‘Leading the Change: A Toolkit to Evaluate Lived Experience Inclusion and Leadership’ provides practical tools and resources for self-reflection and action planning in mental health and social services organisations.

It was developed in partnership between Mental Health Carers NSW, the Mental Health Commission, and BEING – Mental Health Consumers, to address Action 9 of Living Well in Focus 2020-2024 and build on the strategic direction and vision of the Lived Experience Framework for NSW (2018).

Leading the change enables organisations to assess their level of maturity for lived experience inclusion, monitor and measure inclusion and impact, and identify areas for growth. Organisations can tailor how they use the toolkit, recognising the wide variety in the sector.

Use of the Leading the change toolkit promotes the importance of lived experience inclusion, partnership, leadership and decision-making influence across the mental health and social services sectors. It highlights leadership commitment as being crucial to successful inclusion and evaluation in any organisation.

Toolkit development included co-design activities with consumers, carers, sector organisation representatives, and Aboriginal communities; desktop research and iterative review by the project working group; and a sector focus group to test the draft Toolkit documents in October 2023.

The Toolkit includes four key elements:
Rationale: evidence base for why embedding and evaluating lived experience inclusion and leadership is essential work.
Methodology: an overview of principles and considerations when evaluating lived experience inclusion, and examples of evaluation tools.
Resources: a list of resources to support the development of lived experience leadership and evaluation of lived experience inclusion.
Checklist: the tool for organisations to use to evaluate their levels of lived experience inclusion and leadership and identify actions for change.

Download the Toolkit here

Download the Checklist here