Love Society – Part 1 – Prof Bev Skeggs

 

Here in Morecambe Bay, a very eclectic group of us are having some conversations about how we might reimagine life together based on love and kindness towards people and the planet. In April, we were together around the theme ‘Love People’ and in May, this became ‘Love Society’.

 

To help us and catalyse us to really think about the issues involved, we welcomed Professor Bev Skeggs (Class, Self, Culture) and Hilary Cottam (Radical Help). This blog focuses on Bev and the learning she brought. There will be more on Hilary in future posts….

 

 

Bev is quite frankly amazing and is described by many in her field as the leading sociologist in the UK! She has been, until recently, Professor of Sociology at The London School of Economics, where she ran the Atlantic Fellowship Programme with the equally formidable Dr Kate Raworth (Doughnut Economics) and Dr Jason Hickel (The Divide). We are extremely happy that she has now joined the faculty at Lancaster University, thanks to the canny leadership of Prof Imogen Tyler. She opened our time together with an incredible tour through society, what it is, how it functions, how power relationships are held in place, how our judgements affect our relationships and how we create value and values! It is honestly the most helpful, eye-opening and challenging piece of teaching on society that I have ever heard. So, get yourself a cup of tea, sit back and watch this (credit to Andrew Towers and Purple Videos!) – then watch it again and let your thinking be undone and remade by this remarkable woman!

 

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Love People! – Part 2

Continue reading “Love People! – Part 2”

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Love People! – Part 1

I’m currently in the process of hosting 4 conversations across Morecambe Bay on the following themes: ‘Love People’, ‘Love Society’, ‘Love Economics’ and ‘Love Politics’. We have people from all walks of society coming together to give space to imagine what life might be like if we built together on the foundations of love and kindness.

We decided to start the conversations off by talking about ‘Love People’ – because the reality is that unless we learn to really love people – which is gritty and hard at times, especially when it comes to loving those who are really different to us or even our enemies, we can never infuse society, economics or politics with a love that really brings transformation. Love like this requires deep forgiveness and serious guts! However, even loving those we consider our brothers and sisters can prove nigh on impossible at times and can even involve betrayal – how do we love through that?

We had a really rich day together. This blog has the first two inputs of the day (which helped form much of our conversation together). The next one will also let you in on the wonderful input from Sue Mitchell and others. Obviously – most of the day was left open for creative space and discussion – but I hope that these videos can give you a flavour of what we’re exploring and provoke some good conversations wherever you may be.

 

This first video is the opening, incredible contribution that Jaz Ampaw-Farr made to the whole process. Jaz lives with such amazing bravery, vulnerability and passion. She invites us to consider what it might mean to be 10% braver in how we love people – this is beautiful! Make yourself some time to enjoy!

 

This second video is the panel discussion, with some wonderful friends (Roger Mitchell, Jaz Ampaw-Farr, Siobhan Collingwood, Dave Higham and Mike Winter) followed some reflective questions which Jaz stirred in the room:

 

 

 

 

 

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Wisdom From My Nanna

Last week, I was on the closing plenary panel at The Kings Fund, as we reflected on what we had learned together about ‘PopulationHealth’ across the UK. There were some really excellent contributions throughout the day.

 

Councillor Matthew Brown, leader of Preston City Council, talked powerfully about the new economic models they are using there and the incredible regeneration they are seeing. Councillor Becky Charlwood, spoke about the great work being done across the city of Leeds and how strong relationships enable them to flex around complex legislation. Mayor Andy Burnham spoke with humility and realism about the power of devolution and the challenges they face as a city in Manchester in giving kids a great start in life and ending homelessness. Liz Gaulton, Director of Public Health in Coventry, spoke about how the Marmot principles are radically shaping the future plans of the city in thinking about inequalities and how they face them together. Prof Kate Ardern, from Wigan, talked about how we need to change our relationship with power and work radically differently with our communities. Prof Dominic Harrison from Blackburn brought his wisdom on how we face up to multiple unhealthy risk factors. Perhaps the most important contributions from my perspective were from Carina Crawford-Khan, lead organiser of Citizens UK and Dr Charlotte Augst, CEO of National Voices who asked us to reflect on how “Powerlessness leads to ill health” – that’s a statement worthy of pause and much reflection. Power is the ability to act. Anger without power leads to rage. So, if we don’t radically change our relationship with power, we can never see true population health – rather we have disempowered people who feel angry and unable to be part of the change we need to see.

