Talking need: tackling the ‘too hard’ pile

Our needs conference last week pushed the boundaries of current understanding about beneficiary need, prompting participants to challenge their assumptions about what service users require and to explore who really decides this question.

As one delegate said, "It was good to have time to think and talk about things which we sometimes put on the 'too hard' pile."

The keynote speech from Geoff Mulgan, Director of the Young Foundation, set the scene by describing some of the most fundamental unmet needs in Britain today, explored in a major piece of research carried out by the Foundation. The findings revealed that amongst the most vulnerable people in this country are those going through difficult transition periods, and a group of about one million people suffering from loneliness and lack of emotional support.

Emotional needs

The need for and value of emotional support was a recurrent theme throughout the day, illustrated for example, in Jeremy Swain's description of ThamesReach's support of homeless people who often are reluctant to turn to friends and family for help.

Who knows best?

Outlining ThamesReach's decisions to sometimes act against its clients' wishes on this issue by putting service users back in touch with key people in their lives, Jeremy asked whether service users are always best placed to define their own needs. He suggested that sometimes, providing a challenge to service users – whether from staff, other service users or family and friends – can be a powerful way to support people, encouraging them to be more ambitious in their personal goals. But Jeremy was also quick to acknowledge that the opposite can equally be true and warned of the dangers for service providers of inadvertently limiting people's horizons.

Collaboration

Can organisations gain a fuller picture of needs and increase their impact by sharing information and ideas for more collaborative responses? Brian Carr of Birmingham Voluntary Sector Council (BVSC) and Nick Booth from Podnosh explored the potential of these questions. But they also showed how developing a shared understanding of need can raise demanding challenges about priorities for all players; service providers (of all sectors) and funders alike.

Meanwhile, Karl Murray's description of findings by the Black Training and Enterprise Group on the needs of vulnerable BME families showed the value of both drilling down to assess particular niche needs and looking at the big picture trends. His team's experiences of this project also provided a reminder of the politics and bias of research.

Kate Gilmore of the Management Centre brought home the crucial need for organisations to be flexible and willing to change to keep up with the needs of beneficiaries.

The discussions even inspired a new poem from performance poet Abe Gibson.