Dumfries and Galloway Integration Joint Board

DUMFRIES AND GALLOWAY INTEGRATION JOINT BOARD

HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE

PARTICIPATION

AND

ENGAGEMENT STRATEGY

2016-2019

Contents / Page
Foreword from chair and vice chair of the Integration Joint Board /
3
Introduction / 4
Background / 5
Participation and engagement principles and definitions / 6
Development of this strategy / 8
Aims and objectives / 9
Supporting, monitoring and reviewing this strategy / 12
Appendices
1 – Nine national health and well-being outcomes
2 – National standards for community engagement / 13
14
3 - Dumfries and Galloway health and social care partnership stakeholders / 15
4 - Terms of reference for locality participation and engagement groups / 17
5 - Methods of participation and engagement / 20

Foreword from chair and vice chair of the Dumfries and Galloway Integration Joint Board

It is with great pleasure, and a high degree of personal commitment to this work, that we introduce this first Participation and Engagement Strategy for the Dumfries and Galloway Integration Joint Board (IJB).

The Strategy provides a framework for how we will involve people in the business of health and social care in Dumfries and Galloway. It sets out plainly, and clearly, the principles and objectives that will guide our work. While much of this can be seen as basic and fundamental for public services, that is exactly why we feel it is so important to put it in a Strategy document so there is no doubt at all about what we mean to do.

The delivery of the Strategy is of course even more important - we want there to be a real improvement in the way people can participate in decisions; the way we engage with people; and the way that you all contribute to health and social care planning and delivery. We will ensure that we monitor and report on participation and engagement activities so that we can ensure they are taking place and are effective.

Working together is the only way ahead and we have been impressed by the expertise and enthusiasm expressed during the development of the Strategy - by professionals; Carers; service users; and their friends and families; and by third sector organisations and individuals across the region - for improving our arrangements.

This is an exciting time for us all and by tapping into the energy and views of every person in our region we can shape responsive, effective and efficient health and social care together for our joint futures.

Councillor Jim Dempster Penny Halliday

Chair Vice Chair

D&G IJB D&G IJB

Introduction

Good participation and engagement are key to the successful planning and delivery of integrated health and social care and support. It ensures that decisions are informed by harnessing the knowledge and expertise of people in our communities.

The IJB is committed to ensuring local people and partner organisations are involved in the planning, design and development of services through participation and engagement.

The IJB recognises that our communities are diverse. To be inclusive, and to engage with members of our communities, the IJB recognises the need for sufficient time, focus and effort to be given to engagement activities. This will enable the use of, new and flexible approaches to reach those groups who may not traditionally readily engage but who have an important, valid and valued contribution to make.

The IJB is responsible for the development and implementation of a number of key documents including:

·  health and social care strategic plan

·  strategic needs assessment

·  locality plans

·  financial plan

·  equality outcomes framework document

·  performance management framework

·  workforce plan

·  clinical and care governance framework

·  participation and engagement strategy

·  risk strategy

·  statement of consultation

All of these documents must be in place for 1 April 2016.

This is the first participation and engagement strategy of the IJB. It is a 3 year strategy, 2016-2019, to complement the timing of the strategic commissioning cycle (which will include the review and revision of the key documents listed above).

Background

The Public Bodies (Joint Working) (Scotland) Act 2014 came into effect on 1 April 2014 requiring health boards and local authorities to integrate the planning and delivery of, some adult health and social care.

In response to this, an integration scheme, i.e. a document laying out the integration arrangements for the region, was developed for Dumfries and Galloway. This scheme establishes the IJB for Dumfries and Galloway. This body is now responsible for ensuring that health and social care providers and professionals work together to improve outcomes for people and, by doing this, give them a better experience of health and social care and support.

There are nine national health and well-being outcomes for health and social care, please see Appendix 1. These outcomes provide the focus for planning and delivery with the aim of improving people’s overall experience of health and social care and support.

Participation and engagement principles and definitions

The Dumfries and Galloway integration scheme sets out the principles for participation and engagement. These are:

·  work across organisational boundaries

·  inform, engage and respond to people and organisations as appropriate

·  recognise the importance of partnership and team working

·  work in a way that is inclusive and accessible

·  ensure that engagement and participation is open and transparent

·  respect people’s privacy, dignity and confidentiality

·  use modern methods of communication to ensure that the widest range of individuals and communities can participate

·  ensure that there are adequate resources allocated to this work, including staff with the necessary skills and confidence

·  ensure that engagement and participation work enables local people to influence the design and delivery of services and programmes

National standards for community engagement

The scheme also states that the IJB has adopted the national standards for community engagement (see Appendix 2). A supplementary document to the national standards, ‘The Remote and Rural Advice Note’ is particularly relevant to our local arrangements given the rurality of Dumfries and Galloway. The advice note can be viewed via this link http://www.scdc.org.uk/media/resources/what-we-do/national-standards/using_the_standards_in_rural_communities.pdf

Making difficult decisions

‘Making difficult decisions’ is an NHS Dumfries and Galloway standing operating procedure (SOP) that will be applied in each circumstance where a significant level of service change is being proposed. This process includes appropriate levels of consultation with relevant stakeholders.

Other key areas of consideration

The integration scheme also sets out key areas to consider in the participation and engagement strategy:

·  communication routes

·  hard to reach groups

·  plain English

·  training and development

·  public involvement panel (PIP)

·  community councils

·  locality and thematic partnerships

·  employee engagement

·  impact assessment

Definitions

Levels of engagement

·  information - providing information to people, communities, staff, groups and other key stakeholders

·  consultation - consulting people in relation to specified options or

·  engagement - a more open and equal relationship with key stakeholders which involves shared decision making and/or action.

