This resource is designed to be a simple guide to involving people living with diabetes for the first time in your organisation.

If you commission diabetes care, it can help you:

• decide what you want to achieve by involving people
• prepare your organisation to involve
• plan your approach
• learn from the experience of other healthcare professionals.  

If you provide diabetes care, it can help you by thinking about who you can work with to help you:

• understand your patient’s experience
• help shape the service you provide
• better engage your patients.

If you are going to coordinate user involvement, it can help you:

• think about who you might work with
• give you practical suggestions about planning and delivering involvement through a series of guides
• provide resources that you can adapt for your own needs
• plan to evaluate the involvement activity and its impact.

Although this resource does not outline detailed facilitation approaches or techniques, it does include practical tips, examples from practice, case studies, quotes from healthcare professionals and resources based on the User Involvement team’s work with a wide range of NHS organisations.