We’re delighted to announce details of our July Masterclass taking place on Tuesday 28th July, 3.30-5pm. Pathway Fellow Gill Taylor will share the preliminary findings from her Churchill Fellowship research into harm reduction as safeguarding for people experiencing homelessness and social exclusion.

Gill’s research explores the connection between harm reduction, safeguarding and
inclusion health with a focus on supporting individuals who experience self-neglect
and face severe drug-related risks and harms.

Drawing learning from a 6-week field trip in Canada where harm reduction approaches are mature and embedded, Gill’s research will explore the argument that harm reduction principles and practices present a key safeguarding opportunity to prevent premature deaths and improve wellbeing for inclusion health groups.

The Masterclass will consider the specific ways homelessness, social care and
inclusion health services can embed harm reduction principles and ways of working
to improve health & wellbeing outcomes. Attendees will be invited to comment on the opportunities identified through Gill’s research and to suggest knowledge and
resource gaps that this research could meaningfully begin to fill, with a focus on
opportunities in neighbourhood health and integrated multi-agency practice. The
discussion will inform the final stage of Gill’s work to develop practical resources for
local systems.

Speaker Biography

Gill Taylor is a Safeguarding Adult Review author, independent researcher and systems change facilitator with 20 years’ experience working in homelessness for statutory and voluntary organisations.

Gill’s work sits at the intersection of exclusion and injustice, with a strong focus on
preventing the harms and premature deaths that disproportionately affect
marginalised communities. She works independently, supporting organisations
nationally and internationally to move towards systems change through creative
commissioning strategies, collaborative learning and evaluation projects, and
practice improvement initiatives that centre lived experience.

Gill is also the Strategic Lead for the Museum of Homelessness Dying
Homelessness Project and recently published the Radical Safeguarding Toolkit –
Homelessness.

In Summer 2025, in collaboration with OHID, Gill launched an Inclusion Health
Safeguarding Self-Assessment Tool as part of a suite of resources designed to
support ICSs in their work tackling health inequalities affecting inclusion health
groups. For more information about the tool and how to use it, please contact Gill via
gill.taylor@pathway.org.uk.

In June 2025, Gill was awarded a Churchill Fellowship which will give her the
opportunity to explore pioneering approaches to street-based healthcare and harm
reduction, via field research in Canada. She is hoping to learn about how initiatives,
like overdose prevention centres, have been designed, commissioned and delivered
to prevent homeless deaths and safeguard people from the diverse harms
surrounding drug dependency.

Her hope is that the Fellowship will contribute meaningfully to ongoing efforts to
prevent drug-related deaths, by unlocking opportunities for adult safeguarding.
Gill is also a Pathway Fellow providing expertise on system transformation in
homelessness, safeguarding and inclusion health.