 

The reality is that all of the things we long to see in society will not happen unless we ourselves are willing to change. In all the uncertainties we face and admidst the brokenness of our political and economic models, how do we stand firm and find a new way through to a way of being together that is socially just for humanity and sustainable for the future? In reflecting on all of this in the final panel, I drew on the wisdom of my Nanna.

 

My Nanna, Joyce, who is 97 years old this year and who still wakes every morning to play Mozart and Chopin on her beloved piano, has always been one of the most important people in my life. In our family, we call her “Yoda”, because she is strong in the force and exceedingly wise! This 5ft tall lady, who taught me to bake, spent hours helping me with my music and can still whip my butt at scrabble and rummikub, is a truly remarkable woman.

 

When I was a boy, we used to talk to each other whilst making ginger biscuits. My Nanna is a deeply spiritual woman and she used to tell me about her favourite bible verses, one of which is from the book of the Prophet Micah, Chapter 6 and verse 8. That verse says – “God has shown you the best way to live – act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with your God”. I think those three statements hold profound and ancient wisdom that we need to draw on in the complexities of what we face together now. What does that actually mean for us in practice, as we try and transform culture, relationships and behaviours? I suppose I think it’s pretty simple.

 

Firstly, as leaders and as people who want to see change, we must act with justice. We must care deeply about issues of injustice in our society and be willing to challenge it whenever we see it. But we must not just care, we must act. We have to be willing to put justice into practice in what we build. We’re beginning to see this, and it’s exciting!

 

Secondly, we must love mercy. I think that means we have to love the principle of mercy and therefore we have to love people with mercy, or as I put it at The Kings Fund, with real kindness. I love what Prof Micheal West says, when he talks about looking at people with kind and fascinated eyes. We did a lot of thinking about the need for a different kind of power. I think we need to unashamedly talk much more about love and the transformative power it holds. MLK said that love on it’s own is anaemic – it certainly can be. Power alone is destructive. But power and love together is a force to be reckoned with! We need this kind of love in the power that we hold to keep mercy at the fore and kindness as our way of being.

 

Thirdly, we need to walk in humility WITH our communities. I replace the word God here, with communities, not because I don’t believe in God (I do), but then Nanna and I used to talk, she would tell me that walking humbly with God means walking humbly with other people – with your community. It is worked out in the practice of every day life and being willing to interact with and be changed by the person you most look down on or despise. Nanna isn’t a fan of people getting too big for their boots. She sticks her tongue out at arrogance and blows raspberries at pride. She’s not into titles or pretensions. As a true elder, she knows humility and walks in it. I have learned so much from her and it has shaped so much of who I am and how I choose to spend my time. We must learn to sit with, be with, learn with and create the future with our communities. We don’t have the right to dream up plans and do them to people. Together with, is the kind of humble, mercy-loving, justice-acting way that we so badly need. Without those under-girding, foundational truths, we will never see true population health. Our guiding principles and undergirding culture will shape what we become together.

 

In a time of so much uncertainty and complexity, we do well to stop and draw on the wisdom of the elders. And so I offer that of my lovely Nanna – in all you do, make sure you act with justice, love with kindness and walk in humility with your community. 

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An Open Letter to NHS Staff – This ‘crisis’ is not your fault – you’re doing a great job!

If you work in the NHS, in any capacity, this letter is for you, no matter what your role.

 

Dear NHS Staff Member,

 

I write this to you as a GP, who cares for many people who work in the NHS and sees the huge stress many of us feel under. I write it as a ‘system leader’ in my role as Director of Population Health and as someone who has been a patient myself, twice in the last 12 months.

 

We are constantly told that the NHS is in crisis (I’ve even written blogs about it myself!), that we’re not meeting targets, that we’re getting things wrong, that we’re struggling to cope under the strain of demand but not being efficient enough and it can feel like what we’re doing isn’t up to the mark. With all the other current surrounding narratives we live with (like Brexit and Climate Change), things can so easily feel overwhelming.

