Starting with people and relationships – the Liberated Method and relational practice

As Director of Public Service Reform at Gateshead Council (UK), Mark Smith pioneered the Liberated Method, a relational approach that focuses upon meeting people where they are and helping them build their path at their pace. By fostering trust, empathy, and open communication, the Liberated Method prioritises collaboration over top-down decision-making. It encourages active listening and the co-design of services with those directly impacted, ensuring that the needs and voices of residents are central to every process.

Anglicare WA, Mission Australia and The Possibility Partnership are hosting Mark in Australia to support conversations about the Liberated Method - including through this Learning Network Session.

After hearing about the Liberated Method from Mark, we will also hear from Beth Webster (Sunshine) and Leigh Sinclair (Imagined Futures), both based in Western Australia and who are also using relational practice in their work.

Sunshine is a family relational-coaching model that creates the conditions for families to grow the good life, even in the midst of hard times.

Relational practice also informs the work of Imagined Futures across a range of issues within the place it operates. They are leading work with families from the Davis Park area, testing approaches that take advantage of their unique position of working both at the community and family level.

About the presenters

Mark Smith, Visiting Professor - Public Service Innovation, The Manchester Metropolitan University; Founding Consultant, Spiner247 Consulting Ltd

Mark has over 25 years’ experience in reforming public services, including nine years as a director for a local authority. His innovations around supporting people dealing with addiction and and/or trauma have led to transformative outcomes whilst consuming far fewer resources. As Director of Public Service Reform at Gateshead Council, Mark pioneered the Liberated Method, a relational approach that focusses on meeting people where they are and helping them build their path at their pace. It is deeply rooted in relational practice. This approach emphasizes building strong, meaningful relationships between public service providers, communities, and individuals.

Relational practice within the Liberated Method enables public services to be more responsive, adaptive, and tailored to the unique needs of diverse communities. It shifts the focus from transactional service delivery to one that nurtures connection, mutual respect, and shared responsibility, creating a foundation for sustainable and inclusive change. Through these relational bonds, the Liberated Method fosters a sense of ownership, empowerment, and collective action that truly transforms public services for the better. He is now combining academic work and independent consultancy in advising multiple community organisations and UK government agencies in their pursuit of public service reform. Mark Smith is a Partner in the Human Learning Systems Collaborative.

Beth Webster, Sunshine Expansion Coordinator, Anglicare WA

Beth hails from a background in Community and Youth Development, with a shift in recent years to the emerging field of relational practice. Raised in a military family who were always on the move, Beth has a lifetime of experience in building and nurturing relationships. Beth had the opportunity to put relationships at the heart of frontline work in her role prototyping the Sunshine Project, a relationship-centred family coaching model delivered in partnership with Anglicare WA and Ruah Community Services. Sunshine led to remarkable outcomes for families Beth supported as well as shifting her own perspective and practice. For Beth, there is no mission more important than creating the conditions for relationships to flourish.

Leigh Sinclair, Executive Director, Imagined Futures

Leigh is the Executive Director of Imagined Futures. Imagined Futures brings together over 70 not-for-profit and government agencies, as well as business, philanthropists, and community members to tackle complex social challenges. Over her career she has performed consultations, strategic planning, governance, research, and policy development roles as well as designing and delivering front line services. She has undertaken this work in government, non-government, and private sectors. Leigh jumped at the opportunity to put this breadth of experience into practice to facilitate cross-sector collaborative efforts to deliver the best results for the community.

About the Learning Network

The ChangeFest Learning Network is a regular opportunity for all of us across the ChangeFest Movement to share practice and learn, to connect and build, and to take a deep breath and reflect. It will provide us all with the space to listen and hear from each other in ways that will help us in our own work for community-led system change – whether it be in communities, government, large for purpose organisations and businesses.

This session is the second of our Lunchbox Sessions of the Learning Network in 2025. They are free and and provide opportunity to explore a story of community led change – and an opportunity to connect with each other across the ChangeFest Movement.

The sessions are designed as monthly lunchbox sessions (usually held from 12.30 – 2pm AEST), designed to be “easy for you to contribute, simple for us to hold, meaningful for us all to be part of.”    Each event will be free and provide opportunity to explore a story of community led change – and an opportunity to connect with each other across the ChangeFest Movement.

Contact the host of Learning Network - Lunchbox Session