Our current political climate means that the work of small, frontline charities is more impactful than ever.
But small organisations are under huge pressure with rising costs, strain on capacity and staff wellbeing, and ever competing calls from funders to ‘innovate’ and support more people on less.
In this context, engaging in policy can feel an impossible and overwhelming step. However, this is the exact time that policy and influencing can be the most impactful.
This blog shares the journey of Action for Refugees in Lewisham (AFRIL) into policy, with five tips we would give to other organisations considering starting policy engagement.
Our first steps into policy work
AFRIL is a community charity, established in 2006, supporting asylum seekers, refugees, and ‘vulnerablised’ migrants in South East London to lift themselves out of poverty, assert their rights, and rebuild their lives in the heart of our community.
Last year our 7 FTE staff team supported over 700 members of our community through our destitution services, allotment, supplementary school and casework and legal services.
We prioritise cases with complex vulnerabilities - people with high mental health needs, trafficking survivors, destitute families with young children, and asylum seekers with disabilities.
With all of our capacity being focused on the ever-growing frontline need, engaging in policy was a pipe dream. Why would we invest time in policy work when families are presenting with all their belongings in bin bags and nowhere to sleep?
As a service delivery organisation, policy and influencing was just an aspirational aim of our last strategic plan. With all of our capacity being focused on the ever-growing frontline need, engaging in policy was a pipe dream. Why would we invest time in policy work when families are presenting with all their belongings in bin bags and nowhere to sleep?
That was until 2023, when the government announced ‘Operation Maximise’- the forced room sharing for asylum seekers- and we were forced to engage in policy work for the first time.
At this point, we were already witnessing serious overcrowding and safeguarding concerns in our local asylum hotels, where we operated weekly casework drop-ins. We brought regular challenges on the suitability of asylum support allocations for families crammed into one room for up to 24 months, and single people with complex health issues. This gave us significant insight into the huge harm that doubling or tripling hotel capacity would have.
Like most small charities during big policy changes, we looked to large organisations to lead the response. However, we found that as few organisations were regularly on the ground in hotels, it was AFRIL and other small charities seeing the impact of the policy as it emerged.
Given the huge harm posed to our community, we took the decision to convene a community meeting of hotel residents, providing both pizza (key to any well attended community meeting- lots of food) and political education on the impending policy change.
With the backing of our community of hotel residents, who were keen to act as claimants, we co-produced a policy response, creating resources and training for organisations across the sector to challenge cases of maximisation, leading to ongoing strategic litigation.
We found that as few organisations were regularly on the ground in hotels, it was AFRIL and other small charities seeing the impact of the policy as it emerged.
Despite its challenges, our hotel maximisation work kickstarted AFRIL’s journey as a small charity engaged in policy. As a result we are now engaged on both local and national policy work, from new homeless pathways in South East London, to amendments to the Renters Rights Bill.
AFRIL’s journey into policy has been one of constant learning. Reflecting on our experiences, there are five main tips that have been key to our success, which I hope may be useful to other small organisations considering dipping their toes into the (rather overwhelming) world of policy.
Our five tips for stepping into policy & influencing work
1. Think about your expertise and start local
The most powerful policy work comes from a real knowledge of the problem and the community it impacts. The issues your community are raising on a daily basis are the areas that will likely take up most of your organisation's capacity. If you have casework staff, this is the work that will be taking up most of their time.
Focusing on areas where you already have experience, means your voice is credible and you can build on your evidence base. It can be easy to look at big national campaigns and want to mirror these, but starting small and local is impactful.
2. Invest in impact measurement
5 years ago AFRIL’s impact measurement systems would never have allowed us the output we have today- we had great anecdotal evidence but this is often not what is needed in the policy space.
When talking to decision makers testimony can be powerful, but in our experience it is testimony combined with clear, accessible data to support your arguments that creates change.
At AFRIL we now prioritise impact and data measurement. We conduct an annual survey and curated a CRM with tools to allow us to assess trends and outcomes. This is not only really helpful for funding applications, but it professionalises policy output. Numbers can be persuasive.
3. Embed policy in casework
Growing policy from casework has been the key to AFRIL’s success. When organisations look at specifically funding policy work, there can be a temptation to mirror the approach of larger organisations who often have separate casework and policy roles.
In our experience, curating joint roles, where staff with casework expertise are supported to engage policy, strengthens outcomes. Casework staff are experts and best placed to foster co-produced policy solutions from the ground up.
We have found that supporting casework staff to engage in policy is positive for staff development and wellbeing- feeling part of systemic change- rather than being stuck addressing the same casework issues, for different clients, over and over again. For bigger teams, where roles are already separate, have policy staff embedded in casework teams, in the same physical space, surrounded by front line knowledge and emerging trends.
4. Offer something to those you want something from
Decision makers, especially Local Authorities, are resource limited. In AFRIL’s experience, offering free expert advice (in our case this has been legal advice and resources on our areas of expertise), has strengthened relationships and presented opportunities to introduce practical or scalable solutions to policy issues.
We often attend meetings where organisations (often validly) only bring lists of complaints, but providing solutions to decision makers and investing in these relationships is key to achieving success.
5. Be boundaried, say no, and invest in staff wellbeing
This work is really hard. Organisations are being asked to do more with less and staff burnout is rife. When small organisations do policy work, it can be impactful, and this draws attention.
In our experience we became inundated for requests to engage in lots of additional policy work. It's ok to say no to keep focussed. We’ve found that competing calls to engage in a broad range of policy can be a distraction, dilute aims and capacity, and burn staff out. Think strategically as to what will support your policy goals.
Whilst our focus as an organisation remains frontline delivery, engaging in policy has allowed us to translate the casework trends that we see day after day into effective policy responses.
This is both an investment in future capacity and supports our staff and our members to use their expertise to feed into systems change.