 

So, I just wanted to write and tell you that the NHS is not in a crisis. We’re just underfunded and understaffed and we’re doing the best we can in those circumstances. Demand is growing year on year and we’re dealing with real complexity. We’ve been under the biggest and longest squeeze on our finances in NHS history, for the last 9 years, and the 3.4% uplift we’ve been promised, although welcome, is not enough to keep us running as we are and do the transformational work required of us. We don’t have enough people to deliver the work we’re being asked to do and so it’s no surprise that morale is low and burn-out levels are high. None of that is your fault. You are doing an amazing job. Every day, you turn up to work, in the context of everything else you have going on in your life and you are helping to deliver a truly world-class health service. Good job!

 

Amidst all the rhetoric you hear, the targets you feel under pressure to meet, the constant flow of people through the doors, the blame and complain (and sometimes bullying) culture that can grind you down, the traumas that you deal with every day, the pain that you help people process, the love and compassion that your pour out, the siloes and frustrations with the clumsiness of the system at times and the long hours – of which you work above and beyond most of the time…..know that you are more than your job and you are valuable just for who you are.

 

So, in all the busyness, remember to listen to and look after your own needs and those of your team around you. You can only do what you can do, and you’re doing a great job. Think about Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and how much you are attending to those things.

 

Physiological Needs – are you listening to your body? Are you getting time to have a drink, eat well, stretch, sleep and get to the toilet ok?

Safety – Are you feeling safe in your work? Do you feel protected? Are you worrying all the time about making mistakes? Do you feel it’s ok to make a mistake and be able to talk about it and learn from it, without fearing some awful consequences?

Love and Belonging – Do you feel like you are an important member of your team – that you matter, that you belong, that people around you care about you? Maybe in the humdrum and mayhem of everyday, we forget to tell each other.

Esteem – How is your self-esteem? Do you feel confident in who you are? Are you treated with respect and kindness and treating others with the same – no matter who they may be?

Cognition – Are you in a place where you can think clearly, make rational choices and in an environment which values learning and development?

Aesthetic Needs – Are you taking time to admire the beauty around you and enjoy life? Without this, it’s really hard to keep motivation alive, especially when things are tough and work feels really pressured. Taking time for this changes your perspective on everything else. How is your perspective? Is it in or out of kilter?

Self-Actualisation – Are you able to be spontaneous, making wise and creative, moral choices, problem solving without prejudice whilst accepting the facts in front of you?

Transcendence – This is the place we are aiming for as human beings – that ability to move out of our ego and into the place of gift from which we can love the ‘other’ and even our ‘enemy’ with the kind of transformative substance that changes the world.

 

The truth is, you can’t get to this place of self-actualisation and transcendence if the other areas aren’t looked after – so what needs attention? What are you noticing that needs taking care of? Don’t worry about all the pressures from on high – it’s all part of a system of biopower that needs to measure things to keep control. You – yes you, are valuable and important and the contribution you are making every day is phenomenal. You will certainly make some mistakes. It’s likely that you’ll feel overwhelmed at times, so listen to what your body, mind and heart needs and give yourself some space to attend to those things. Your own health and wellbeing really matters. So if you need help – and most of us do at different times, then please talk about it and give it some focus. We need to take care of each other – it’s ok not to be ok. Only when we create supportive environments for each other can we bring our ‘A game’ and keep providing the phenomenal care, innovation and transformation that we do every day.

 

Thank you a million times for everything you are doing, despite the struggles and pressure. Together, we need to create a culture of joy and kindness. That is partly the responsibility of leaders, but its incumbent on all of us, to treat ourselves and those around us with gentleness and respect. Go ahead and keep doing the great work you are doing every day – you really are a wonder!

 

Love and gratefulness

 

Andy

 

 

 

 

 

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The Poverty Truth Commission – Podcast

One of the things I have most enjoyed and also felt privileged to be a part of over the last couple of year has been the ‘Poverty Truth Commission’. Here is a podcast I have done with some of the incredible community commissioners, here in Morecambe Bay about how a ‘together with’ approach to life makes a massive difference. It’s part of the series on how love and kindness are truly transformational. You can find out more about the Poverty Truth Commission through YouTube

 

Here are the links to the podcasts depending on your listening preferences!

