You are here: HOME Kit Part 5. Policies, Procedures, and Building a Team

Part 5.

Policies, Procedures, and Building a Team

Now that we have a greater understanding of lived experience, engagement and co-design, as well as the principles and approaches to take, the focus then turns to the organisational policies and procedures to make this possible and to embed this approach within organisational culture. In order to embark on a lived experience engagement project and to support organisational readiness, certain organisational policies, procedures and practices will need to be created, updated or adapted in order to better work with people with lived experience. For example, this may include processes around payment, intellectual property, support and training.

As outlined earlier, organisational readiness is critical before embarking on this process. This is a key banner with respect to engagement with respect to the organisation’s willingness and ability to take action and effectively implement change.  As mentioned, investing in effective organisational readiness including building the capacity of both staff and people with lived experience to be active and engaged partners creates a strong foundation for undertaking any engagement approach.

It is possible that existing attitudes, approaches, and processes within an organisation may need to be reflected on and reformed to ensure that lived experience engagement is being approached in the right way. We need to do it right by having pre-planned policies and procedures in place that enable best practice as shown below. [1] NESTA and the new Economics Foundation have developed a self-reflection tool for co-designing that aims to help work out how much collaborative production is already in practice. [2] The WA Alliance to End Homelessness has developed a co-design toolkit that showcases how to utilise co-design to develop action plans. This audit tool and co-design toolkit can be found in ‘Part 6’ under resources.

Planning Process:

[1] Schetzer, L. (2018). Housing and homelessness. In S. Rice, A. Day & L. Briskman (Eds.), Social work in the shadow of the law.

[2] Boyle, D., Coote, A., Sherwood, C., & Slay, J. (2013). RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW. NESTA.

You cannot commence any co-design or engagement if you are not able or willing to appropriately remunerate people with lived experience, unless it is very clear that participants are undertaking this work in a voluntary capacity (e.g. voluntary advocacy campaigning connected to the organisation).  Best practice is to have an organisational policy in regard to remunerating people for their time, at an appropriate rate, and even potentially employ them.[1]

As outlined in the WACOSS Lived Experience Framework, “There is recognition that resourcing can be a barrier to the adequate remuneration of lived experience advocates and in turn, that lived experience advocates have the self-determination and autonomy to undertake those advocacy partnerships irrespective of remuneration. It is important to remember that people should not be remunerated through unpaid ‘work experience’ or ‘internships’ in the situation where funds for that activity are not available without discussion and agreement. This is to avoid potential exploitation of people’s labour.”

“If you are using our advice to build policies and improve services then what we say has great value. Our experience and expertise deserve to be valued and recognised, if everyone else involved is being paid for their time and efforts then so should we.”
– HOME Lived Experience

Whilst a significant amount of lived experience co-design and engagement roles are temporary, ad-hoc, and casual –  the lived experience workforce in Australia include roles such as peer support; consultant and advisor; or an expertise role in education, training, policy design and systemic advocacy. This emergent and increasingly impactful section of the community sector workforce is slowly growing. However, expansion of these roles is ad hoc with little structured development. Previous research also indicates the way lived experience workers are collaborated with, integrated, or utilised is highly variable.

You must negotiate remuneration and in-kind payments (honorarium) surrounding set timing with lived experience advocates prior to activities being undertaken by them which are based on their skills and experience. Best practice identifies the need for a minimum of two paid lived experience positions to create a safe and balanced environment and to ensure people have access to peer support and opportunities for debriefing/check-ins.

Considering the impact of involvement and earnings on Centrelink payments, organisations can negotiate in-kind payments with advocates. There must be an appreciation of these complexities whilst working, but staying safely inside allowable parameters is essential if people are to make informed choices and flexible arrangements to support lived experience advocates who are often seeking stable paid employment.[2] These may include vouchers (e.g. Coles, Woolworths), free access to training, free leadership opportunities or other creative options that are mutually selected, negotiated, and agreed prior to the activity. [3] In each organisation will have to account for this as per their financial records and will have a preferred way of keeping financial records, organisations should seek advice on the best way to do this.[4]

