Building Policy That Fits With People's Lives

I recently returned to the University of Oxford to contribute to the Europaeum Scholars Programme, alongside my brilliant colleague Charlie Cross.

Over a number of years, I have had the privilege of regularly contributing to this programme. Each time, I am reminded of its importance. The Europaeum brings together doctoral scholars from across Europe - people who may become some of our future policymakers, government advisors, researchers and institutional leaders. It creates a space in which they can think collectively about complex social issues, examine how policy is developed and consider what it means to build solutions from the ground up.

Charlie and I spoke about the experiences of girls and young women affected by criminal exploitation and violence, the barriers they face in accessing support and the limitations of policy and services that are developed in silos.

As we know, girls and young women do not lead single-issue lives. Their experiences can sit across criminal and youth justice, safeguarding, violence against women and girls, education, health, housing, modern slavery and social care. When policy is divided into separate areas, the complexity of their lives, and sometimes the young women themselves, can disappear between them.

We also explored Abianda’s approach to participatory practice and our belief that participation is not an optional addition to good safeguarding. It is one of the ways safeguarding becomes more effective. This means recognising young women as experts in their own lives. It means understanding that they have knowledge about risk, relationships, places and survival that professionals and systems may not possess. It means involving them as partners in decisions rather than developing plans around them and expecting their compliance.

Charlie brought this to life through both her lived and professional expertise. She spoke powerfully about what becomes possible when lived experience is treated as knowledge - when people are involved from the beginning, properly supported and remunerated, embedded within teams, and valued for their skills and contribution rather than reduced to what has happened to them.

The scholars brought examples from their own areas of study and practice. Although the subjects were often very different from Abianda’s work, the conversation revealed some strikingly consistent lessons about the conditions needed for meaningful participation.

• Good participatory practice begins with a values position. It requires us to respect the expertise of people affected by an issue and to trust that they understand important things about their own lives, communities and environments. They may not hold the entire solution, or have the resources, social collateral or influence to bring about change, but their knowledge is essential to developing responses that are relevant, realistic and sustainable.

• It also requires relationships. People cannot be expected to share their expertise simply because an institution has invited them into a room. Trust has to be developed. The cultural context must be understood. People need to know how their contribution will be used and whether it will genuinely influence what happens next.

• Participation must also be properly facilitated and resourced. It takes time, thought, care and money. It requires leaders and institutions to become comfortable with relinquishing some control and sharing decision-making power. It cannot be added at the end of a process once the important decisions have already been made.

The discussion was thoughtful, rigorous and generous. We were in a room with people who were not only incredibly bright, but genuinely curious about our work, about the realities of young women’s lives and about Charlie’s expertise.

I always find these sessions deeply nourishing. They remind me how much I enjoy academic spaces and the opportunity to bring lived expertise, practice knowledge and academic inquiry into conversation with one another.

Our work at Abianda has been built through years of learning alongside young women. Bringing that knowledge into dialogue with scholars, while also being challenged and enriched by their research, questions and perspectives, is an important form of triangulation.

Complex social problems cannot be solved through policy expertise alone. Nor can they be addressed through practice or lived experience in isolation.

We need spaces where these different forms of knowledge can meet, and where the people most affected by our decisions are recognised not simply as consultees, but as essential partners in building what comes next.

Thank you to Tracey and the Europaeum Scholars Programme for inviting us back, to the scholars for their curiosity and contribution, and to Charlie for bringing such clarity, honesty and authority to the room.

Abi Billinghurst

Founder & CEO