Terms commonly used

In addition to above, other terms commonly used in relation to participation and engagement include:

·  participation – people being enabled and empowered to be involved in local decision making either in relation to themselves or their community. It involves recognising and harnessing individual’s knowledge and skills to contribute to personal or local issues

·  involvement – people and organisations who have an interest in the issue to be addressed will be actively identified and encouraged to be involved in participation and engagement activities

·  partnership – people and organisations come together to share ideas, pursue a common vision and work together to carry out what is agreed or achieve more effective outcomes than by working separately. Partnerships will be nurtured in all settings, for example actively encouraging partnerships between a patient and their consultant to promote inclusion of the patient in the decision making process around their care and treatment

·  co-production – goes a step further than partnership. It is where local people are central to decision making processes. People are able to influence the support and services they receive or when local people and organisations can come together to influence and shape the way services are designed and delivered. Within the co-production umbrella we find elements of engagement, participation, choice, control and involvement

·  communities – There are several different kinds of communities, these include geographical communities, cultural communities and communities of common interest

Development of this strategy

Linkage to other key strategic documents

The development of this strategy has been informed by a range of existing local plans relating to public involvement, participation and engagement. For example the strategic plan for health and social care and the single outcome agreement.

A desk based review of participation and engagement strategies in other health and social care partnerships across Scotland has also been undertaken. Good practice in other areas has been considered and where appropriate reflected in this strategy.

Participation and engagement strategy development group

In addition, expertise and advice was sought from local partners. A participation and engagement strategy development group was established with membership from:

·  The Scottish Health Council

·  NHS Dumfries and Galloway

·  Dumfries and Galloway Council

·  Third Sector, Dumfries and Galloway

·  Independent Sector, Dumfries and Galloway

Consultation on this strategy

This strategy was available for consultation via an online survey on the DG-Change website from 25th January 2016 to 12th February 2016. Stakeholders were also offered the opportunity to discuss the draft strategy with authors throughout this period. The views of the equality and diversity working group were sought at their meeting on 17th February 2016. Feedback received, responses to the comments and subsequent amendments can be found on the www.dg-change.org.uk webpage.

Impact Assessment

An impact assessment was undertaken, using the agreed toolkit and this identified 12 positive impacts (High - Health and wellbeing; and health inequalities; economic and social sustainability; Low - age; disability; sex; gender reassignment and transgender; race; religion or belief; sexual orientation; pregnancy and maternity; human rights; Environmental Sustainability, Climate Change and Energy Management) and 1 neutral impact (marriage and civil partnership) and 0 negative impacts. The summary can be found;

http://www.dumgal.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=12093

Equality monitoring

An equality monitoring form was made available for completion with the online consultation survey.

Agreement of this strategy

The participation and engagement strategy development group submitted the final draft of the strategy to the integration joint board for approval at the 17th March 2016 IJB Meeting.

Aims and objectives

Aims of participation and engagement

·  That the views, experiences and ideas of all our stakeholders will contribute to the planning and delivery of health and social care and meet the needs and aspirations of people in Dumfries and Galloway now and in the future

·  Involve people in developing and shaping the future of health and social care and support in their communities, working in partnership to inform thinking about new ways to achieve good outcomes for people

·  Ensure robust communication across the whole partnership to ensure people are well informed and aware of opportunities to contribute to the development of health and social care

·  Engage with people through a number of different routes to provide a range of opportunities to express views and opinions

·  Ensure that decisions are rooted in the expertise and experience of the people involved in making them

Objectives of this participation and engagement strategy

1.  To engage with people, communities and organisations that may have a view or opinion relating to the planning and delivery of health and social care and support in Dumfries and Galloway

2.  To communicate and engage with people through a number of different methods to provide a range of opportunities to express views

3.  To optimise the resources available for participation and engagement activity

4.  Monitor and report on the effectiveness of participation and engagement activity

Objective 1: To engage with people, communities and organisations that may have a view or opinion relating to the planning and delivery of health and social care and support in Dumfries and Galloway.

By following the national standards for community engagement we will identify and engage with the relevant stakeholders for any individual project or piece of work

The main stakeholders involved in health and social care in our region are identified in Appendix 3.

Hard to reach groups

We see an important role for the representative bodies of hard to reach groups, including people with protected characteristics’ minority communities, people experiencing poverty, those who have mental health conditions and Carers. We will use established groups and networks such as the strategic planning group, building healthy communities, advocacy services, health improvement teams, the community planning tackling poverty co-ordination group and the community planning equality and diversity working group.

We also recognise the necessity of addressing the challenges of reaching people working irregular working patterns, for example farming communities and shift workers.

Employee engagement

We have a good network of trades unions and staff groups in the statutory bodies involved in health and social care. Information sessions were and are still being delivered by the members of locality community and engagement group for the past year, and to date, these sessions have been delivered in all areas across the region at all times of the day and evening to accommodate as many staff as possible.

Locality participation and engagement groups

The establishment of locality participation and engagement groups for each of the four localities provides a strong focus for the participation and engagement of local people and community groups. Terms of reference for the groups have been developed (Appendix 4) and a particular point to note is the role of these four locality groups in providing local representatives for the public involvement panel (PIP).

Thematic partnerships

Thematic partnerships bring together relevant organisations working in specific specialist areas, for example, alcohol and drugs partnership. These will be helpful vehicles for bringing together communities of interest across all sectors. Linking with these across localities will be an important factor.