[Skip to Content]
Blog: 5 years on, we’re still All in for Change

Blog: 5 years on, we’re still All in for Change

Blog: 5 years on, we’re still All in for Change

Monday, January 13, 2025

This blog post was originally published on Homeless Network Scotland’s website. 

All in for Change is a team of people with personal and frontline experience of homelessness who work to influence change in the way we address and resolve homelessness in Scotland. All in for Change is funded by the Scottish Government and St Martin-in-the-Fields Charity. The programme is facilitated by Cyrenians and Homeless Network Scotland. 

The Team first met in December 2019 to help close the gap between policy and action on the ground – to act as a bridge between the Scottish Government and people who access and provide support. 

Since forming – and despite hurdles like the Covid-19 pandemic and the housing emergency – the Change Team has stayed passionate about pushing for change and ensuring that lived experience expertise is integral to policy making and culture change. 

The Team is represented on the Homelessness Prevention Strategy Group (HPSG) and other government working groups, and contributed to the Ending Homelessness Together Plan. All in for Change has influenced policy around rapid rehousing and temporary accommodation, given evidence to the Scottish Parliament and played a major role in developing the Ask and Act prevention duties in the Housing Bill now going through parliament. 

Through national roadshows, the Team gathers evidence of what is working for people experiencing homelessness and the workers who support them – and what could be better. The Team has set out  4 New Directions to end homelessness in Scotland and measures progress towards these goals. 

To celebrate five years of All in for Change, Homeless Network Scotland’s Michelle Major and Change Leads Shea Moran and David Pentland (who have been there from the start) reflect on the value of the team’s work and how it has grown to meet the challenging conditions we face. 

 

Michelle: Thinking back to the first Change Team retreat in December 2019, none of us could have known the challenges ahead of us. We were filled with optimism, motivated by a new plan to end homelessness in Scotland. 

We were ready to contribute to decision-making by ensuring the voices and realities of homelessness across our communities were represented and heard by those with power to make change.   

Within just a few months, the world as we knew it changed, with the Covid pandemic and lockdown. The way we responded to homelessness - and to rough sleeping particularly - was unrecognisable compared to the “business as usual” approach we were used to.   

Facilitating the team throughout this time was a challenge and also an inspiration – the speed people were able to adapt, and how quickly we could understand how the ever-changing landscape was impacting people experiencing homelessness showcased the true value of All in for Change – a mechanism to tap into what really matters to people and what really works in services supporting people. 

While that feels like a lifetime ago, I believe that experience was formative for all of us, All in for Change included. It set the tone and showed us all what we are capable of. 

Since then, the grit and personality of the Change Team has grown and evolved, and membership has naturally changed with time too. 

But we’ve never lost the magic of the team, the ability to speak truth to power, to be cooperative and challenging at the same time, to always tell it like it is.   

Undoubtedly that’s down to the brilliant people who have chosen to join us, to dedicate their personal time or professional time to the team, to making things better and ultimately to playing a part in ending homelessness in Scotland.  

I truly feel that facilitating the Change Team is a privilege – personally it’s the first time I had the opportunity to get involved in something in its development stage and watch it grow into a vibrant team.  

Meeting the team each month at our Change Team retreats is always the best day of the month, where we are challenged to investigate the gaps in policy implementation, to learn, to prioritise and to influence at a national level.   

And going into our fifth year, we are ready to level up: our national roadshow where we record progress towards the Ending Homelessness Together action plan in 2025 will be stronger than ever with a peer research programme supporting it.   

We are ready to create solid evidence about what works and what matters to people experiencing homelessness across Scotland, and to work with our partners to make sure that evidence is able to influence the changes we all want to see – a fairer society where homelessness is not business as usual, and is responded to like the emergency it truly is. 

 

Shea: It's mad to believe that the Change Team is five! It’s amazing to see how far the Change Team has come, how much we’ve accomplished in that time, and how far our reach has grown since that first meeting. 

I never imagined that a group of frontline workers and folks with lived experience would have so much influence and respect within the sector. 
 
Although I probably should have expected it when you’ve got someone like me helping out! 
 
I’m still in the group because I think it serves as a great template for how engagement with lived experience and frontline workers should be done. 