 

iTunes

 

Spotify

 

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Love and Kindness in Action

This latest podcast is a conversation with some incredible people from ‘The Well’ community, here in Morecambe Bay, talking about their own very personal journeys from addiction into recovery. Listen as they talk about hitting rock bottom, ego surrender, tough love, hard truth and transformative kindness and how in being with each other, they have learnt how to love themselves and walk into freedom. This is love and kindness in action and we can all learn from these truly beautiful human beings. Click on iTunes or Spotify links below and enjoy!

iTunes

spotify

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A Vision for Population Health and Wellbeing – All Together We Can

If you haven’t yet had the chance to read the Kings Fund’s vision for population health (and it’s the kind of thing that interests you) then I would heartily recommend that you do so. (https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/publications/vision-population-health). It is a real ‘Tour de Force’ and deserves some significant consideration. I like it because it doesn’t hold back from bringing some hard-hitting challenge, but also creates hope of what is possible. 

 

Last week, whilst I was in Hull, I unpacked some of my (many) thoughts about population health, drawing on the wisdom of this report, the significant challenges we face and the opportunity we have to reimagine the future, together with our communities. I was hoping to offer it as a podcast, but it didn’t record well! This is quite a long read, but I hope encapsulates the key issues and gives us plenty to wrestle with and discuss, reflecting on the great piece of work from the Kingsfund. 

 

When it comes to population health, we have to remember, especially when we look at a global stage, that the UK has had some of the best public health in the world. We have so much to be grateful for and have had some incredible breakthroughs in our health and wellbeing over the last 200 years. Consider how our life expectancy has increased, initially through the great improvements in clean water, sanitation and immunisations and then the emergence of the NHS, with free healthcare for all, no matter of ability to pay, and subsequent lifesaving interventions in the areas like hypertension and diabetes – we’ve come a long way, though there is still plenty of work to do! 

 

However, there is a lesson in humility that we need to take from the All Blacks (consistently the greatest sports team in the world). After successive world cups, which they should have won, they had to take a good, long and hard look at themselves and face up to this uncomfortable truth – they were losing! (and I imagine after the mighty victory of the Irish against them recently, they may be having the same conversation again). We have to face up to the fact that right now, in terms of population health, especially around health inequalities, we are losing and we’re losing BIG. 1 in 200 of us is currently homeless. Childhood poverty is increasing year on year and many of our children go hungry on a daily basis. According to the Food Foundation, our poorest 5th of households would have to spend 43% of their entire income to eat the government’s recommended ‘healthy diet’. Much of our housing stock is unfit to live in. Our healthy life expectancy gap between the rich and the poor is nearly 20 years, with a shocking difference between the North and the South. We have a mental health crisis in our young people, with suicide the leading cause of death by some mile in Males under 45. And to top it all, we have a severe shortage of staff in the NHS and our public services which make it actually impossible to continue the level of service required by the heavy target-driven culture of Whitehall. 

 

To continue trying to deliver the same services in the same way, when these issues are so starkly in front of us, is beyond insanity. We simply cannot continue to continue with business as usual and think that we will achieve anything different or new. This is why I like the 4 interlocking pillars the Kingsfund recommend when thinking about population health and I will unpack some thoughts about each one. 

 

The Wider Determinants of Health

 

Before I start on this section, it is really important for me to state that despite what others have at times accused me of, I am not actually a member of any political party and so when I write things which challenge current government policy or praxis I am not trying to score political points. In fact, I believe it is one of the key purposes of (health) leadership to call out when decision making processes are harming the health and wellbeing of the population (whether intentionally or not). Indeed, the same would apply, whoever was in (seeming) power. 

 

When it comes to tackling the issues of population health, dealing with health inequalities and ensuring that the health and wellbeing of all people and the planet is taken into account in every government policy, the current administration is found sorely wanting. No matter what is peddled out about the “successes” of Universal Credit (which I do actually believe was introduced with some good intentions), it is failing and will continue to fail as necessary safeguards are not being put in place. Since the introduction of UC, we have seen a staggering rise in the use of food banks. Families, especially children are going hungry and the financially poorest in our society are not having their basic nutritional needs met. Since 2010, we have seen childhood poverty rise and the health inequalities gap widen. Much of this is owing to the burden of austerity being carried primarily by our poorest communities. In this same time period, we have seen the loss of overall goals for population health and no clear directives or measures to encourage change. In fact, many of the more project and target driven approaches to population health are often the very things that cause a worsening of health inequalities, like child obesity initiatives, because they do not focus on the wider determinants of health like poverty, housing and planning. 

