Why Lived Experience Must Shape Decisions

People who experience poverty understand its realities in ways that statistics alone can never capture. They know what it feels like to navigate complicated systems, repeat painful stories to different services, face assumptions and stigma, and make impossible choices about everyday essentials.

That knowledge is expertise—and it should help shape the decisions that affect people’s lives.

The Sheffield Poverty Truth Commission brought together Community Commissioners with lived experience of poverty and Civic Commissioners from organisations and businesses across the city. Over many months, they shared stories, built relationships and explored what needs to change.

This was deliberately different from a one-off consultation. Meaningful participation takes time. People need to feel safe, listened to and confident that sharing their experiences can lead to action. Trust cannot be created through a short meeting or a feedback form.

Listening to lived experience also leads to better decisions. It reveals how policies and services work in real life, including unintended barriers that may be invisible to those designing them. Throughout the Commission, one simple question helped keep ideas grounded:

“Would this have helped me in my challenges?”

When the answer is shaped by people who have faced those challenges themselves, services can become more relevant, compassionate and effective.

But listening is only the beginning. People with lived and living experience must be involved in designing, delivering, testing and evaluating services—not invited in after the important decisions have already been made. Their time, knowledge and contribution must also be properly recognised.

The principle at the heart of every Poverty Truth Commission is:

“Nothing about us, without us, is for us.”

For Sheffield, this means creating lasting ways for people affected by poverty to share power, influence policy and hold organisations to account. When lived experience is treated as essential expertise, we make better decisions—and move closer to a city that works for everyone.