Like any member of an organisation or team, in addition to compensation lived experience advocates may require other kinds of supports in order to enable their full equitable participation in organisations. Lived experience advocates should also be reimbursed for out of pocket expenses such as travel and parking, incidentals and that appropriate refreshments are made available. Wherever possible, organisations should remunerate lived experience advocates at an agreed minimum hourly rate, for a minimum of four hours. By negotiation and with mutual consent, certain activities may attract a different, one-off or pro rata payment structure, for example, participation in short phone interviews or short surveys.[5]

The HOME project supports an approach that values lived experience expertise as equal to other forms of expertise and, as such, the time and contribution of people with lived experience should be remunerated appropriately wherever possible. The HOME project lends its supports to the work done on lived experience remuneration by the Council of Social Service (COSS) Lived Experience Framework and the Lived Experience Advocate payment scale they have produced which is adapted upon below.[6]  It must be noted that this is based on 2019 figures and appropriate indexation needs to occur if this is being used as a baseline. You can find other examples of lived experience payment policies in Part 6 under resources.

  General Attendee Sponsored Attendee Active Participant Advisor Consultant
Payment No Payment No Payment $40 per hour minimum $70 per hour minimum $100 per hour minimum
Forums, Consultations, workshops or focus groups General Attendance Sponsored attendance (registration, travel, meals provided) Specifically invited to attend Co-design and co-produce Engaged to lead forum consultation, workshop or focus group
Committees or Groups with Terms of Reference N/A N/A Member of service, system or strategic level committee Strategic level committee or sitting governance member Engaged to provide impartial guidance, knowledge or expertise
Recruitment or Selection panels N/A N/A N/A Member Chair
Other Projects N/A N/A Special Projects or Duties Special Projects or Duties Engages to lead policy, procedure, or resource development
Media Interviews N/A N/A Media interview for print and / or radio Media interview for print and / or radio Media interview for television
Conferences General Attendance Sponsored Attendance N/A Member of planning committee Speaker (assume 1hr prep time)

This payments scale should be indexed according to the Australian Wage Price Index annually.

[1] Western Australian Council of Social Services (WACOSS). (2020). ‘WACOSS Lived Experience Framework’ Perth, Western Australia.

[2] Wintrup, J., Biggs, H., Brannelly, T., Fenwick, A., Ingham, R., & Woods, David. (2019). Ethics from the ground up

[3] Western Australian Council of Social Services (WACOSS). (2020). ‘WACOSS Lived Experience Framework’ Perth, Western Australia.

[4] Western Australian Council of Social Services (WACOSS). (2020). ‘WACOSS Lived Experience Framework’ Perth, Western Australia.

[5] Wintrup, J., Biggs, H., Brannelly, T., Fenwick, A., Ingham, R., & Woods, David (Eds.). (2019). Ethics from the ground up:

[6] https://wacoss.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Final-Lived-Experience-Framework-Principles-and-Practices-for-Lived-Experience-partnerships.pdf.

Co-design and engagement with people who have lived experience requires time, resources, and commitment for all parties – and enough time and resources must be committed for this purpose Whether it is longer than expected discussions or unanticipated costs, you will need to allocate adequate time and resources possible and where have a contingency plan in place if the budget will be overextended. The best way to avoid this hurdle is consult with people who have lived experience and develop a project plan, timeline, and budget that is:

  • Considers all contingencies appropriate in relation to time and resources – do not underestimate this.
  • Defined with boundaries for elements that cannot be changed (e.g. it may not be possible to alter the content or implementation of an evidence-based program).
  • Accounting for all potential activities and expenses.
  • Planned with contingencies in place for flexibility.
  • Agreed upon by all parties.
  • Continuously well managed throughout.[1] [2] [3]
Top Tip: Build in plenty of time and resources for engagement – it should be central to program and research design, not an afterthought. Ensure that the timeframe for an initiative includes the time required to form a good working relationship and do things at a reasonable pace.
Top Tip: Anticipate the compensation and supports that will be required to properly include people with lived experience, and include those costs in funding applications.

When developing these procedures, you must set concrete objectives and specific timeframes, and work towards them. The below is not an exhaustive list, but some recommended starting points for early planning of a lived experience project.