 

On one level, we should applaud Matt Hancock, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care for encouraging the NHS to get into the game of prevention. However, a mirror then needs holding back up to the government to examine what this really means. It is clear that the current ‘rise’ in funding for the NHS, won’t even enable business to continue as usual (and one might argue that’s a good thing, because we need to change business as usual – except for the fact that there is no letting up on the drivers and targets from the Department of Health that continue to maintain the current modus operandi). The £3.4 billion per year increase won’t even touch the hole in our acute hospital trusts, let alone account for the whopping >49% of total cuts from local government (more than £18 billion in total, with more to follow), who are absolutely instrumental in tackling the wider determinants of health and wellbeing. Public Health, which has always been so vital to the work of prevention has been decimated within local governments, who are struggling to keep their statuary services up and running. So, no, it’s not actually that straightforward for the NHS just to now take on the responsibility of prevention, as the social determinants and wider economic issues, including funding aspects, are an absolutely vital component of getting population health right and asking the NHS to do so, simply piles more pressure on an already stretched and burned out workforce. An ending of austerity and an appropriate level of funding is vital if we are to achieve population health, uncomfortable truth for the government, though this may be.

 

Our Choices, Behaviours and Lifestyles

 

There is a worrying rhetoric finding voice that ‘people should just make better choices and take more responsibility for themselves’, but this is simply far less possible for so many of our communities than others, as a direct result of policy decisions and economic models over which they have no power or control. 

 

One one level, no one would argue that each of us has at least some level of responsibility to make positive lifestyle choices, make good decisions about what we put into our bodies and how much exercise we do or don’t take. But we must remember that this is so much easier for vast swathes of our population than others. 

 

There is plenty of evidence though that helps the NHS think about where to focus when it comes to population health management – where we can make the most difference. These areas include: smoking, alcohol, high sugar intake, high blood pressure, atrial fibrillation, high cholesterol (currently hotly debated!), healthy weight and positive mental health. Remember though, Sandro Galea’s work on ubiquitous factors! It is possible to focus in on projects like these and make health inequalities worse! These things cannot be done in isolation, but must be part of a wider vision. The temptation will be for governments to focus on these narrow interventions and claim great statistical significance whilst still not dealing the root issues. 

 

It is in this that again, we need to see the government come up trumps. Targeted and smart taxation can have a massive impact on the choices we make – we know this through the massive breakthrough we’ve seen in smoking in recent years. The same now needs to be applied to the highly influential, powerful and dangerous sugar industry. A best next step, according to Professor Susan Jebb, from Oxford University, would be to put a substantial tax on biscuits and cakes. Like it or not, along with our carb obsession, these are our biggest downfall and if the government are actually serious about tackling our ‘obesity epidemic’ then they need to break any cosy ties with this industry and stop the nonsense about being too much of a nanny state. Public opinion, which apparently hates the nanny state, thinks the smoking intervention was fantastic and the benefit is clear. The role of government is to see what damages our health and work with us to help modify that behaviour. 

 

An Integrated Health and Care System

 

There are plenty of places around the country where we can now begin to see the potential and power of working together differently. In the UK, Wigan, with great leadership from the likes of Kate Ardern, tells a powerful story of how incredible things can happen when population health is owned by everyone and a social movement is born. Manchester, with its devolved budget, political stability and holistically embedded view of population health championed by the Mayor of the City, Andy Burnham is a fine example of how working together differently can really offer some exciting possibilities. He recently said this:

“As Secretary of State for Health, you can have a vision for health services. As Mayor of Greater Manchester, you can have a vision for people’s health. There is a world of difference between the two!”

 

In Morecambe Bay, as an integrated care partnership within the wider Lancashire and South Cumbria ICS, we have already found some huge benefits in working more closely together. It gives us an opportunity to find solutions to the wicked issues we face through collaboration and combined wisdom, rather than through competition and suspicion. 

 

The integration is important at the macro level (where decision making and budgeting occurs), as well as in the micro level in our neighbourhoods. Our Integrated Care Communities in Morecambe Bay are without doubt one the instrumental building blocks we have to reimagining how we can deliver care more effectively for our communities. In each of our 9 areas around the Bay we have teams involving GPs, the hospital trust, social workers, allied health professionals (physios, OTs), police, fire service, community nursing, community and voluntary teams, faith organisations, and councillors working together for the good of our local neighbourhoods. 

