To understand what research is important to people experiencing homelessness and multiple disadvantage, through informal discussion groups, developing contacts and involving experts by experience.
Background
The full extent of homelessness and multiple disadvantage is unknown both nationally and locally, due to hidden homelessness and a lack of means to capture the data. In Hertfordshire for the period 2022-23, 5,202 households were owed a homeless duty, of which 59% were recorded with support needs. Out of 6667 total support needs (including multiple support needs), 23.6% reported poor mental health, 16% had physical ill-health or a disability, 13% reported a history of repeat homelessness and 10% reported domestic abuse. Whilst there is much focus on different approaches to tackling these issues and improving services to achieve better outcomes, less time is taken to understand what the key priorities are for people using these services within their own communities.
Project Aims
To understand what research matters to people experiencing homelessness and multiple diasadvantage, improve knowledge on inclusive involvement, and use the results to support a future pre-doctoral study and local authority engagement with Hertfordshire’s homelessness services.
Project Activity
- Hold informal discussion groups with people using homelessness and related support services to explore their priorities.
- Develop contacts and involve experts by experience through working on related projects under supervision of NIHR East of England ARC theme leads for ‘Inclusive Involvement in Research’ and ‘Prevention and Early Detection in Health and Social Care’.
- Develop learning about effective methods for involvement, inclusion and engagement.
Anticipated or actual outputs
- Presentations using visual methods for key audiences at University of Hertfordshire and Hertfordshire County Council about discussion group activities and results.
- Draft research plan based on results of discussion groups for a future study through NIHR pre-doctoral Local Authority Fellowship.
- Blog for publication about discussion group activities and results.
Papers/resources associated with this project
A Walk in Grays: meet our researchers | ARC East of England
https://arc-eoe.nihr.ac.uk/public-involvement-research-inclusion/public-involvement-resources
Who is involved?
- PIs: Claire Thompson and Elspeth Mathie, NIHR East of England ARC / University of Hertfordshire
- Researcher: Charlotte Cooke, Hertfordshire County Council (NIHR LA SPARC Award)
