Agenda item

            The Committee endorsed the undernoted response to the above-mentioned consultation:

“1.1         Overall comments

1.1.1     The Council is supportive of the draft strategy. The Council is developing its own Community Development Strategy and frameworks on consultation and engagement and these will have many areas in common with this strategy and HSCNI’s own Community Development Strategy. Consequently we will be watching your progress with interest and would be keen to continue to share learning as the strategies progress.

1.2Responses to the specific questions

1.2.1        1. Have we made it clear what Personal and Public Involvement is, what benefits it can bring and why we think it is important?

1.2.2        Generally yes and we think the simplified ‘Easy to Read’ guide is a useful product that also demonstrates your commitment to some of the principles of public involvement. We do wonder though if some reference to the Community Development strategy you are developing should also be made. We assume that any community development work will also involve personal and public involvement.

1.2.3        2. We identified six priority areas to take PPI forward. Are there other areas that you think we should consider?

1.2.4        No the list seems to cover all the necessary areas to incorporate the approach.

1.2.5        3. The detailed recommendations under each key area will form the basis of the actions we need to take to deliver on these areas. Do you think that they will help us do that? Are there other things we need to do?

1.2.6        Cultural integration – there does not appear to be anything at the individual level to encourage this other than the inclusion in job descriptions. We are not convinced that including it in the job description will have much effect especially on existing staff. It may be worth considering other mechanisms such as including it in staff personal

      development reviews (PDR), highlighting good examples internally, or having an award each year for the person who most embodies the approach. It would also be worth reviewing existing KPIs to make sure they do not discourage PPI behaviour, for example, avoiding the mistake organisations make when they introduce new customer service or quality commitments but still measure staff performance against indicators that demand fast throughput.

1.2.7        Training – we would be very keen to hear about your approach to training the general public and wonder if there may be opportunities to share experiences and even offer joint sessions once we are in a position to roll out our Community Development Strategy. We also wonder if there may be opportunities for staff exchanges, job shadowing or similar once both strategies are established. Our only query about this section is whether the strategy needs to spell out the time and resource that will be needed to ensure proper training can be given. A lack of training in a new approach is one of the most common causes of failure.

1.2.8        Impact Measurement – see previous comments about including PPI in staff PDRs.

1.2.9        Stakeholder support and Communications – see previous comments about sharing experiences in this area.

1.2.10      Action Plan – The Action plan appears to be incorporating two stages into one. That is the first implementation stage (2011/12) and then the ongoing cementing of the approach (beyond 2011/12). We wonder if it may be sensible to split these two stages in the plan. The first stage would have specific deliverables list for 2011/12 and target dates. It would not need any other KPIs (the review of progress column) other than these target dates. The resources section of the first stage could also be more detailed with specific budgets allocated.

1.2.11      The plan may also benefit from a communication strategy appended to it. This would identify key audiences, key messages and the methods to be used to ensure the latter are understood by the former. Though we appreciate that, as communications was one of your six themes, it may have been your attention to have these communication actions included in the main part of the Action Plan. Finally

      an outline risk assessment of what may cause the programme to fail may be considered. Though we would recommend that this only be used to helpfully check the robustness of the plan and not be allowed to become another plan in its own right.

1.2.12      4. Can you identify any outcomes that will demonstrate how PPI has made a difference in health and social care?

1.2.13      The new Belfast Health and Development Unit, on which the Council partners with the Public Health Agency and the Belfast Trust has a core focus on using community engagement as part of its work. The unit is relatively new, but we would expect that it will soon be able to demonstrate how engagement/PPI has made a difference to the impact of its work.

1.2.14      5. Have you any examples of good practice in PPI at any level that you would be willing to share with us for possible inclusion in the strategy?

1.2.15       http://www.localinnovation.idea.gov.uk/idk/

      core/page.do?pageId=17449367

1.2.16      http://www.localinnovation.idea.gov.uk/idk/core/

      page.do?pageId=17451914

1.2.17      http://www.localinnovation.idea.gov.uk/idk/core/

      page.do?pageId=17449452

1.2.18      http://www.localinnovation.idea.gov.uk/idk/core/

      page.do?pageId=17632232

1.2.19      http://www.idea.gov.uk/idk/core/page.do?

          pageId=16639499

1.2.20     http://www.idea.gov.uk/idk/core/page.do?pageId=11215972

1.2.21      6. Is there any area of the strategy that could be improved/needs further explanation? If so, please tell us about it.

1.2.22      Nothing other than the points already mentioned.

1.2.23      7. The PPI strategy has been equality screened. The results of the screening are available for you to consider. We have concluded that the strategy promotes equality and human rights. What do you think? Are there other actions we should consider including?

1.2.24      No comment.”