Transforming Together: the network's story so far

The Transforming Together network is convened by Agenda Alliance and funded by the Smallwood Trust.

During network meetings, members are developing regional solutions to the systemic challenges that prevent women at the sharpest edge of inequality from accessing support, aiming to implement the recommendations proposed in our 2023 report, Dismantling Disadvantage.

As we approach the network’s fourth meeting, we’ve shared this summary of the network’s journey so far, and some of the key challenges that we face. Learn more about our network and its aims.

Women facing multiple unmet needs are continually pushed towards further harm because they cannot access consistent or meaningful, gender-informed support. At present, there is a chronic mismatch between the services needed and the services available in the North East. While there are increasingly discussions about improving services for women, the network finds that “actions have yet to catch up.”

One of the major problems is the inconsistency and patchy provision of support for women facing multiple unmet needs. The network describes the North East as a “postcode lottery” with variable responses for those at the sharpest edge of disadvantage. For instance, local authorities give “wildly varying” responses to women with complex needs. However, the network has identified opportunities to coordinate better responses and change for women, including the new North East Mayoral Combined Authority.

The fragmented, siloed nature of services in the North East forces women to navigate multiple services simultaneously and prevents vital information sharing. There are cliff-edges and varying thresholds for support; for example, women with a “dual-diagnosis” are often shut out from mental health services. In particular, the divide between adult and children’s social services has been highlighted as a problem, leading to increasing numbers of mothers having their children removed from their care.

Across services, the network currently describes a “risk averse” culture that is instinctively punitive; for example, “mothers are held responsible for protecting their children from perpetrators, rather than being protected themselves.” At the same time, women often face stigma and scrutiny, which furthers their distrust in services. As a result, it is difficult for women facing multiple unmet needs to build trusting relationships with practitioners in services. They are described as “hard to reach” but, in reality, there is not a concerted efforted across services to reach them.

Nevertheless, there are many practitioners and services striving to make a difference to women’s lives; in particular, specialist services that work with women within their communities. The importance of these charities was underlined: they build trusting relationships with women and provide environments in which they feel safe. However, given the pressure on public services, there is a sense that the system has become “too reliant on charities” who are themselves increasingly struggling to secure funding.

There are many barriers that prevent specialist services from being commissioned and recognized for their role. The network is concerned that, despite this work being preventative (with downstream economic savings to the public purse), specialist charities struggle to “prove” their impact to funders. As such, the network would like to see “better funding opportunities for smaller charities whose results can't be immediately quantified.” Part of this should include larger charities giving up some of their power and “sharing expertise about grant funding applications as they have the knowledge and resources.”

While there is a lot of innovation at the “systems-level”, it doesn’t seem to be engaging with frontline staff and those going through the system in any way. Consequently, there is a desire within the network for “collective action” and “collective power” to drive change and “shift the dial” on services.  The network recognises that this will also necessitate redistribution of power. Part of this necessitates lived experience involvement, which needs to be intentionally incorporated. Currently, across the system, there is a “lack of lived experience voices being heard (truly heard).” The network seeks to respond to this and champion lived experience engagement and involvement.