In June 2023, we started in our roles as Lived Experience Advisory Panel members for the Modern Slavery PEC.
We weren’t sure what to expect exactly as it wasn’t a job we had ever come across before. How were they planning to address power dynamics? What would healthy trauma-informed practice in the workplace look like? How would they ensure meaningful co-production with people who hold lived experience? Afterall, this was the first time the Centre was going to work with lived experience experts in way which sought to embed the expertise of lived experience into the workplace.
It was also exciting because we had an opportunity to use our lived experience of modern slavery to improve the quality of work the Centre was producing, but also to meet other survivors who shared the same goal.
Here are some of our thoughts on how it went for us.
Addressing power dynamics
One of the most important questions we had at the start was about power dynamics of lived experience experts coming to a space where inequality in power is rooted in to people’s different life experiences linked to the wider social and economic backgrounds. If this is left unaddressed, it can define the level of productivity and active engagement of the lived experience experts.
We were relieved to see that the Modern Slavery PEC is acutely aware of the power dynamics that can exist within a shared working space with people with lived experience and was able to demonstrate a willingness to share power by ensuring that everyone had equal opportunities to contribute to work discussions. The Centre set out clear expectations of what was required from us and nurtured strong working relationships that were rooted in trust and respect for one another.
Despite only working two days per month for the Centre, the LEAP formed a very close-knit relationship with their peers. It was important to be included in regular team meetings so we could have a wider understanding of the workings of the whole organisation and maintain an open dialogue around this topic with colleagues.
Trauma informed practice
As individuals who carry trauma from our trafficking experience, trauma-informed practice is a highly valued attribute for any workplace working with lived experience. Trauma-informed practice is rooted in the understanding that the exposure to trauma for an individual may impact areas of development within their life and this includes how a person goes about their professional life. For us, it made a huge difference to know that our line manager and coordinator were also individuals who held lived experience and as a result held direct awareness of appropriate engagement styles and an ability to mitigate situations which otherwise could be triggering.
Given the nature of work we were involved in, it was possible that at some point there may be material we were engaging with or conversations we were entering that had the potential to trigger an individual. We were always given the option either opt in or out of any work that perhaps would not be suitable for us to engage with. Additionally, we were provided with a supportive space to discuss any concerns or direct impacts we were experiencing. Our manager adopted a person-centred approach, which includes acknowledging our learning styles, our wellbeing, and our strengths and weaknesses in a professional context.
There is a lot to think about when working in trauma-informed ways, including the use of language and tone in a discussion space, vicarious trauma, impact of imagery, identity disclosure levels, or even the idea of using your personal experiences to enhance your peers’ understanding of policy and practice. The Centre provides us with trauma-informed training, which increased our confidence that this was in fact a matter taken seriously and that everyone in the workplace had understanding around healthy practice and things to be aware of when working with people with lived experience.
"As individuals who carry trauma from our trafficking experience, trauma-informed practice is a highly valued attribute for any workplace working with lived experience."
Co-production
Any piece of work that is co-produced between multiple people or groups can present challenges and it can sometimes be difficult to assert your position within the co-production process. For example, the lived experience experts – eight people in total - led a project to produce a toolkit on healthy remuneration practices for survivors, which will be published in the coming months.
In order to effectively co-produce with other lived experience experts, we played to our strengths by identifying key areas of our expertise and knowledge. Furthermore, we were able to have wider conversations with our peers around healthy practices, which enhanced our own awareness of others’ strengths experiences. By adopting this co-production style, it strengthened the quality of the work and created a complimentary pallet of ideas and recommendations.
To meaningfully co-produce with lived experience you must start with a blank canvas and allow people to enter the process on an equal contribution level. From there, it’s about ensuring that lived experience experts are involved in all stages, from the design right through to dissemination. One of the biggest challenges when working with other lived experience people is addressing the different levels of education and IT literacy, which reinforces the need for a more flexible working approach when contributing to shared documents.
Learnings for the Centre
One key learning for the Centre to consider was that of providing the same access to resources as other staff in the organisation, such as laptops. Although the Centre did provide us with our own email addresses and access to folders in their shared drive, this was a huge oversight, which ultimately led to us feeling a sense of exclusion and created problems around data access. It was difficult to mitigate technical issues, for example owning an out-of-date laptop that was unable to download the specific software or apps required to carry out our job roles. This goes back to addressing power dynamics, whilst providing us all digital autonomy. Although consideration was not necessarily factored into the Centre’s initial digital funding plan for lived experience engagement work, the Centre was open to hearing our feedback and taking on board our recommendation for this to be future practice. Professionals working with lived experience need to continually address inequality in their professional relationships.
"Professionals working with lived experience need to continually address inequality in their professional relationships."
We would also welcome more working hours. Working only every two weeks, the day would often fill up with meetings, leaving little space to focus and process information. More working hours would expedite the quantity and quality of our work and allow us to be more in sync with the organisation's workflow and pace. It would also be good to be able to meet others face to face, at least once every few months. Organisations working with lived experience should factor it into their budgets.
Our advice: don’t underestimate the power of time and patience.
-----
Overall, we were very fortunate to be given the opportunity to work at the Modern Slavery PEC. We know there are many others who would benefit from directly working in an environment producing high quality research on modern slavery and human trafficking. As individuals with lived experience of modern slavery, this experience helped us expand our understanding and knowledge of what is actually happening in the UK to address modern slavery. Whilst working in the sector may feel very close to home as a result of our personal experiences, it has provided us with a lens that goes beyond being treated as just those with such experiences or being seen as ‘victims’, and separated our identity from our experiences. For us, that is the definition of empowerment as survivors.