  • What are the time and resource demands to adequately staff this project?
    • Remember that working with a people with lived experience involves taking the time to build trust and build relationships.
  • What other expenses might be involved?
    • Can you appropriately pay people with lived experience? Peer support? Catering? Room Hire? Transport costs?
  • Do you have an appropriate venue or space for the work to take place?
    • Is it accessible?
  • How many staff will be working on a lived experience engagement project?
    • Which staff are best equipped to work on a project of this sort? Are they have an appropriate skill set? Do they require additional training?
    • Do you need support staff? If so, how will this be arranged?
  • How will you find and connect with people with Lived Experience? How long will this take?
    • Will you put out an EOI? Will you conduct interviews?

[1] Clayson, A and Webb, Lucy and Cox, Nigel. 2018. ‘When two worlds collide: Critical reflection on co-production. Drugs and Alcohol’.

[2] Western Australian Alliance to Ending Homelessness. 2020. ‘#EndHomelessness Review of Literature & Practice: Co-Design’. Perth: Centre for Social Impact.

[3] People with Disabilities (PwDWA). 2020. ‘Connect With Me: Training Toolkit’

Once your organisation knows it has the readiness and resources prepared to undertake a lived experience co-design or engagement, you must then address whether you can manage trauma and mental health by providing appropriate supports to people with lived experience. Experiencing homelessness or housing insecurity for even a short period of time can be incredibly traumatic. Research has found that traumatic events, regardless of how far in our past they might be, can still significantly impact on the way that individuals think, feel and act.[1]

Engaging in lived experience work for many advocates can entail re-counting, remembering and re-living traumatic events from their past. This can cause physical reactions like a racing heart of rise in blood pressure. It can also trigger emotional reactions like anger or despair. Talking or hearing about trauma, or other people’s experiences of trauma can be re-traumatising.

“If you didn’t have a mental health or addiction problem before you became homeless, you’ll definitely have one after. But you want to recover from trauma. People’s mental health and addictions must be respected and supported with a duty of care, not ignored and vilified.

– HOME Lived Experience Advocate

People with lived experience have also likely received punitive and negative responses in response to their input or behaviour in past engagement and advocacy. As shown in the principles and approaches sections, teams must adopt a bottom-up, community culture – not a top-down traditional professional culture. You must always understand and empower each other’s perspectives and reassure support throughout.

Not all lived experience advocates will be dealing with active trauma, mental health issues or addictions – but both parties must assess readiness and preparedness using an eligibility criterion or check in to take part. You can find an example of the approach that Lifeline has utilised to assess participant readiness for ‘consumer engagement’ in Part 6 under resources. Once setting out on a lived experience co-design or engagement it is critical to have internal or externally brought in team members on hand who are:

  • Trained in mental health first aid
  • Trained in trauma-informed practice
  • Trained in peer support
  • Training in social work or psychology
  • Trained in de-escalation techniques and dispute resolution

Lived experience roles need the same kinds of support and supervision mechanisms as other professionals in a team. Systemic approaches are required to embed this into organisations. It is important to ensure support is provided beyond having a dedicated support worker on the team to build trusting and supportive relationships with people who have lived experience:

  • Provide information on issues such as feedback and complaints procedures, support processes, consent, and intellectual property terms
  • Provide duty of care and supports required prior to activities being undertaken that has been jointly negotiated
  • Provide the opportunity for self-selected identity and narrative prior to activities (e.g. advocate, consumer, representative, ambassador etc.)
  • Provide your organisation’s employment assistance program if possible
  • Provide clear, honest, and regular communication from start to finish
  • Provide ‘Check-In’s before, during, and after any activities
  • Provide practical assistance to circumstances related and even unrelated to the activities – from related training, transport, food, to support with Centrelink, and connecting with other agencies, services and projects.
  • Provide a dispute resolution and feedback process.[2]

It will also assist the success of the project if the planning and execution of the engagement is ‘trauma-informed’. Challenging behaviour is likely to manifest if people do not believe that engaging with you will support them to meet their immediate needs, or if they think that you are there to serve the needs of others rather than to support them. For more information on being trauma-informed you can contact the Blue Knot trauma helpline and referral service and acquire their guide via the number and link in the resources section below.