 

The Places and Communities we Live in and With

 

Place is hugely important and so is community. Isolation literally kills us. We have certainly found in Morecambe Bay, that choosing to work differently WITH our communities, rather than doing things to them is fundamental in being holistic when it comes to Population Health and Wellbeing. It has meant learning to take our lanyards from around our necks, getting out of our board rooms (where traditionally we take decisions on behalf of people) and embracing humility as we learn to listen to and partner with our communities. One book I have found really helpful, personally has been ‘The Nazareth Manifesto’ by Samuel Wells. He is considered by some to be the ‘greatest living theologian’, and I consider it to be of vital importance for us to think and engage with these issues of heath and wellbeing as widely as possible, including theology, philosophy, sociology and economics, to help challenge and inform the necessary mindset shifts which are needed. Wells writes that for him, the entire Christian story is encapsulated in these 4 words: “God is with us”. Whatever, you happen to believe about God, there is certainly a majority view that if there is a God, he tends to be quite aloof, distant, hierarchical, dominating, controlling and power-crazy, if not seriously vengeful at times – and interestingly, we often refer to some leader-types as having a ‘God complex’! But if God is not like that, but is primarily about being WITH people, not over them, working WITH them rather than doing things to them, that has huge implications on much of western thought and how we set up leadership and governmental institutions! 

 

Hilary Cottam’s book, Radical Help and Jeremy Heiman’s and Henry Timms’ insights in New Power are both vital reading in really engaging with this whole concept. We need to radically embrace the fundamental truth of relationship as an agent for good and change in our society. Our public services have become devoid of real and genuine relationships with our communities. 

 

Over the last 3 years as we have had many conversations around Morecambe Bay, being honest about the financial predicament we find ourselves in (needing to save £120m over the next 5 years, 1/5th of our total budget, whilst still meeting all our targets!) and listening to each other as we try and work out how we can be more healthy and well together, so many beautiful and amazing things have started. These include: mental health cafes, community choirs, the Morecambe Bay poverty truth commission, walking groups, the daily mile in our local schools, new ways of working between the police, council and local communities, the voluntary sector working differently together, dementia befriending, mental health courses in our schools, a new focus on adverse childhood experiences and many many more. 

 

So Where from Here?

 

I believe we find ourselves in an intersectional moment in which we can unlock a very different kind of future than the one we appear to be currently heading for. It is time for deeper listening and a reimagining of how we really might live in a way together that cedes health and wellbeing of humanity and the planet through everything we do. This means we can honour previous ways of doing things, recognising where some of them have been detrimental and contradictory to true population health, letting go of our insanity in the process and find a new, more healthy way forward. It is vital that we consider these four interactive pillars of population health and embed them into every facet of our life together in society. This means ownership and resulting policy change by the government with funding that actually works for the kind of integrated, living and flexible systems we need to co-create. We need communities to find new ways of being well together, take responsibility for our own lifestyles and behaviours, with compassion and kindness for whom this is less than easy.

 

From my perspective this would mean a reimagining of politics – a rediscovery of how we live well together – away from binary competition and white male privilege and towards collaborative inclusivity and equality, based on love, kindness and compassion aka “kenarchy” in which we renegotiate our relationship with power. It would mean a reimagining of economics – a recalibration away from transaction and a ‘use and abuse biopower’ towards a ‘doughnut economics’ in which we learn to live in the sweet spot of environmental sustainability and human justice and mercy. 

 

There are so many things that we have accepted and reports we have ignored. It is time for us to collectively say “enough now” to that which is dividing and killing us and hold together the reality of despair and hope in our communities, as we allow the reality to sink in that together WITH each other, we really can begin to find an altogether better future for us all and the planet. It won’t be easy and means there are many of our own personal ego structures, deep wounds and problematic behaviours that will need healing and changing along the way, but let’s open our eyes and allow new eye light to help us see the future which in our hearts we are longing for. 

