Seldom heard voices toolkit

This toolkit provides practical guidance for local authorities and partners seeking to support more inclusive, accessible information and advice by engaging seldom-heard voices. It was commissioned by Partners in Care and Health (PCH).

Introduction

Introduction to the toolkits

This toolkit was created in response to a simple but persistent challenge:

Many people still struggle to access adult social care information and advice in ways that feel clear, safe and relevant to their lives.

Local authorities have invested significant effort in improving information and advice, yet feedback from both communities and practitioners continues to point to the same gaps — not because people do not want support, but because systems often struggle to meet people where they are.

This work builds on previous PCH activity, including existing information and advice frameworks. What it adds is a deeper focus on lived experience, relationships and trust, shaped directly by people who navigate these systems every day.

 

How the toolkit was developed

The approach used to create this toolkit mirrors the approach it promotes.

We deliberately avoided rigid questionnaires or pre-defined solutions. Instead, we used the Evidence Based Co-design Method (EBCD) paying close attention to emotional highs and lows and facilitating open conversations of story-sharing and reflective dialogue with people who have lived experience, community advocates, and trusted practitioners. We went to people where they already were, rather than expecting them to navigate formal routes. This included a series of conversations with people from the specific communities covered in the toolkit, speaking to them both individually and in groups.

This process involved productive friction — between organisational ways of working and individual realities. Between efficiency and dignity. Between systems designed for consistency and lives that are anything but consistent.

That friction is not something to smooth over or avoid. It is where learning happens.

Participants in the conversations challenged assumptions, questioned priorities, and highlighted where well-intentioned approaches can still cause harm or disengagement. People spoke openly about how information and advice is experienced in everyday life — what helps, what gets in the way, and what needs to change.

Some faced barriers linked to disability, caring responsibilities, neurodivergence, digital exclusion, literacy, homelessness, recovery, ageing, and long-term health conditions.

We were also mindful of intersectionality. Often barriers can co-occur which can exacerbate these barriers and increase the risk of exclusion.

Some community organisations, outreach workers and voluntary sector partners acted as trusted connectors — often bridging the gap between systems and people when trust is fragile or access is limited. Their role in holding relationships, advocating and creating safe spaces for conversation was critical. They also reminded us that trust cannot be assumed — particularly where contact with public services has historically been associated with loss, scrutiny or negative consequences.

Why this toolkit matters

Local authorities told PCH they continue to find it difficult to engage with some communities — not just to share information, but to build confidence early enough to prevent crisis. In response, this work focused on four groups where those gaps are most visible:

  • Veteran communities
  • Homelessness communities
  • The Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities
  • Digitally excluded and low literacy communities

We hope that the toolkit will prove useful for these specific groups, but also be more widely applicable for other groups that councils wish to reach.

Rather than asking “what information should we provide?” We ask a different set of questions. Each conversation ends with an open and creative question:
If you could change one thing about how information and advice is provided, what would it be?

This question matters. It shifts conversations from describing problems to imagining better ways of working. It also creates space for hope, agency and practical insight — not just critique.

The answers are strikingly consistent. During the development work, people told us that access is rarely blocked by a lack of information alone. More often, it is shaped by assumptions, past experiences, power imbalances and the absence of human connection.

What this toolkit offers

This toolkit brings together insights from the co-development work into six core themes that cut across all four focus communities:

  • Understanding the culture
  • Recognising assumptions and stigma
  • Professional qualities that make a difference
  • Building relationships that last
  • Networks, partnerships and local knowledge
  • Stories from the ground

It begins with six practical top tips that apply across contexts, followed by community-specific sections that explore how these principles show up differently in practice.

This is not a checklist or a quick fix. It is a practical guide to working differently — with curiosity, humility and consistency.

Who the toolkit is for

This toolkit is for:

  • Local authority leaders shaping strategy and culture
  • Co-production and engagement leads
  • Practitioners and commissioners
  • Community organisations and people with lived experience

Above all, it is an invitation to return to what people told us matters most:
be present, be honest, listen properly — and let what you hear change how systems work.

Top tips: what works when engaging seldom heard voices

Cross-cutting principles for providing accessible information and advice

These principles apply across communities and contexts. They are designed to support local authorities and partners to meet their responsibility to provide information and advice that people can understand, trust and act on.

Veteran communities

Homelessness communities

Gypsy, Roma and Traveler communities

 

Digitally excluded and low literacy communities

Where this leaves us

This section reinforces a consistent message across the toolkit: access to information and advice depends on trust, clarity and human connection — not just technology.

Acknowledgements

This toolkit was shaped by the time, honesty and generosity of many people who chose to share their experiences, insights and challenges with us.

We would like to thank everyone who took part in conversations as community members, unpaid carers, people with lived experience, community leads and professional practitioners.

People shared candid insights into how information and advice are encountered in day-to-day life — what makes them useful, what creates obstacles, and what needs to be done differently.

We are especially thankful to those with lived experience of engaging with health and social care systems while navigating barriers related to disability, caring roles, neurodivergence, digital exclusion, literacy challenges, homelessness, recovery, ageing, and long-term health conditions. Your experiences, perspectives and suggestions have fundamentally shaped this work.

We also extend our thanks to the community organisations, outreach practitioners and voluntary sector partners who serve as trusted links — frequently connecting people and systems where access is restricted or trust has been weakened. The relational work you do, often quietly and over time, through advocacy, presence and the creation of safe spaces for dialogue, is essential.

Our thanks also go to local authority colleagues, national partners and professional experts in engagement, co-production, information and advice, and digital inclusion. Your willingness to listen, reflect and challenge existing approaches helped ensure this toolkit is grounded in reality, not assumption.

Finally, we recognise that sharing experiences — particularly where trust in systems has been hard won or repeatedly broken — takes courage. We hope this toolkit reflects that contribution with care, respect and purpose, and that it supports more human, relational and effective ways of working in the future.

Useful links