Who is the Social Mission Department?

Matrix of engagement and participation1

There are five key ways for people with lived expertise to participate:

Inform The sharing of information to assist people: • Understand how services/programs/activities work • Make informed decisions

• Be aware of available options

Examples include newsletters, leaflets, brochures, induction booklets and sessions, websites and social media.

Consult Asking for feedback (compliments, complaints and suggestions) on service delivery, programs and activities, and policy and advocacy objectives.

Examples include compliments, complaints and suggestions mechanisms, surveys, questionnaires, suggestion boxes, exit interviews, focus groups and social media.

Involve Working together with people to ensure understanding of lived experience (concerns and aspirations) and using this understanding to inform change and improvement.

This includes use of this understanding in:

• Decision making • Policy making • Research projects • Fundraising • Public relations campaigns • Media engagement • Social policy development

Examples include forums, peer education, peer mentoring, advisory groups.

Collaborate Advice is sought from participants and stakeholders and the workforce and this advice is fundamental to planning and decision-making processes. There is a shared agreement for action taken.

Examples include person centred case management, participant and other stakeholder advocacy and participation in project co-design and involvement in recruitment.

Empower The transferring of ownership of outcomes or decision making to empower the client, participant, beneficiary and other stakeholders.

Examples include participant and other stakeholder led projects, involvement in organisation governance, and direct engagement in policy advocacy, such as submissionwriting and providing evidence to parliamentary inquiries

Participation in policy design and advocacy

The Salvation Army undertakes a systems-based approach to social problems. This means we work directly with impacted individuals to provide support and advocacy while also working at the systems level to address the root causes of disadvantage. It is therefore important that people with lived experience have a voice in the positions The Salvation Army takes for policy reform, advocacy and social justice initiatives, and have meaningful opportunities to directly influence policy makers.

There are a range of benefits to facilitating such opportunities, including:

1. Enabling people with lived experience to transform personal challenges into positive outcomes for both themselves and potentially others who are experiencing the same or similar challenges 2. Improving policy and practice responses to various social problems by ensuring they are informed by those most directly impacted 3. Prompting desired action by humanising social problems that might otherwise be very abstract or difficult for others to understand2

4. An informed advocacy strategy to drive action for structural and systemic change.

Participation in mission development

The Salvation Army is committed to expanding opportunities for participants to inform our policy design and advocacy work. The following initial opportunities will be available until more formal mechanisms, such as the Freedom Advocates program, are in place:

1. Planned and supported participant consultation to review a series of one to two page policy briefs across relevant service streams

2. Coordinated development of case studies and quotes from participants that demonstrate and speak to key policy failures, and provide evidence for Salvation Army policy recommendations across service streams and hot topics (i.e. cashless debit card, forced marriage, etc.) 3. Ad hoc participant consultation on emerging/urgent issues on which we have not previously consulted 4. Alternatively, or additionally, policy-related questions may be included in the annual Participant and Carer

Survey to help capture views on issues that have not been included in other formal consultation mechanisms 5. Supported participation to make direct submissions to government and to appear before Parliamentary inquiries where participants may share their experiences (This can be done “in camera” or privately, where the evidence is not made public on the Hansard)

To minimise the risk of consultation fatigue, The Salvation Army will endeavour to integrate these opportunities into existing consultation resources, such as Stream and National Participation Reference Groups and working groups (discussed below). It is likely that a special, pilot working group will be established to support a small number of participants interested in policy and advocacy work. This is to ensure there is appropriate support for participants to make informed decisions about their involvement and to have positive experiences when sharing their stories and recommendations.

Through this group, participants will be able to shape the formal mechanism, inform a monitoring and evaluation resource for that mechanism, and identify other methods of engaging in policy and advocacy work.

Levels of participation

Individual participation • Participants are actively involved in the planning, monitoring and review of the type and level of support they receive

• Participants are informed about their rights and responsibilities throughout their engagement • Participants are informed about how to make a complaint, offer suggestions or provide feedback regularly • The services and support provided to participants is tailored to meet their individual/family circumstances and needs by supporting and respecting: • Personal attributes including age, gender, religion, disability, sexual orientation, nationality, creed and previous criminal record • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples • Culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds • Communication, including preferred communication styles, language and accessible information formats

• Political affiliations

• Informed consent principles • Services and support: • Target the individual social, physical and emotional health and wellbeing of each participant • Are least restrictive of rights and utilise the least intrusive approach to the support needs and goals of individual participants • Individual case plans are reviewed regularly to ensure the level and type of support remains appropriate to a participant’s current state and is informed by families and carers where appropriate • Information will be provided in accessible formats that facilitate the understanding of each participant and assists them to make independent decisions • The Social Mission Department will use least restrictive approaches to limiting an individual’s ability to act on an individual decision or choice that is deemed to be detrimental to the individual; where it does not breach legislation or Salvation Army policy including the Duty of Care Policy • The Social Mission Department will consult with the participant, family and carer/s before any decision is made about proposed changes to case plans or any other documentation that may affect their service or support • Services operate from a family inclusive and trauma or psychologically informed model of care.

