Project Director: Sadie Parr
Project Duration: 2023-2025

Finding ways to better support people who are multiply disadvantaged is a policy and practice priority. Despite a consensus within the policy and practice community of the benefits of moving people with ‘lived experience’ into the workforce, there is great diversity in the ways in which lived experience support is defined and delivered, and robust evaluative evidence of the impact is scarce. This research aims to critically examine how lived experience interventions with multiply disadvantaged adults work to effect change.

Objectives:

• To understand the effects of lived experience interventions on both workers and services users.
• To explain what it is about lived experience knowledge that can stimulate positive change.
• To examine how support grounded in lived experience knowledge compares to and is best applied alongside ‘professional’ expertise.
• To advance academic and practice knowledge about the successful integration of lived experience in the workforce.

The project team also includes Alex Norton (Sheffield Hallam University).