[1] Mental Health Commission. (2018). Working Together – Mental Health and Alcohol and Other Drug – Engagement Framework. Government of Western Australia.

[2] Mental Health Commission. (2018). Working Together – Mental Health and Alcohol and Other Drug – Engagement Framework. Government of Western Australia.

As outlined in the WACOSS Lived Experience Framework, “Before any activity is undertaken, it is strongly recommended that the organisation and lived experience advocates determine if any lived experience advocate’s intellectual property will be needed for the activity, or at the outcome of the activity. If the lived experience advocate’s existing intellectual property is being used as part of the activity (including but not limited to personal stories, experiences, information, media, and/or written resources) it is recommended that you and the lived experience advocates negotiate the terms and conditions of the use of that intellectual property in some form of written agreement.

“Our stories, experiences, and input is our intellectual property. It must be treated as such.” – HOME Lived Experience Advocate

An understanding should be clear what is deemed as the organisation and lived experience advocate’s individual and collective intellectual property, and whether that remains under their ownership and can only be used with permission for the express purposes of the agreed upon activity. Any further use of the intellectual property should not occur without express permission from either party in writing (e.g. email, letter, form, or contract).

If there is an expectation the lived experience advocate will create new intellectual property expressly for or during the activity, it is recommended that an agreement to the ownership of this property and any future use is made. It is recommended for engagements that it is outlined that the related work was procured by the organisation and is owned by the organisation, with creation credit given to the lived experience advocates, who should be adequately remunerated due to providing their own intellectual property. Terms and conditions for an agreement could include (but not be limited to):[1]

  • Any personal stories or information from people is their intellectual property, which cannot be used without consent.
  • The lived experience advocate being consulted/having final confirmation of an development or editing process.
  • Recognition in an agreed form from all parties.
  • Notifying the lived experience advocate prior to the publishing of stories.
  • Checking-in personally with the lived experience advocate after the activity or publishing of any intellectual property.”[2]

[1] Western Australian Alliance to Ending Homelessness. 2020. ‘#EndHomelessness Review of Literature & Practice: Co-Design’. Perth: Centre for Social Impact.

[2] Western Australian Council of Social Services (WACOSS). (2020). ‘WACOSS Lived Experience Framework’ Perth, Western Australia.

It is essential that an agreement is made with lived experience advocates surrounding the confidentiality of anything with a personal nature from both parties, such as sharing stories and experiences, taking photographs, and the organisation’s shared confidential information. Just like any engagement, consent from all parties on current and future circumstances is essential. Before any form of engagement with people who have lived experience, standard consent agreements and procedures must be in place with a clear outline of terms so both parties are aware of what their involvement will entail, the implications for this, and give them control ability to make a decision about how they want to participate.

Organisations will also want to incorporate risk and mitigation strategies and actions into internal organisational planning prior to commencing a co-design or engagement process. Along with the areas addressed in this policy and procedure section, typical risks and issues for co-design in a procurement environment include:

  • Inability to obtain agreement/consensus.
  • Competing availabilities and commitments for lived experience advocates.
  • Unrealistic expectations and misaligned goals.
  • Managing individual or group disagreements and differences, including dispute and conflict resolution.
  • Power imbalances or struggles amongst people.[1]

Analyse all potential risks and mitigations and develop relevant risk and issues management strategies internally. Your organisation will need its own process and documentation for risk and issues analysis. For more information, ‘The Community Services Risk Workbook’ by the Department of Finance is linked under Part 6 under resources.

[1] Department of Finance WA. 2018. Planning in Partnership Guide: Undertaking Co-Design under the Delivering Community Services in Partnership Policy

The final process to have in place before starting is how you will evaluate and monitor your co-design and engagement. It is important to evaluate how successful the project was in achieving its aims and outcomes, measure the qualitative and quantitative impacts and outcomes across various time points (i.e. beginning, middle and end), and capture learnings and feedback. An evaluation and monitoring framework will set out a rationale for the project and a strong framing will assist in organising findings so that the change mechanisms and effectiveness of the program can be demonstrated.

Developing a framework and providing evaluative opportunities to people with lived experience to evaluate the co-design or engagement will assist organisations to know what they are or have done well and what elements of the involvement could be made better. Generally, the evaluation will involve both formative evaluation, which documents learnings and implementation considerations, and a summative evaluation, which helps to arrive at an assessment about the overall worth of the engagement.[1]

A standard example of evaluation techniques could be a face-to-face evaluation and review interview or providing a self-efficacy and project feedback survey at various stages of the engagement which could be done anonymously. As a guide, your evaluation and monitoring framework may want to address:

  • Were the identified outcomes achieved?
  • Has the implementation of the engagement been effective and efficient, what changes were needed and why?
  • Have participants experienced positive outcomes from being involved in the engagement?
  • Do stakeholders see the need for and value of the engagement’s deliverable?
  • Should the engagement continue or occur again (i.e., is there a demonstrated need and value)?
Top Tip: If significant preparation is required for the activity, it is recommended to pay an adequate number of hours for preparation.

It is important that there is early engagement of participants in the evaluation, seeking their involvement in defining the outcomes, and the genuine intent to include their voice and experience in the evaluation findings, will assist to ensure any data is collected with purpose and meaning in relation to those affected most by the project.

Further, it is important that everyone, especially people with a lived experience, have an opportunity to contribute to the evaluation of engagement and to discuss its effect.[2] This feedback will be invaluable for measuring effectiveness, informing future engagement, and improving engagement practices. In addition, indicators of progress that align with state and national standards are outlined at individual, service, sector and system levels.

The HOME Project found the evaluation and monitoring templates from the Mental Health Commission’s ‘Working Together Toolkit’ and the Centre for Social Impact’s ‘Outcomes Measurement and Evaluation Framework’ to be particularly useful examples, which you can find in Part 6 under resources. [3] [4] As with any template, this simply provides a starting point framework, additional questions can be added to tailor the evaluation to your project.

[1] Western Australian Alliance to Ending Homelessness. 2020. ‘#End Homelessness Review of Literature & Practice: Co-Design’. Perth: Centre for Social Impact.

[2] Western Australian Alliance to Ending Homelessness. 2020. ‘#End Homelessness Review of Literature & Practice: Co-Design’. Perth: Centre for Social Impact.

[3] Mental Health Commission. (2018). Working Together – Mental Health and Alcohol and Other Drug – Engagement Framework. Western Australia:.

[4] Mollinger-Sahba, A., Flatau, P., Seivwright, A., Kaleveld, L., Bock, C., Baron, J., Cull, O., Thomas, L. (2020). The Western Australian Alliance to End Homelessness Outcomes Measurement and Evaluation Framework , Version 2.0, February 2020. Centre for Social Impact: The University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia, www.csi.edu.au/research/project/ending-homelessness-outcomes-framework

Now that everything is in place, it is time to start building a lived experience team or engagement relationship and provide an onboarding process for your co-design or engagement. Research shows having clear roles and onboarding processes for lived experience advocates increases understanding of the role and in turn, the value placed on it.[1] [2]

  1. Advertise vacancies, receive applications, interview, and select team members
  2. Provide processes to team members for remuneration and/or reimbursement
  3. Gain an understanding of the individual requirements of team members (i.e, disability access, particular vulnerabilities, time availabilities, other family commitments) and factor these into the management of your lived experience team. Flexibility is a must.
  4. Provide an induction for team members
  5. Provide initial and ongoing training to team members
  6. Provide initial and ongoing team building opportunities for team members
  7. Identify or recruit a team leader to support and guide the team
  8. Create terms of engagement and role descriptions for team members
  9. Create a guide that prospective applicants can use to assess their own readiness to participate
  10. Prepare a plan for providing ongoing training and support to team members
  11. Draft contracts for team members (In understandable, clear, and concise language).

[1] Sercombe, J., Stubley, K., Wellington, K., Clark, K., and Flatau, P. (2019). Co-design Toolkit: Developing an Action Plan to #EndHomelessness. Perth: Centre for Social Impact, the University of Western Australia.

[2] Western Australian Council of Social Services (WACOSS). (2020). ‘WACOSS Lived Experience Framework’ Perth, Western Australia.

Top Tip: Once you have your team, it is recommended to host an informal or formal meet and greet to provide an opportunity for the team to get to know each other and a pre-commencement overview of what is to come.
Top Tip: Respect and acknowledge lived experience advocates chosen lived experience identity and narrative prior to activities being undertaken. This is including but not limited to their chosen term of reference (e.g. ‘consumer’, ‘service user’, ‘lived experience advocate’, ‘recipient’ etc.).

Training should be provided for both staff and lived experience advocates who will be working together on co-design projects. Offering training and skills development, whether paid or in-kind, can form an important part of any lived experience involvement. While people with lived experience bring unique expertise to the table there are other skill sets that that an engagement project may create the opportunity for them to acquire.

This may include communication skills, access to IT, and exposure to and training business and/or Government processes. Such skills are invaluable to support for people with lived experience to forge meaningful, paid career pathways into the sector or beyond. They are also necessary for people with lived experience to achieve the outcome of having input at every level of the system. Organisations with established lived experience practices can play an important role in sharing learnings and offering support. If you are in the earlier stages, it is highly recommended to connect with any of these organisations and related projects you are aware of to better enable your team.

Let the lived experience advocates tell you what they would like to know more about, provide them some options. The following resources demonstrate the type of training that could be provided to help both groups learn how to best work together and achieve the best possible outcomes. These trainings include topics such as ‘consumer’ representation and storytelling, mental health and support, as well as co-design and engagement methods.

Below are examples of lived experience advocate training workshops conducted in the HOME Project. Prior to the project commencing, the project team and the lived experience advocates partnered in formulating what training and content would be covered within the workshops to best suit the advocates. In this case, the advocates selected training covering surrounding lived experience storytelling, housing and homelessness policy, and media training as to best enable their lived experience involvement and their effectiveness to achieve positive outcomes. As part of other workshops not entailed in this toolkit, the HOME Project covered system and sector mapping, and developing this toolkit through evidence-based group activities (many of which can be found in Part 6 under resources).

HOME Project Example Training #1: Lived Experience Storytelling

One of the HOME Project workshops focused on training in lived experience storytelling. The day was spent on activities which helped to shape an understanding of the power and responsibilities involved with communicating lived experience stories to an audience.

“Stories are intrinsically valuable and not just tools and can and should be part of activating change”
– HOME Project Group

QUESTIONS WE ASKED:

  • What is a safe way to tell lived experience stories?
  • How are such stories most effectively communicated?
  • What techniques can help in bringing my experiences to life as a story?
  • What is it like to tell your story in front of an audience/for different audiences?
  • What are the challenges and rewards of that?
  • What are the techniques to do this well/safely?

HOME Project Example Training #2: Policy

A policy workshop was held attended by a number of representatives from Government and non-government organisations to discuss the role of lived experience advocacy and representation in policy formulation.

“People with lived experience must be brought in as partners into anything surrounding policy to guarantee genuinely positive outcomes.”
– HOME Project Group

QUESTIONS WE ASKED:

  • What are the opportunities for lived experience engagement/involvement at your organisation and within the sector?
  • What are the barriers to lived experience engagement? How can we overcome these barriers?
  • What is your lived experience engagement and policy process/how does your organisation make policy?
  • What are the broader housing/homelessness policies you see needing key input from

HOME Project Example Training #3: Media

A media workshop was held with a media and communications specialist who gave so insights into how to approach working towards and with media opportunities.

“Media opportunities should not be just focused on academic or professional expertise, and when our stories want to be heard they must not be mistreated or exploited.”
– HOME Project Group

QUESTIONS WE ASKED:

  • What are the skills/information required to engage with different forms of media?
  • What are the differences between traditional media and social media?
  • How do you make your voice and issue heard by the media?
  • How do we meet the risks associated with doing media work in this area?
  • What other measures could be taken to make this process better, safer and more effective for people with lived experience?

You are currently in Part 5: Policies, Procedures, and Building a Team

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