Meeting Title:Joint Commissioning Group
Meeting Date:7th November 2011
Report Title:Service User Involvement
Report of:Nicola Grainger
- Introduction
The NHS Act 2006 states that there is an obligation to involve users when:-
- Planning the provision of services
- Developing or considering proposals for changes the way services are provided, if the implementation of the proposal would have an impact on the manner in which the service is delivered or the range of services available; and
- Making decisions that will impact on the operation of a service if it would have impact on the manner in which the service is delivered to users or the range of services available
Although there have been various service user groups established in Sunderland, in recent years there has not been a co-ordinated approach to ensure that the views of people accessing treatment services can be adequately heard and that this information is fed into strategic meetings and commissioning groups.
As such, this paper proposes that an involvement function is put in place for Sunderland.
2. Aims and Objectives of Service User Involvement
The involvement function will enable the purposeful engagementof service users in all stages of the commissioning cycle, including treatment re-design and procurement of new services. This includes informing commissioners and providers of the needs and concerns of service users accessing treatment and providing objective feedback on service users’ satisfaction with local provision. This will include:
- Supporting review of existing services and providing information on what is working well and what may need to be changed
- Having input to design of services and bringing the opinions of services users to those processes
- Helping to assessneed and decide priorities alongside commissioners by providing a user led view of the recovery journey
- Assessing whether service users have a range of treatment options as recommended by NICE
- Challenging assumptions about priorities that may have been defined by government targets and partner agencies by involving service user to help deliver innovative and recovery focused services
- Participate in commissioning processes by assisting commissioners in the development of service specifications for tenders
- To contribute the views of service users view to commissioning plans
- Indentify and inform commissioners and providers of barriers to individuals’ recovery
- Promoting and empowering service users to work towards recovery
- Engaging hard to reach groups and marginalized members of society to ensure that heir voice are heard
- To co-ordinate service users support groups to ensure all service users have a voice which is independent of both commissioners and providers
- Budget
A budget has been identified within the current alcohol allocation which would allow costs of up to £25,000 for an annual period to support the provision of the involvement function.
- Options
In the short term there are threeoptions:
- Do nothing - this option would lead to limited consultation with service users on the future commissioning of treatment services in Sunderland.
- Extend the contract of a current treatment provider host the function – this would be achievable very quickly, though would reduce objectivity as there is a risk that commissioners would gain the views from one treatment provider rather than all commissioned services
- Open the provision of the function to the market using a tender process and excluding current providers of substance misuse treatment in Sunderland – this would take some time, though it would allow the fair assessment of potential host organizations to establish good standing etc. It would also ensure that the role is independent from all commissioned providers and the views of services users will be heard from the treatment system as a whole.
It is requested that the JCG consider the proposals for provision of Service User Involvement and make recommendations for future commissioning arrangements.
Nicola Grainger
Joint Commissioning Officer
November 2011