The project ran from October 2009 through to April 2011. The project sites were able to identify where users had already had a major influence on services and/ or the views of staff in their organisations. However, many of the impacts will be seen in the longer term. At all three sites, staff have become more supportive of user involvement and expect to see users involved in different forums. In each of the project sites, service users have had an impact on decision-making boards.
In addition, all group members have also developed in confidence and knowledge over this first year, and thus increased their capacity to get involved in decision-making and to have influence. This highlights the importance of informing and supporting groups to increase their capacity to engage.
NHS Hammersmith and Fulham
NHS Lincolnshire
North Mersey Diabetes Network
The future
The three groups are well established and are being sustained beyond the life of the project:
- In Hammersmith & Fulham the user group have a clear route forward to influence in a wide range of settings, with funding for expenses and a facilitator.
- In North Mersey Diabetes Network, there is funding for the user group’s expenses and the group members are in demand to participate in decisions about diabetes services in the new PCT cluster and on the QIPP steering group.
- In NHS Lincolnshire, funding is available for the user involvement group, who have started to participate in working with the GP clusters in Lincolnshire.