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It’s Time to Say #EnoughNow to Adverse Childhood Experiences

Last week, I had the utter privilege of co-hosting a conference with my good friend, Siobhan Collingwood, the head teacher at Morecambe Bay Community Primary School on Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), at the Globe Arena. We both know the reality of ACEs every day in our communities (see my previous blog) and so wanted to bring people together from across our amazing community in North Lancashire, working in the public  and community sector, or simply with a passion to see change, to explore how we can begin to say “Enough Now” to ACEs. (Huge thanks to the incredible Jon Dorsett for his graphic art).

 

As part of the day, my friends, Ian Cooper (Chief Inspector of Police) and Nick Howard (who leads the team at the city council on housing and planning) hosted a 135 minute conversation for all 180 participants around this theme: ‘Together, what can we do to transform the experience of childhood for good?’ There was such a buzz as people from different backgrounds and perspectives, collaborated and challenged each other to break out of our boxes and find new ways to bring transformation. The ideas generated were incredible and each person left the room with a clear commitment and next step for what they needed to do in their place of work or neighbourhood. Already we are hearing amazing stories and initiatives which are beginning as a result and we are building networks together.

 

We had fantastic input from Prof Warren Larkin, Sue Irwin (and her excellent work with EmBRACE), and host of other brilliant people working across many sectors, lending their expertise to further the conversations in interactive seminars – the feedback on each one has been incredible!

 

So – there is a huge challenge to the English Government (Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are already streaks ahead) as to why they are not taking the vast evidence base seriously and playing their part in breaking this devastating cycle. If we are to tackle this enormous issue of ACEs, it means vast changes to the ways we are delivering and measuring education in our schools and a serious reassessment of cuts of funding to children’s centres, midwives and health visitors, removing target-driven outcomes and finding ways to put relationship back into the heart of our modus operandi. It will take a people movement to bring the shifts that are needed, but given just how devastating ACEs are to physical, mental, emotional and social wellbeing and the huge cost burden they are to our public services and society, we have to give ourselves to drawing a line in the sand, saying enough now and reimagining the future together.

 

Here in Morecambe Bay, and across Lancashire, we are taking this issue really seriously and believe it to be one of THE most important population health issues of our time. A few of us have co-authored a ‘Little Book of ACEs’ together, in conjunction with Lancaster University – available very soon (!) which you might find helpful. My section expands a little on a previous blog post I have written here.

 

This whole area of ACEs is so sensitive, it takes compassion, kindness, bravery and wisdom. We cannot face it alone in silos, but together we can! Together, we can bring healing to our communities and freedom for the generations to come. We have to be willing to be those, who life Gandalf, in ‘The Lord of the Rings’ take our staff and say to this Balrog, which has devoured too many lives – “you shall not pass!” We have to give ourselves to drawing a line in the sand, saying “enough now” and step into a reimagined future of childhood, together.

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How Do We Build a City That Works For Everyone?

I recently hosted a couple of conversations for people in the city of Lancaster, UK, in which we explored this question together: “How Do We Build a City that Works for Everyone?” We framed the conversation (which we had using a ‘World Café’)from two current and important concepts. Firstly, the great work of Kate Raworth in ‘Doughnut Economics’ – how do we create a city that is socially just for the people who live here and that is environmentally sustainable for the future? In other words, how do we ensure we have an economy that is distributive and regenerative by design? Secondly, we drew on the important work of Sandro Galea (Professor of Epidemiology at Boston State) and his concept of the Goldfish bowl as a way of thinking about ‘Population Health’ or Epidemiology (see my last blog). Politics IS health, according to Galea.

 

One of my favourite quotes is from Einstein, when he said that “If I had 60 minutes to save the world, I would spend 55 minutes trying to find the right question and then I could solve the problem in 5 minutes.” It turns out that the question we used itself is problematic at a few levels! Here are some of the questions we found ourselves wrestling with: Do we need to build the city, when it is already here?! What do we really mean by ‘the city’ – is it people and communities or more than that? What do we mean by ‘works for’? That felt to some like we were settling for something that was just enough, maybe scraping by, rather than thriving! And who do we mean by everyone?! This didn’t stop us having a a great discussion, but highlights how powerful the perspectives and biases we bring into the room can be!

 

Despite not having a perfect question, (and hopefully, by the time we host 3 much bigger conversations across the city during 2019, we may have honed something more helpful!), some key themes emerged, through our generative conversation. 