Everyone in the group is equal, people feel comfortable enough to express their opinions and know that those views will be respected or that they can receive constructive feedback or criticism! 

 

David: I have been involved in All in for Change since December 2019. I had no real concept of the inner workings of our Scottish Government prior to joining the team. I have learned so much about policy and legislation as a result of my involvement.   

Some of the high points in my involvement include being part of the Prevention Commission where we came up with the concept of ‘Ask and Act’ as well as other homelessness prevention duties. 

The roadshows were also a real privilege to attend and facilitate. Meeting frontline workers and people experiencing homelessness from across the country was a real eye-opener and really embedded some of the overarching priorities that the team had to highlight. 

And they highlighted the outstanding achievements of some local authorities where despite obvious challenges, they were doing their utmost to make individual experiences of homelessness the best they could be given the circumstances.  

Lastly but most importantly, we couldn’t do what we do without the facilitation of Homeless Network Scotland and the large input we get from the Scottish Government. 

 

The Change Team is always keen to learn from people and their experiences. You can get in touch on ChangeTeam@homelessnetwork.scot if you have any questions or want to connect with the Team.

News and Views

collapse/expand
  • Brain Injury Guidance

    Brain Injury Guidance

    Leigh Andrews of Change Communication offered specialist advice on brain injuries and homelessness through a digital...
  • End Furniture Poverty Survey

    End Furniture Poverty Survey

    End Furniture Poverty have recently spoken with the Frontline Network to discuss their important ongoing survey, seek...
  • Cover the Cost Campaign

    Cover the Cost Campaign

    Jasmine Basran, Senior Policy Officer at Crisis, talks to us about the Cover the Cost Campaign, asking the Government...
  • VRF Impact Report 2018/19

    VRF Impact Report 2018/19

    Over the past year we have given out 3827 grants totaling £1,156,805 through the VRF. Read the latest Impact Report t...
  • Influence from the Frontline

    Influence from the Frontline

    Frontline workers are crucial at giving insight into the viewpoints of the people they work with as well as the chall...
  • The Vagrancy Act

    The Vagrancy Act

    Crisis, along with others including Homeless Link, Cymorth Cymru, Centrepoint, St Mungo’s, Shelter Cymru and the Wall...
  • Influencing local decisions

    Influencing local decisions

    Zoe, Frontline Network Coordinator at Coventry Citizens Advice, talks to us about the Coventry Frontline Network and...
  • The Litigant in Person Network

    The Litigant in Person Network

    Martha de la Roche, Network Development Manager at Litigant in Person Network (LiP Network), tells us about The LiP N...
  • VRF Impact Report

    VRF Impact Report

    Find out what impact VRF had last year and how to get involved in shaping its direction in the coming year.
  • Housing First Scotland

    Housing First Scotland

    Please see here for the first issue of Housing First Connect - a twice-yearly newsletter for Scotland’s new Housing F...
  • Slaying the Dragon

    Slaying the Dragon

    Will Golding, Edinburgh Tutor at Crisis, talks to us about 'Slaying the Dragon'.
  • CPAG - Early Warning System

    CPAG - Early Warning System

    Dan Norris, from CPAG, talks to us about a new Early Warning System to record the impact of benefit changes implement...
  • The Hostile Environment

    The Hostile Environment

    Bethan Lant, a Project lead from Praxis, writes about the creation of a hostile environment for migrants and refugees.
  • Wrexham’s Crisis Cafe

    Wrexham’s Crisis Cafe

    Sinead Kelleher writes about Wrexham's Crisis Cafe, a multi-agency response to Universal Credit.
  • Frontline Worker Survey

    Frontline Worker Survey

    We are asking frontline workers to participate in a survey, aimed at those working with clients who are experiencing...
  • A map through conflict

    A map through conflict

    A Cyrenians Mediator writes about their innovative Amber Mediation and Support Project, a model of mediation and supp...
  • “A place to call home"

    “A place to call home"

    Hannah Gousy was seconded from Crisis to the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) to help design policy recommendations to...
  • A London Nightshelter

    A London Nightshelter

    On 7 November we opened our church-based shelters for the winter with more churches signed on then ever before. Glass...
  • 'Step Up' at The Connection

    'Step Up' at The Connection

    Wyn Newman introduces the volunteer programme 'Step Up' that has been developed at The Connection for service users.