Service participation • Wherever practicable, participants, families and carer/s are encouraged to actively participate in decision making, strategic planning and participant-directed committees and meetings • Feedback about services including complaints, compliments and suggestions are escalated and addressed in a timely manner as per policy and procedure • Participants, families and carers contribute to planning, delivery and evaluation of services through opportunities such as committees, reference groups and working groups • Feedback is further encouraged through participant forums, surveys, questionnaires, suggestion boxes • Service evaluation exit forms (which can be completed anonymously) ensure services are reviewed and action taken where appropriate to ensure the needs of participants, families and carers are being addressed Working groups Stream participant representatives will be encouraged to participate in working groups in the Social Mission Department and across the organisation on specific areas.

National participation The National Participant Reference Group will focus on feedback from the State Participant Reference Group, trends and themes in the stream, national policy and strategy, and policy, advocacy and social justice. Participants will be invited to engage in planning, policy, strategy and development of services through national platforms and committees to improve outcomes for participants and their families.

Stream participation representative consultation for service design and delivery and social policy Additional participant representative consultations will be held:

• Prior to developing new services • Prior to making major modifications to current services and programs • To collect participant perspectives on core policy positions taken by The Salvation Army and personal case studies that illustrate the human impacts of policy decisions

Outcomes of the participant consultations must be presented at strategic planning sessions to inform annual strategic planning, evaluation cycles and considered in the development of service priorities and plans.

Formal links should be developed with broader service-based participation groups and participation committees among services sharing the same target group.

The Salvation Army Social Mission Department through the streams will reimburse participants, families or carers for any costs associated with attending consultation forums and payment for their attendance at meetings.

Workforce capability and capacity

The Salvation Army is committed at all levels of the organisation to embrace a culture of meaningful collaboration between Salvation Army employees and officers and those with lived experience. The Social Mission Department understands that the lived experience of the people it engages with, and their active participation in its operation, is invaluable in achieving and maintaining safe and high-quality delivery of services, programs and activities. The Social Mission Department values the voice of participants and is working on structures and processes to ensure their engagement in a range of activities. These mechanisms include program planning and co-design, staff recruitment, policy making and research. The contribution of participants increases the quality of services offered by the organisation.

Positive attitudes by leadership and staff and an enabling, welcoming environment ensure improved participation by participants3. At the local level, skills, commitment and a good understanding among staff members are required to ensure inclusion of participants in meaningful engagement. Salvation Army personnel at all levels of the organisation will take all reasonable steps to remove access barriers to participation and the sharing of lived experience.

Training, support and resources for participants are also important for higher level participation4. The Salvation Army will ensure adequate information and training is provided to participants as required by the activity they are engaged to contribute to. The Department will also partner with peer organisations such as APSU and the Council to Homeless Persons to allow learning opportunities for participants to be able to engage and contribute meaningfully and increase the capability of a peer workforce. We will support participants and remove barriers where possible to ensure pathways to participation including the peer workforce. The Social Mission Department will have a robust resource that underpins this process taking due diligence in terms of duty of care.

A staff participation training program will be developed in conjunction with The Salvation Army Learning and Development Team. Using the LEARN platform to maximise engagement, the training program will be rolled out across the organisation to raise staff awareness and increase the capability of the general workforce to engage meaningfully with participants. Development opportunities for Salvation Army leadership will help to create opportunities for meaningful participation by participants at the senior level.

Participant representative training and induction program

Participant representatives that reflect the diversity of participants accessing or engaging The Salvation Army Social Mission Department Services will be identified by program managers and nominated for the National Lived Experience Reference Group. Nominated participants will have met with the program manager to review the position description and commitment that accompanies the role including to:

• Attend the representative training and induction program • Attend quarterly State Participant Reference Group Meetings

A stream participant representative will co-chair the National Reference Group Meetings and have a commitment to ensure communication to and from State Lived Experience Groups.

Online options for communication and attendance will be made available to representatives to maximise access, inclusion and attendance.

The stream specialists will provide the following training for intake into the participant representative program:

• Overview of participation • Induction to The Salvation Army, stream services resources and key policies/procedures • Understanding self-awareness, resilience and self-care • Personal narrative development to empower participants engaging in policy and advocacy work to maintain agency over how, when and for what purpose their story is shared • What to expect when participating in consultations • Media training • Debriefing and mental health support • How the reference groups will operate, roles and processes • Inclusivity • Introduction to key stream services personnel • Individual support and mentoring

Participant representatives will, wherever possible, include representatives from the LGBTIQA+, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and CALD communities.