Why sharing what we hear matters
Local community and voluntary groups are often the first to notice when things are getting harder for people. You hear directly from residents about what they are struggling with, what support is missing, and what is helping or not helping in their lives.
At Community Action: MK, part of our role is to help bring these shared experiences together. We do this through a number of networks for community and voluntary organisations, which bring groups together around specific themes to share information, raise issues and work together. These currently include:
- the Refugee Support Network, supporting organisations working with refugee, asylum seeker and migrant communities
- the Mental Health Alliance
- the MK Climate Action Network
- and developing work to bring groups together around poverty reduction and alleviation
When we look across many groups and communities, patterns start to appear. These shared messages can help:
- Show decision-makers what life is really like for people locally
- Highlight gaps in support
- Strengthen the case for change
- Help groups work together on solutions
This update brings together what we have been hearing so far through:
- Our local networks
- Our work supporting groups
- Community projects
- Meetings, events and conversations
We also look at this information alongside other local, regional and national research and evidence, so that lived experience helps add depth and real-life context to what the data is already telling us.
Examples of How Have VCSE Insights Made a Difference:
- Mental Health Alliance – VCSE organisations shared insights from the people they work with relating to mental health, which, alongside health sector data, helped design the priorities for a targeted grant programme. VCSE groups then collaborated to use the funding to meet the most urgent identified needs.
- Denny Review – Milton Keynes VCSE groups fed lived experience insights, directly from the people they work with, into this ICB commissioned piece of research. This ensured it was truly reflective of the health inequalities and challenges faced by real people in Milton Keynes, and this evidence is being used regularly by decision makers to inform service design, funding and priorities.
- Falls Prevention – as part of the Civil Society Covenant, VCSE organisations collaborated with MKCC and health sector colleagues to explore what support people could be offered within their communities to prevent them falling, and what role the VCSE could play in this. As a result of understanding the VCSE’s potential, £40,000 has been made available for VCSE, grassroots falls prevention work in MK.
Main issues coming up again and again
1. Money worries, poverty and the cost of living
Many groups tell us that people are struggling to afford everyday life. While food support is still very important, the issues go much deeper than that. We are hearing about:
- People having to deal with urgent problems over and over, with little chance to plan ahead
- Not enough funding to tackle the reasons people end up in crisis in the first place
- “Hidden” poverty in newer or more expensive-looking areas, where people feel ashamed to ask for help
- A feeling that short-term help is expected, but long-term change is harder to fund
There is a strong sense that these problems cannot be solved by one group alone, which is why we are developing work to bring organisations together around poverty reduction.
2. Mental health pressures
Mental health comes up in almost every conversation we have with local groups. Key concerns include:
- Long waits for mental health support
- Mental health support can be very hard to access – people often have to be in serious distress before they are even added to a waiting list, and some young people wait so long for help that they become too old for the service by the time they reach the top of the list.
- People in crisis struggling to get help quickly
- Children and young people needing more local support
- Good local services closing or reducing because funding has ended
- A lack of mental health support that feels safe, understanding and relevant for people from different cultures and backgrounds
Many community groups are stepping in to help, but they are often stretched and under pressure themselves.
3. Transport making everyday life harder
Transport problems affect many areas of life and come up across different communities. We are hearing about:
- People missing medical appointments because they cannot get there
- Difficulties getting to groups, activities or support services
- Feeling isolated because travelling is too expensive, complicated or unreliable
- Small community groups being unable to reach more people because transport is a barrier
For some people, transport issues make existing inequalities even worse.
4. Refugee and asylum-seeking communities
Groups supporting refugees and people seeking asylum tell us about many overlapping challenges, including:
- Difficulties finding work, even when people have skills and experience
- Qualifications from other countries not being recognised
- Lack of access to laptops, phones, data or translated information
- Fear and distress caused by hateful language and hostility
- Women facing extra barriers when trying to get safe support
- A need for mental health and wellbeing support that understands trauma and culture
- Opportunities to involve refugee and asylum-seeking communities through volunteering, including support for local groups to create inclusive roles (e.g., transport assistance, cultural competency training)
These groups are supporting people with very complex needs, often with limited funding and high demand.
5. Pressures on local groups themselves
Many community and voluntary groups tell us they are under growing strain. Some of the feedback below is taken from what we heard at our AGM. Common challenges include:
- Funding is the biggest pressure, especially covering basic running costs. Many want to work together rather than compete.
- Volunteers are hard to recruit and keep, and groups want simple, practical support.
- Affordable and truly accessible spaces are hard to find and limit what groups can offer.
- Communities are facing growing and complex issues like loneliness, addiction and mental health – with groups trying to meet rising needs with small teams.
- Groups want accessible/ affordable, practical help with digital tools, AI, legal responsibilities and how to set up social enterprises.
- Paperwork and administration take up too much time.
- Community and voluntary groups want more joint working, with each other and public bodies, and to avoid duplication
- There is strong support for Community Action: MK acting as a shared voice and coordinator for the sector.
6. Environment and climate action
Groups involved in environmental work are highlighting:
- A lack of involvement from young people and people from diverse backgrounds
- A need to show how environmental issues link to everyday concerns like money, health and housing
- Interest in simple, practical ways groups can be more environmentally responsible
There is real potential to connect environmental action with wider community wellbeing.
How this information feeds into wider influence and decision-making
Alongside our networks, Community Action: MK supports the Milton Keynes Voluntary Sector Alliance. This brings together representatives from different networks and acts as a shared voice for community and voluntary organisations at a more strategic level.
The Alliance helps make sure that what organisations are hearing from communities – especially people who are often overlooked – can be fed into conversations where important decisions are being made, particularly around health and care. We are also developing more ways for a wider range of organisations to feed information into this space, including around specific topics where there is real potential for joint working or influence.
This is just the beginning
This is the first time we are sharing what we are hearing in this way, and we know it will grow and change. Our hope is to:
- Share updates like this around four times a year
- Build a clearer picture over time
- Spot new and emerging issues earl
- Use shared evidence to speak more strongly to decision-makers
- Support groups to work together on solutions
We will also be looking at how useful these updates are, and how they can be improved.
We want to hear from you
Please get in touch if:
- These issues sound familiar in your work
- You are seeing different or new problems
- You have information, feedback or examples you are happy to share
- You have ideas for solutions, especially ideas shaped by people with lived experience
Also, if you are interested in getting involved in any of our networks, or would like to find out more, please visit our website here or get in touch with us directly.
By sharing what we are all seeing, we can build a stronger, shared voice for communities in Milton Keynes – and work together to create change.
*When sharing information with us, please avoid including names or details that could identify individual people. We ask that information is shared in an anonymous way, focusing on experiences and themes rather than individuals.
Important note about how we use shared information
We are a small charity with limited time and capacity, and we use AI (artificial intelligence) tools to help us organise, review and summarise information that is shared with us efficiently. This helps us spot common themes and share learning more quickly and fairly.
If you choose to share information with us, you are agreeing that it may be analysed using AI tools and included in public updates, reports or communications. We will use information carefully and responsibly, and our aim is always to reflect shared experiences and themes, not to identify individuals.
If you have any questions or concerns about this, please get in touch with us.