Key Highlights
What was this case study? The Home Star was introduced during a health & wellbeing pilot to help the service to deliver support to people on probation across Greater Manchester.
Why was the Star chosen? The Home Star was chosen because of the research that has gone into developing it, which suited the organisation’s evidence-based approach.
What was the impact? The Star has helped support strengths-based, holistic working, and practice consistency, and helped build trust with people being supported.
“The feedback staff have given us is that the Home Star is really different to other tools because it allows them to open up the conversation, to actively be in the conversation as opposed to trying to assume what someone is going to say. It’s a tool to help them assess what the situation is and what support is needed.”
Introducing The Big Life Group
The Big Life Group is the coordinating service for The Wellbeing Service – a successful local partnership of third sector organisations who work with people on probation across Greater Manchester.
Anyone currently engaging with the probation system can access their services for free via a referral from a probation worker. They receive tailored, trauma-informed support designed to help them meet their goals, whether that be emotional regulation, behaviour change, family relationships or benefit advice.
By giving people more opportunities, tools and positive relationships, the likelihood of re-engaging with probation services in the future is reduced.
What is the Home Star?
The Home Star has been developed for people who are experiencing difficulties with housing or have other complex needs related to finding and keeping a home.
It is designed to help them and the services supporting them identify progress towards key outcomes like where they’re living, health, and friendships and relationships, and give clarity on where to focus next.
How The Big Life Group uses the Home Star
Big Life introduced the Home Star during a pilot programme for health and wellbeing, run by enablement coaches. Kirsty Greenwood, Big Life’s Quality and Risk Lead, says they chose the Star because of the research that has gone into developing it, which suited the organisation’s evidence-based approach.
“When I did the training I liked that the Star felt factual,” she adds. “It’s not just about your opinion of yourself, it’s about looking at what you’ve changed and you can’t really argue with that change.”
The enablement coaches used the Home Star during early sessions as a way to facilitate keyworking conversations. Kirsty says: “It takes time to understand where a client is at and what’s going on for them. We need to look at people’s situations holistically, so see how everything interrelates.
“The feedback staff have given us is that the Home Star is really different to other tools because it allows them to open up the conversation, to actively be in the conversation as opposed to trying to assume what someone is going to say. It’s a tool to help them assess what the situation is and what support is needed.”
It’s the first time they feel they’ve been listened to for a long time – and not just listened to but understood.
The impact Home Star has had
A strengths-based approach to progress
The Star has already had a big impact on the people Big Life work with, helping them to understand their progress holistically in a strengths-based way.
Tasha Hurst, an Enablement Coach at Big Life says, “You can say to some ‘ok, you’re homeless – but look at everything you’ve done to change that.’ Even just to capture that someone has attended an appointment is important, because many don’t.
“When the odds are stacked against someone, it’s a positive way to do an assessment. The Star has helped me to be more strengths-based, to give clients affirmations and support them to see that although they’re not where they want to be, they are taking steps to get there.”
Building trust through conversation
Emma, a Support Worker at Big Life, says Home Star has given her practice consistency, and helped her build trust with people.
“Using the Home Star is not a tick box exercise,” she says. “It’s not just us sitting there saying ‘You need to do this, this and this’ – it’s about us saying to them ‘What do you want?’ and they really like that. Even though it’s structured it’s a lot more casual, and there’s a lot more room for clients to be open and honest about what they need. It puts things into perspective.”
Kirsty agrees that the impact so far has been enormously positive, not just on the team but on the people they support. “The feedback we’ve got from clients is that it’s the first time they feel they’ve been listened to for a long time,” she says. “And not just listened to but understood.”
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