NEF Consulting was commissioned to conduct a two-year evaluation of the Person-Led, Transitional and Strength Based (PTS) Response delivered by Mayday Trust in Northampton and its partner Changing Lives in Newcastle. The PTS brings together an asset-based approach and advantaged thinking to work with people transitioning out of homelessness and other difficult life transitions. Both organisations deliver the PTS differently.
This final report presents the findings of achieving long-term sustainable outcomes for the people supported through the PTS and ask whether this should be the new way to respond to homelessness. The PTS has been tested through a ‘proof-of-concept’ phase with an initial pilot delivered in Oxford and has scaled up over the past three years into a national pilot in seven regions around the country.
The PTS response design evolved from listening to people’s lived experiences of homelessness services captured in the 2011 report Wisdom from the Street. A principal finding of this report was that once an individual became homeless, the process was humiliating, dehumanising, and at worst institutionalising with people effectively becoming trapped in the homelessness system.
Key Findings of the NEF Consulting Report:
The NEF Consulting Report ‘Evaluating the Person-Led, Transitional and Strength Based Response‘ reflects on the following aspects of the coaching relationships and methodology:
- Respondent demographics
- Coaching sessions
- The coaching relationship: a respectful and dignified experience
- Setting a direction and identifying their purpose
- Wellbeing outcomes
- Social connections and positive relationships
- Developmental Assets Framework
- Access to other services
- Impact of the pandemic and lockdown
- Organisational culture and systems change
The report shows that the PTS response makes the coaching relationship a respectful and dignified experience. Almost all of the respondents interviewed reported that they deeply valued the one-to-one coaching experience and shared positive reviews of PTS Coaches.
People were allowed space to set their own vision for the future being able to identify and work on a wide range of aspirations they had identified as mattering to them, including practical actions and social achievements.
Those working with a PTS coach reflected a huge improvement in their well being including an increase in self-esteem, sense of purpose, and optimism. People also reported better mental health including feeling happier, and a reduction in anxiety since working with their Coach.
However, the findings suggest respondents did not have very strong positive social networks outside of the coaching relationship and the report reflects that the wider systemic culture around the housing sector, which contrasts markedly with the PTS asset-based approach, may be undermining the PTS Coaches’ outcomes for the individuals.
Download the full report below.
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