 

  1. Relationships are vital! We want to live in a city which really does “work” for everyone. So, we want to give value to the currently unheard voices and we want to value diversity and inclusivity. Taking time to get to know neighbours and colleagues grows a richness of community. We want to live in a city that values love and kindness in how we treat ourselves and other people.
  2. We need to build on the amazing assets and skills that we already have in the city. If we made space and time to discover and share these skills with each other more, we would develop a richer life experience within our communities. This is an expression of ‘gift economy’ and ‘reciprocity’, which Charles Eisenstein writes powerfully about in his book ‘Sacred Economics’). It builds on voluntary power, and may require a reimagining of how we work and what we value in how we invest our time, energy and resources. We also have so many incredible physical assets in this area, which we don’t tap into enough or perhaps make fully accessible for all who live in the city.
  3. People want to be part of the change, not have change happen to them! This requires much better engagement and democratic discussion about how budgets are spent, for example or how land is developed. Somehow, there needs to be a better safeguarding against ‘invested interests’ and ‘dodgy deals’ with far more transparency about how decisions are made. Such a process, it is believed, would enable far better personal and corporate responsibility when it comes to caring for the fabric of the city and the people who live here, similar to what has been developed in Wigan. There was a recognition that when we talk about personal choice and responsibility that this is much more possible for some people and communities than others. However, it was felt that increasing self-esteem and a sense of belonging would enable more personal responsibility and choice.
  4. Housing really matters. The physical environment is actually causing fragmentation and silos. There were many more questions than answers here – but that’s ok – this is an iterative process, and we don’t have to solve everything in one go. So…how do we create really good social housing? How could we redesign the spaces of the city to encourage togetherness and community? How do protect green spaces in the process and take care of the city’s drainage (strong memories of the recent floods)? How could we ensure that everyone has a home to live in, and what might that mean for both the homeless and also for single people?
  5. We want an education system that really values the unique beauty of each child, treats each one with compassion, mindful of what traumas they may be experiencing and values creativity and activity in education just as much as academic outcomes. We care about who our children become, not just about what exams they pass. So we recognise that we have a measurement problem but we’re not quite sure yet what to do about it! 
  6. We need to invest in our children and young people by providing physical spaces in which our young people can feel safe and not bored! Many have been affected by the closure of children’s and youth centres. If we are to really invest in our children and young people, there was a sense that we also need to provide parenting classes across the board to pregnant couples and through ‘family centres’ and schools across the district.
  7. We want to create a greater sense of value for our older citizens. There were many people present who felt they have things to offer, but don’t have an obvious outlet. Involving those retired from paid work more in the life of the city would break isolation and feed the gift economy. 
  8. Business needs to thrive in a way that really values entrepreneurial gift and allows it to flourish, whilst holding it true to the ideas and principles of the doughnut and the goldfish! How could the business community serve the needs of the city and how can the city enable business to really thrive, creating jobs, whilst caring for the environment and the needs of the people who live here? Kate Raworth’s work could really help us!
  9. Transport systems need to be redesigned to encourage more cycling and walking or the use of green public transport alternatives. Transport routes also need to join up our communities more effectively to improve opportunities for those who live in areas that are currently more financially deprived. 
  10. If we are to really improve health and wellbeing and care for the environment, then we need to see this written into EVERY policy decision. If politics IS health, as per Sandro Galea, then we need to take this seriously and stop making policies which do not care for these things.
  11. We want to be part of city that does welfare well! We think there are many possible new ways of doing things more effectively, as described in Hilary Cottam’s book, ‘Radical Help – Reimagining the Welfare State’. One of the things felt to be important is increasing skills in money management (85% of people living in social housing in this district are in debt to the city council -though this is certainly not only due to poor money management , but an unjust system that isn’t working for the majority). Morecambe Bay Credit Union offers an alternative economy as a way of using micro finance in our local geography.
  12. We need better ways to communicate and connect people together. There is smart, digital technology that could help us here….perhaps a Lancaster portal, that connects us together more effectively and helps facilitate the sharing of our assets and gifts.

 

Wowsers! Not bad for 2 conversations of 90 minutes each! Just imagine what a phenomenal city Lancaster might become over the next 10-20 years, if we set out on a journey together to build this kind of city! What is stopping us, I wonder?! #enoughnow #togetherwecan

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