It’s about getting involved in YOUR Health Service

 PARTNERS IN CHANGE

Partners in Change is a programme of national and local projects designed to promote the involvement of patients throughout the NHS in Scotland. It was outlined in the Health Plan which was launched in December 2000. By early 2002, there will be at least one Partners in Change project in each Health Board area in Scotland.

During 2001 a development project will help people in local areas plan for their projects. The development project includes:

· getting to know what is already happening in the NHS and related settings to involve people in planning and providing services

· identifying the areas that people are finding difficult

· sharing experience and ideas

· be a resource, for example by developing practical materials and tools to help people get more involved in local and national health care planning

· work with local people across Scotland to involve patients in issues that affect many parts of the country, such as cancer screening

· partnership work with other organisations which want to extend or promote opportunities for participation

· making links with innovative ways to involve people that are being developed in other policy areas or places.

The core project team is drawn from people who are being seconded from a range of NHS settings and people who have worked on other capacity building programmes. People who come from a user/patient background and people from other health care, social work and voluntary settings will be joining the team for particular pieces of work, and additional work is being contracted from relevant organisations.

During June - December there are 3 strands to the work programme:

· work to help Health Boards and other local organisations, such as the meetings packs

· the Finding Out Weeks

· work on national issues and small pilot projects.

The national issues are situations where it is helpful to develop new ways of working in partnership with people and to gather ideas on matters that are a priority for many Health Board areas. The work will take place in a few local areas, but become available to staff and patient groups throughout Scotland. Examples of areas currently planned or getting underway are:

- ways of involving children and young people

- women’s ideas on ways to encourage uptake of breast and cervical cancer screening and support around good health

- joint work with the Clinical Standards Board on the experience of people who have had strokes and their views on good quality services

- piloting ways to draw in the capacity of communities.

 

The Finding Out Weeks will involve a series of discussions with people about health related matters, and especially how they could raise those views and ideas to make things better. Team members will work with local people throughout the Health Board area during the week, and the ideas will be brought together at an open event at the end of the week.

The Finding Out Weeks are designed to help by:

- complementing existing ways to identify issues that are priorities for local people

- encouraging people to think about the factors that influence well being (social networks, environment and people’s own actions) and how these can be extended

- stimulating ideas for possible solutions

- bringing together the information

- developing ways of engaging with local people that draw in a wider range of people and views, and that can supplement more conventional forms of consultation

- extending the skills of those people who join the project team: in each area some 10-20 people (patients/public and staff) will work with the team during the week

- there will also be further opportunities for a few people to join the team for the Finding Out Week in another area.

The aim is to develop the Finding Out Week in partnership with the Health Board, NHS providers, the Health Council, the local authority and voluntary organisations.

It is expected that these people and organisations will want to take on any issues and ideas raised though the Week as part of the usual on-going planning and service improvement agenda. Initial discussions with people in local areas across Scotland as part of the planning stage of the project suggest that some of the ideas raised can be actioned fairly quickly with few resource implications, while others will become part of joint planning or of improvements or service redesigns that are already being considered.

The Week in highland is the first one, and it will also help us develop this approach.

For the Health Board and other services in Highland, we hope the main benefits will be:

- additional information about the matters people across the area think are important

- ideas that might form the basis of service improvements or on-going partnerships

- local experience of a wider range of approaches to engaging with patients and/or the public, which can be adapted for future use.

For the people who are on the extended team, we hope the benefits will include:

- personal development

- exposure to new ideas and methods around participation

- contacts with a wider range of people in that area who are likely future supports and allies around participation and service improvements.

For the people we meet, we hope the benefits will be:

- making contact with other people from across Highland who share an interest in people becoming more involved and in new approaches to services and support

- encouragement and ideas on how to take forward issues that are important to them.

For the Partners in Change project the benefits from the pilot Week will be:

- learning how to undertake this aspect of the work

- identifying areas where people would find other supports or resources useful

- extending our knowledge of examples of good practice in involvement.

 

Partners in Change