Human Learning Systems

Human Learning Systems

Cornwall VSF has been working with commissioners and colleagues on mobilising community support for suicide prevention, via the People in Mind project, for over a year now. You may have heard us refer to the Human Learning Systems approach, and how the ‘service’ uses this to drive change. You may also hear this in other collaborative spaces. But what actually is it?

What is Human Learning Systems?

The key word in this is ‘learning’. Human Learning Systems is about continuous learning. It is an approach to working together that seeks to actively change the system to be more relationship based. Human Learning Systems draws on and brings together the practice, ideas and contributions of many people and organisations.

The above video, from the Human Learning Systems website, explains it in a nutshell.

People in Mind: Our Learning Journey

People in Mind is a partnership between multiple organisations in Cornwall, working to prevent suicide. Our journey started with asking the partners to commit to learning. This means allocating time to bring about change. Led by the excellent Dr Dulcie McBride, from Goldfinch ,  we looked at the way ‘system’ working has happened historically, and analysed, collectively why this does not work as well as it could.

We also looked at what the barriers to positive mental health are. These are

Many of them are systemic and not something that we can ‘fix’ alone. But we looked at how we could work together better, to provide improved services for the communities we live in. This involves taking the time to have regular conversations with all partners and cultivating the space to be open and honest about what’s working and what isn’t.

Human Learning Systems locally

Our People in Mind partners meet bi-monthly to share our learning. It’s about spotting trends within these conversations and creating mechanisms to answer the question, “so what?”. What we mean by this is, if we have these learning meetings and we collectively uncover a theme, what can we do with this information? Let’s use an example that came up earlier in the year. Our colleagues shared case studies with us regarding the work they have been doing with clients, and we found that these sometimes shared information we could communicate outwardly, other times it was learning that is still vital, but more internal to the system. So we created a standardised impact study for colleagues, to be sure we get the information we need.

We have all recognised that the data we are currently collecting is not supportive of achieving our goals – as it neither reflects the power of partnership or holistic support. So we need to review this.

This week, we were reminded that sometimes people are not able to attend wellness sessions due to transport issues. We know this from anecdotal evidence. Our colleagues at Volunteer Cornwall shared this in their Transport Survey. Human Learning Systems takes that information from across the partnership to our commissioners, to share in their meetings, to advocate for change. Much in the same way that Cornwall VSF’s alliances are vehicles for sharing information, so is People in Mind.

Will change really happen?

People in Mind itself is evidence of change happening. After commissioners consulted with the voluntary sector, some of them made change happen. They listened to Cornwall VSF and our partners who explained that short-term funding creates competition and instability for organisations. They advocated for People in Mind to do things differently and secured longevity of funding. The contract is for five years, enabling the partners to commit to a shared vision and showcase the advantage of working in this collaborative way instead of as individual, siloed organisations.

But it is not just about the money. It is about the richer support and expertise we bring when we work collectively, providing better outcomes for people in our communities. Our videos about the support Alfie received, and our case studies demonstrate the power of the multiagency approach.

What’s next for Human Learning Systems?

We will continue to have regular Human Learning Systems conversations and make change happen as a result. For example, we have already identified that some areas of the partnership aren’t working as effectively as they could. We are working together to adapt and reshape this element of the partnership. We have also developed a regular practitioner meeting (like a multidisciplinary team) for those working with individuals to feedback and work on their caseloads, share best practise and understand how the different parts fit together. We will share more about this next week. Our aspiration over the course of the five years is to operate as a one whole service, with interdependent parts, improved knowledge and ultimately better support for people and families as a result.