How we work
Our values
These values guide how we work:
We work from a position of equity, and we instigate equitable change through all that we do.
Problems are starting points for learning. We work through challenges alongside the people we work with, and we invent new practice as readily as we apply what already exists.
Our work comes from a place of shared knowledge and experience. We co-develop strategies and solutions, with the people and communities the work is for.
Research and evidence are where our work starts. We build knowledge carefully, with methods people can trust.
Impact can be measured, and it can also be felt and experienced. Our research takes account of the full breadth of human experience to understand what ‘impact’ really means.
Participation and lived experience are at the heart of our work. We move beyond consultation and co-production, into the leadership of people with lived experience and peer roles, so the people most affected are shaping decisions and holding real influence over the work.
We believe that ‘good enough’ is the enemy of ‘great’. We innovate and improve, in our own work and in the communities we live and work in.
Local solutions can be just as effective as those from far away. When we bring in international ideas, we build in local context so they become local solutions.
Our approach
We work closely, within our own team and with yours.
We learn from each other’s expertise, and that’s where we believe the strongest new approaches come from.
We are restless thinkers and endlessly curious. We question, we experiment, and we take on the issues that matter most, making real change with the people we work alongside.
Our approach is practical, relational and participatory, and it is rooted in what we call designed informality: creating spaces that feel relaxed, warm and easy to take part in, while being carefully thought through behind the scenes. We pay attention to the small details that shape participation: how people are invited, how the room feels, how conversations begin, where power sits, and how people’s ideas are carried forward. This helps people feel genuinely part of the work.
Much of our work is community engagement, done alongside the people and communities the work is for, and we bring that same care to large systems like the NHS and to small grassroots and lived-experience-led organisations alike.
When working with you:
we start by understanding what it is you need to know about the work you do
we uncover the information to answer those questions
we use that information to create or deliver interventions that make a difference
Working ethically with data
People share sensitive information with us about some of the hardest parts of their lives, and we hold that with care. Our approach is guided by lived-experience-led best practice in the ethical use of mental health data, including the guidelines developed by the DATAMIND Lived Experience Advisory Group, standards shaped by people who have been the subject of mental health data. In our work, this means we:
put lived experience in the lead, so people with lived experience shape what data gets collected, how it is read, and what gets said about them
protect the most exposing data hardest, people’s own words, their hardest moments, the details that carry stigma, because that is the material that can be used against someone
keep consent in the person’s hands throughout, with room to ask, pause, opt out, or change their mind, recognising people are often asked at a hard time or through a service they have little power over, and that the act of being asked can itself be hard
say what we are doing with data, plainly and up front, so people are not left guessing who sees it or why
tell people what their data did, what it was used for and what came of it, so giving it is not the last they hear
Alongside this, we also meet the expected standards of data protection, privacy, secure handling, and governance in full, and review them regularly.