West Sussex Homelessness Health Needs Assessment

From West Sussex County Council:

West Sussex County Council invite people with lived experience of homelessness and needing support with health needs in West Sussex, to participate and bring their expert lived experience to this work in a variety of ways.

West Sussex Homelessness Health Needs Assessment 2025/2026

What’s happening?

West Sussex Public Health Team are conducting a Needs Assessment around Homelessness and Health Needs.  The aim of the project is to assess the current housing, health and wellbeing needs of people who are experiencing homelessness in West Sussex and how these needs are currently being met, using a mixed methods approach.

What this means?

This means that we want to gather information about what it’s like to be homeless or insecurely housed and needing support with health needs in West Sussex, and how easy or challenging this is, what can be helpful, what causes problems and what might need to change or develop to improve things.

We will be speaking to wide range of organisations, services and other stakeholders to find out about his but more importantly, we need to hear from people who either have previously or who currently are experiencing this…. and this is where this opportunity comes in.

Ways people with lived experience of homelessness and needing support with health needs can be involved, and what we would need from you?

There are lots of ways people with lived experience of homelessness and needing support with health needs can be involved in this work.  It’s very important to us that we hear from as many people as possible and that people with lived experience are part of the whole project and able to guide and develop how this work is done, so that it’s meaningful, relevant and a real picture of what’s happening and what people need in terms of managing homeless and health conditions and needs.

1. Become a member of the Lived Experience Advisory Group (LEAG):

It’s important to us to make sure that this work is as co-produced and/or co-designed as possible and that engagement with people with lived experience of homelessness and needing support with health needs is meaningful, valuable and safe for those we work alongside. The LEAG (around 6-8 people) will work alongside the Working Group to make sure this happens!

The LEAG members will help develop and design the research and engagement aspects of the project, ensuring we are asking the right questions, from the right people, in the right places and in the right way to get a ‘real’ picture of the current situation, but also what recommendations there might be to make things better.  This is an opportunity to be right at the heart of this work.

This is an interactive role for people with relevant lived experience on this project and will involve regular meetings, weekly and monthly depending on where we are at in the project, and possible work outside of these meetings (e.g. reading, thinking time etc).  This is a role where reimbursement is available, which will be payable via Amazon Vouchers, on submission of a timesheet, for the time spent and any expenses.

2. Become a trained Peer Researcher:

There will be a number of opportunities for people with relevant lived experience to become Peer Researchers alongside this work.   Peer Researchers are able to bring their lived experience to help reach out and engage with others who have lived experience to listen, understand and find out what’s happening currently and how that’s affecting people.  This could mean having conversations with people, conducting surveys and group/one to one interviews or attending drop ins and community groups to speak with people. Peer Researchers need to be able to record and share with the project what they find out and will have opportunities to be part of the analysis of all of the data and findings.

This is also a very interactive role for people with relevant lived experience and will also involve regular meetings, depending on where we are at in the project, and work outside of these meetings including conducting interviews and conversations, travelling across West Sussex, attending online meetings and other activities that may be developed.

This is a role where reimbursement is available, which will be payable via Amazon Vouchers, on submission of a timesheet, for the time spent and any expenses.

Training will be given to anyone who needs it to carry out this role, so people with relevant lived experience who are interested but maybe haven’t done this type of work before are encouraged to consider this role.

3. Share lived experiences in other ways:

There will be a variety of other ways that people with relevant lived experience can share their experiences, ideas, suggestions, reflections and challenges.

These will include things like:

• Discussion groups, focus groups, drop in sessions and group feedback sessions
• One to one interviews (in-person and/or online
• Email or written feedback
• Surveys and questionnaires
• Phone conversations

And more…. (to be developed by our Peer Researchers and LEAG)

How to get involved:

If you have lived experience of homelessness and needing support with health needs in West Sussex and are interested in finding out more about this work and how you could be involved; or if you know or work alongside someone who does, please get in touch via email to [email protected] in the first instance and we can arrange a time to chat it through.