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If an expectation of system change continues, from commissioners and services, there needs to be dedicated resources to support people to do this. What can we learn from the System Change Group?

This could result in large scale, tangible changes that allow services to truly meet the needs of those that they were designed to serve. We hope it will give services the power to be more responsive to the needs, and emerging opportunities, in their system. The potential of this new focus on system change is really exciting. Changing Futures seeks to “drive lasting change across the whole system to provide better outcomes for adults experiencing multiple disadvantage.” This feels like a real culture shift, from focussing on service delivery to creating sustainable changes to services. This was demonstrated by the recent Changing Futures funding from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. System change is now also a much more common expectation from funders, both locally and nationally. It is fair to assume that the legacy of the group and its learning may continue to influence groups not only in Bristol, but nationwide, for some time to come. This learning offered other groups the opportunity to consider how lessons learned can be applied in their own context.

Learning from the SCG, not only about what has worked, but also the challenges the group has faced, has also been shared with a number of other Fulfilling Lives projects across England. For example, Bristol’s Creative Solutions Board which is also supported by the Spark team, has adapted learning from the SCG to define its set up, underlying structures and ongoing support offered to members. Learning from the SCG has directly influenced some of these. There are now several groups in Bristol aiming to create systemic change. There has been significant culture change that maybe hasn’t always been recognised.” “Change is a journey that we are on together. The System Change Group has certainly played some part in this overall picture. We are witnessing far more awareness of systems thinking among organisations and individuals working with people experiencing multiple disadvantages. Since the group’s inception, we have seen the culture in Bristol shift significantly. When asked, members said that some of their most significant accomplishments have been to influence the re-contracting, rather than recommissioning, of the adult homelessness pathways and the inclusion of Psychologically Informed Environments (PIE) in the commissioning of services. We can assume that this will enable them to continue to act and think systemically outside of the context of the group in other spaces they engage with and in their own (or future) organisations.Īs a collective, the group has completed 16 pieces of system change work that have been captured by Golden Key.

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We cannot know the full extent to which people’s involvement in the SCG may impact their work outside of the group, but we do know that those who have attended the training and have been part of the group have demonstrated more systemic ways of thinking and acting. 25 of these have been trained in Systems Thinking. Since the SCG began, 83 people from 31 different organisations have been involved. The decision to end the group should not be seen as a failure, but rather as an appropriate response to the current needs of the system.

We believe that this willingness of the group to adapt in line with emerging opportunities to try and best meet its aim of creating change in the system should be seen as a real positive. The original group merged with the Bristol Homelessness Health group in 2017 before being redesigned by members in 2019 and finally deciding to disband at the start of 2021. Initially set up as the Golden Key system change group, the group has undergone several iterations after its conception in 2014. In this piece, the Spark team, who has supported the work of the SCG over the past four years is reflecting on the work of the group, and wider changes that have taken place in Bristol during its tenure. After six years the group has recognised that it is no longer the best vehicle for system change in the city and has chosen to disband. The group’s stated aim was to create change in Bristol by ‘unlocking the system for those furthest away from getting their needs met by services’. Formed at the start of the Golden Key programme, the System Change Group (SCG) was a cross-sector, multi-organisation group of individuals looking to generate system change.

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