A ‘Future Search’ conference is a method of getting a whole range of stakeholders involved in an area of work to explore a ‘system’ and to develop a shared vision and way forward toward an agreed goal.
The Foundation held a Future Search about the private rented sector on Tuesday 10th July 2007 in London. It involved approximately 80 people, including landlords, (formerly) homeless people, homelessness agencies, Local Authorities, pan-London bodies, and central Government. The Future Search enabled the Foundation to collectively plan systemic change in the way the Private Rented Sector (PRS) is utilised as an effective resettlement solution for ‘non-statutory’ homeless people.
The Future Search was a seminal event in bringing together diverse agencies and individuals to find common ground. However, the PRS is a complex system, and while the Foundation achieved a lot in this one day event, it raised as many questions as it had answered.
To this end, the Foundation organised a range of ‘
PRS Symposiums’ based on key issues and ideas that arose out of the Future Search. This enabled the Foundation to ‘drill down’ into some of the more complex areas and develop an action plan in a series of discrete, smaller, expert groups.
A series of short reports on key findings from the PRS Symposiums are available to download from
our publications section.
Download a copy of the notes from the PRS Future Search: