been through a very similar situation herself. She has an autistic child herself, so she’s been able to offer past experience onto me and what to expect and what I should be doing, giving help and advice. And it’s just been nice to have someone to talk to who’s actually experienced what I’m going through, so that’s been good.”
Parent
“Before receiving their support I felt helpless, depressed, I didn’t understand the needs of my child. I didn’t have good strategies in place to help my child with everyday tasks, and more. The service is a blessing. I was suicidal because of my family situation but having that support, understanding my child better, implementing strategies, being listened to, and receiving first hand help from people who also have children with special needs or work directly with children with special needs means they know so much and share it with me.”
Parent
“She has given me the confidence to parent how I need to, in the best interest of my child and not to fear outside judgement. I’ve gained knowledge on what to expect going forward regarding educational help. I’ve gained access to resources. I’ve gained personal advice that has helped me to manage my own son’s condition. I have gained a new outlook on his autism diagnosis; it has become a positive step in the right direction instead of feeling like it is going to be holding him back.”
Parent
“I feel they gave me a sense of direction and their advice came from actual experience which really helped as you do not feel judged.”
Parent

The Peer Support Model

The peer-based model of support promotes positive parenting and strengthens parental mental health. Parents report improvements in their own wellbeing and health and improved coping strategies as a result of participating with the project, in addition to the benefits for their child and their family generally.

 

Key to the success of the project is leveraging the lived experience of peer support workers who provide relatable and practical support for parents which fosters trust and understanding.

Benefits to staff of the peer-based model of support

There are also direct benefits for the staff themselves. Peer support work enables staff to be more empathic and responsive to the needs of the families they work with, which in turn means increased job satisfaction and morale, resulting in higher staff retention rates. 

In addition to improving services, sharing their lived experiences can empower those who have faced challenges in their own lives. By telling their stories, individuals contribute positively to society, boosting their self-esteem and confidence. This, in turn, enhances their ability to work with families in an empathic and flexible way, fosters greater family engagement with services, and leads to better outcomes for everyone.

The ABSS Peer Support Workers highlight the positive impact on themselves and their families from working in this way:

“I don't think I will ever be as lucky as I have been working in this role, in relation to the job satisfaction and flexibility that the role offers. The team all have children with additional needs, so we have the understanding around needing the flexibility with meetings, workshops, home visits, and it means we can work together more effectively to ensure that these are all covered off appropriately.

Working with parent/carers also means that the families themselves have the flexibility around rescheduling sessions with us if something unexpected pops up, and the same for us as Peer Support Workers, the families have a better understanding of why we might need to do the same. The job satisfaction in this role is off the scale. Being able to support families because of our lived experience, and watching their confidence grow as the time goes on. Building relationships with the families and knowing that we have made a difference to their SEND journey. You can see how much they have benefited from our service and the positive feedback speaks for itself.

It has been an amazing role which has helped me personally to be more confident advocating for my own children and wanting to continue to make changes for families of children with SEND”
LC – Peer Support Worker
“Being in a role that you have a genuine passion for but also allows you to prioritise your family when necessary is unmatchable. I feel like I am making a difference every day to multiple families who are going through similar experiences to myself. At the same time Ihave been able to build relationships with the wider community and felt part of a bigger family. The flexibility we have with the families means we can go from helping them complete complicated forms one week to taking them to local support groups the next. Being independent tends to mean families bond with us quicker and so sometimes our support does just allow them to speak freely without fear of judgement and I think this is invaluable to them. It has also empowered me to continue to advocate for my children.”
TM – Peer Support Worker

Summary

The ABSS approach to incorporating lived experience into service delivery transformed the way services were shaped; placing families in the role of experts and collaborators, rather than just recipients of support. Together, we co-designed and delivered projects that were more relevant, inclusive, and impactful, building a strong foundation of trust and mutual respect.


From early years services to community support initiatives, this decade of learning in Southend has shown that when families and professionals work side by side, the outcomes are better for everyone. 

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