The Way Ahead: our ten-year strategy
The system isn't working for everyone who needs it. Since launching as Waythrough, we’ve been determined to ‘join the dots’ between services in a smarter, more human way. And to push ourselves and the system to change.
Finding a Way through - an introduction from our Life Experience Council
We are members of Waythrough’s Life Experience Council, which works on projects across the charity and is made up of people who are or have been supported by Waythrough.
We know what good support looks like. We know what it feels like to walk through the right door and not have to leave part of yourself outside. To be met where you are, not where a form says you should be. We have experienced this. It changes lives.
We know often services are set up to support one part of a person, the mental health part, OR the substance use part, not the whole of them.
Waythrough’s commitment to joining up mental health, substance use and wider services, to treating co-occurring needs as the norm rather than the complication, is something we have been calling for.
We have seen what becomes possible when someone is supported as a whole person, with courage, kindness and respect. We will be here, contributing and holding Waythrough accountable on behalf of all people who walk through the door.
– The Life Experience Council
Why change is needed
We know that the communities we serve experience unfair disadvantages every day, whether in our deindustrialised areas, coastal towns dealing with entrenched poverty, or people facing systemic discrimination because of their ethnicity or gender.
Health and social care systems have evolved to provide the best fit for the most people. But people and their problems don’t fit into neatly labelled boxes. The system isn’t working for everyone who needs it, our poorest communities least of all.
This isn’t good enough. We are determined to make the necessary changes within Waythrough and the wider system to improve and connect services, and break down the barriers that stop people getting the support they need to live a life they value.
Service providers don’t usually make bold statements. But we don’t just provide public services to citizens who need them, we’re also a charity which by law serves the public good.
Our commitments - and how we'll reach our goal
To drive our work we’re signing up to a new goal. Over the next decade we’ll aim to: save a million lives and enhance a million more. Yes, we know that’s big! It’s a huge task but one we’re not shy of. We’re convinced that without a goal like this, driving change over a sustained period, the status quo will always triumph.
To help make it happen we’re committing to three things:
- Becoming a true system leader; a generous partner and co-producer with a reputation for genuine innovation and proven ability to influence commissioning and policy-making
- Investing in our staff and volunteers as the most important drivers of change, supporting them to innovate, lead change locally and shape the future of services
- Investing at least an additional £10m over the course of the strategy to develop new ways of working.
We’ll work with the people we serve and our commissioning partners to imagine and create new ways that services can save and enhance lives in our communities. And we’ll influence more widely to challenge systems that don’t work as well as they should and encourage others to support our goal.
Of course, we want you to read the full strategy, and share it far and wide. Here it is.
But at it’s heart The Way Ahead isn’t a document. It’s a set of choices that will guide and push us all at Waythrough over the next decade. And it’s an invitation to new and current partners – whether commissioners, delivery organisations or corporates – to join us in a new way of working as we aim to transform support in the communities we serve and move towards our goal.
We can only do this by working together – staff, volunteers, the people we support, the people who support us, and existing and new partners. If our strategy excites you, we want you along for the ride, too. Drop us a line at TheWayAhead@waythrough.org.uk.
Thank you.
"From my own experience, as soon as you get referred to an alcohol service, the mental health service will say, ‘that’s it – we'll speak to you when you're six months sober’. But mental health is so important and a massive part of why people use drugs and alcohol – to manage difficult feelings and thoughts. I know I’m not an isolated case, so I'm excited to see this as a central theme in ‘The Way Ahead’."
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