A clear role description will help you find the right people, explain what you need from them and help you manage their expectations when they do get involved. User involvement can be a new concept for service users and they may have the expectation that a ‘user group’ is about providing support or patient education.
Read an Example role description for a user group member (PDF) 125KB from NHS Lincolnshire. This also provides an opportunity to refine and agree what you want from the people who get involved. In our experience, it is one of the most important elements of successful involvement.
The terms of reference and role descriptions, they were fundamental to make it clear what it’s all about, that it’s not a support group. And that needs to be re-visited again and again.
Shona Brewster, NHS Lincolnshire Diabetes Project Manager
Shona Brewster (NHS Lincolnshire Diabetes Project Manager) explains the need for a robust recruitment and selection process: