Public and Patient Participation is about helping our service users and their families and carers to have a say in how we deliver high quality services across the Trust. But more than that, it is also about working together so that we can offer a better service for everyone.
At Wirral Community Health & Care NHS Foundation Trust we offer two public participation groups.
Your Voice
The Your Voice Group represents the voice of our community as the Trust’s main community participation group. The purpose of the group is to create opportunities for people who access our services and the wider communities, to share their experiences, ideas and possible solutions, helping to drive forward learning within the Trust to support how services can be developed and improved.
The group provides a friendly and safe environment for members to share their experiences and an understanding of common issues affecting local people in relation to services provided by the Trust. Through ‘Your Voice’ we create an opportunity to listen and learn from our communities ensuring we continue to deliver inclusive high-quality care for everyone.
Diversity within the group is important to us and we very much want to hear the voices of people from underrepresented communities, for example people with long term conditions or disabilities, people from Black, Asian or Other minority ethnic communities and people from the LGBTQ+ community. Having a range of perspectives and lived experience within the groups helps us to ensure we are getting it right for everyone.
The Your Voice group is made up of:
• members of the public – this can be current or previous service users , or simply people who have an interest in getting involved.
• public governors
• social care service users
• a mix of Trust staff
The purpose of the group is to:
• Help us with the design of materials and information we provide to the public
• Join in conversations about our future and plans and where we can improve
• Work with us do make sure our services are fair, equal and inclusive of everybody
• Celebrate our achievements and goals with us
• Improve the experiences of people receiving care from the Trust
• Support the development and implementation of an effective Trust Membership Strategy
Not only is being part of either of our Public Participation Groups a great opportunity to have your say and contribute to the effective delivery of NHS services, it also offers:
Benefits to you:
• Pride in helping to steer your local NHS Trust
• Feel part of the solution
• Meet like-minded people
• Celebrate our achievements and goals with us
• Feel your contribution and feedback is valued and heard
• Improve experiences of care for others, including friends, family and loved ones
• Opportunity to gain knowledge and experience of being part of an NHS organisation
• Volunteering and / or future career opportunities
• Opportunities to join Trust events and networks
• Get together at meetings
• NHS discounts and benefits
• Newsletters and updates to keep in touch and form part of our feedback networks
The Your Voice group gets together every other month (bi monthly) and sessions take place during the daytime or evenings, helping to make sure people with different lifestyles and commitments can get involved. Currently we are meeting online using MS Teams.
INVOLVE
The INVOLVE Group launched in January 2019 as a subgroup of Your Voice to ensure we listened and learnt from the voice of young people across our growing communities, in order to develop and sustain services that support the health and wellbeing of young people.
We have over 50 active participants, aged 13-19, from across Wirral, Cheshire East, St Helens and Knowsley. The group also meet (virtually) bi-monthly, but stay connected on a regular basis through WhatsApp and other social media platforms.
The group offers young people the opportunity to work with NHS services, whilst receiving great experience and developmental opportunities.
The purpose of the group is to improve access to services and improve the experiences for young people and their families by:
• identifying opportunities for the group to discuss and share views on services and projects
• contributing to the planning of services across the Trust that provide care for children and young people
• empowering young people and ensuring they feel valued and listened to
• involving our young people in shaping the future of our services
• presenting the views of our young people to the Board and Commissioners, helping inform service development
• encouraging members to act as a link between our services and our communities, capturing the views of our diverse populations with consideration to equality and diversity and improving awareness of our services across Wirral, Cheshire East, St Helens and Knowsley.
The meetings are informal, interactive and fun. Hear from some of our current group members and their experiences (video coming soon).
If you are interested in being part of our Your Voice or Involve group please complete the joining form and return to: wchc.yourvoice@nhs.net or get in touch for a chat and find out more about how you can be part of something really rewarding.
On the form we ask some questions about you to help us make sure our group is inclusive, diverse and representing our populations and communities. This helps us in ‘getting it right for everyone’. If there are some questions you don’t wish to answer that is fine too.
