Oliver Hilbery, director of the MEAM coalition, reflects on recent work with Second Step about what it means to be a successful “lead partner”.

Sandeep Saprai joined Golden Key as a Team Manager in 2019. In this blog she shares her reflections on the best ways to approach a new team, how building good relationships helps to get the best out of people, and why wellbeing is so important for every team member, including the manager.

The action experiment is one of many different ways to affect change. It puts the client experience in the centre, and aims to help them look at the issues and blocks they face, by following a series of actions in a specific order, including time for observation and reflection.

As a service coordinator with Golden Key and One25, Tabitha Horsfall has been successfully applying the three pillars to her work for some time. Here she explains why she believes other organisations could also hugely benefit from using it.

In 2019, during the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic, Golden Key was invited by Bristol City Council to run the emergency accommodation provision in Arnos Manor Hotel, as part of the country wide Everyone In initiative.

We are delighted to be hosting a series of webinars that will help bring some of Golden Key’s learning to life. Book your place now!

As Golden Key comes to an end, we are keen to share the learning we have accumulated over the past eight years. In order to do this, we are hosting a learning conference on 28 April 2022 at the Bristol Beacon.

Over the past eight years, Golden Key’s successes have been based on looking at things differently, challenging the way things have always been done, and finding creative solutions to bring about positive change.

In Golden Key’s work, and in the amazing work we have seen all over the city, we have noticed three closely connected elements which seem to help people to work more effectively with complex problems, complex people and complex situations. We have called these the 3 Pillars. In this blog, Tom Dunn, Senior Service Coordinator tells us how the 3 Pillars came about.

In their latest evaluation of Golden Key, the University of the West of England identified eight enablers of system change. One of these enablers is “embracing client voice through lived experience stories”.

Temba Mahari is an Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Officer at Second Step and a system change champion. He has been developing a new way to carry out Equality Impact Assessments. The changes he has introduced has encouraged reflection, and enabled practitioners to ensure a more holistic view is taken of clients identities.

The Essential Items Team, who recently won the Developing Trust Award at our Great Practice Awards 2021 is a perfect illustration of what can be achieved when the system follows the energy and adapts to changing context. We caught up with Maggie Telfer, CEO of BDP, to discuss how the Essential Items Team came into existence and to find out more about its work.

Last night at the Watershed, we honoured Bristol's system change heroes, the people who are working hard to improve services for Bristol’s most vulnerable.

Now in their third year, the Great Practice Awards celebrate the work of individuals, organisations and networks that are creating systemic change across the city to improve the lives of people with multiple disadvantage.

Bristol has secured a £3.3 million grant to help adults in the city facing disadvantages such as homelessness, mental health problems, substance issues, domestic abuse and in the criminal justice system, after a successful bid to government.

The Spark Team supports people, organisations and communities in a quest to make system change happen. Our aspiration is to activate a network of people who have the power and agency, individually and collectively, to make positive change happen for people with complex needs.

Have your say in who wins the System Change Hero award! This award celebrates the individuals who are working to make the system better for everyone and is decided by a public vote. Voting ends on Friday 24th September.

Sam Wilson is the personality disorder lead within Golden Key’s Service Coordinator team. He is working with people across the system to help services develop a strengths-based mindset. In this post he tells us why and how we developed our Strengths Meeting Toolkit.

Sarah-Jane Freni has been Golden Key’s Communications Manager since December 2019. On multiple disadvantage day, she reflects on how we give our clients a voice to ensure we get to #seethefullpicture.

The Golden Key partnership is bringing about change at every level for Bristol citizens with the most complex needs. The Great Practice Awards 2021 reflect this aspiration, celebrating the work of individuals, organisations and networks that are creating systemic change across the city. We have welcomed nominations from across the city and are pleased to announce the shortlist for all seven categories

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. 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.

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.