Engaging and involving local people, communities and stakeholders
What are our overall aims by 2028?
Involvement functions and networks across the ICS connect through a single ICS Involvement Network and work cohesively with each other and our population to support the ICB and the Integrated Care Partnership (‘ICP’) to deliver the vision set out in our Integrated Care Strategy.
Involvement functions across the health and care system support the ICB and partner organisations to ensure that appropriate public involvement or consultation is embedded in all aspects of their work, and involvement activities are delivered in line with best practice and relevant statutory duties
A range of routes are available and clearly communicated for individuals and communities to be involved in the governance of different parts of the ICS and the work of the ICB, the ICP and individual partner organisations.
Culturally competent health and care services are co-produced with the communities who use them and communicated effectively, resulting in improved experiences and increased trust in the health and care system.
What’s our starting point?
Across our system, partner organisations have developed strong community links and relationships. There are many examples of best practice and innovation in relation to engagement and involvement, as well as successful models involving collaboration across partners within each of our Places.
Historically, however, there has been no overarching system approach to engagement and involvement, and no mechanism for sharing insight across partners. Neither is there any formal co-ordination of engagement activities, raising the risk of engagement fatigue when communities are approached multiple times to share their experiences and insight on similar issues.
The Coventry and Warwickshire Communities Strategy was developed in 2022 through the leadership of a dedicated Involvement Working Group and engagement across system partners. The Strategy will provide the framework for partners to work together to deliver the aims set out above – key amongst them developing more collaborative and co-ordinated approaches to engagement and involvement at all levels of our system.
What are some of the key links to other parts of the plan?
Reflecting the vision in our Integrated Care Strategy to ‘put people at the heart of everything we do’ engagement and involvement activities will be delivered in support of the different priority areas described in this document throughout the 5 year plan period. The priorities themselves were developed through engagement with local people and communities.
Health Inequalities – building relationships with and involving groups and communities that are most impacted by health and wider inequalities will continue to be a high priority. Working through, and with, community representative partners such as Voluntary, Community, Faith and Social Enterprise Sector (‘VCFSE Sector’) leaders and organisations will be central to our approach.
System Transformation– through our Collaboratives, Places and PCNs engagement and involvement activity will be happening at a more local level, meaning that people will be able to input on issues directly relevant to them, and there will be more opportunity to build trust and for organisations to clearly demonstrate the difference that involvement makes.
What will we be focusing on in the next 2 years?
Establishing an ICS Involvement Network to bring together specialists responsible for involvement and engagement activity from across health and care and other key partner organisations.
Through the ICS Involvement Network:
- Developing and delivering an engagement programme to co-produce a set of principles to describe what good involvement looks like with our local communities and workforce, building on best practice principles, the Good Engagement Charter produced by local Healthwatch organisations and any relevant work already undertaken by partners or in our Places;
- Co-producing an Involvement Framework which defines how different organisations and parts of our health and care system will work together to deliver the local involvement principles and relevant statutory duties. Engaging Care Collaboratives and Places in this work;
- Assessing our progress and identifying areas for development and associated actions against the 10 principles for working with people and communities set out in statutory guidance;
- Mapping engagement and involvement activity and assets across the system to reduce duplication and identify gaps, including against Core20PLUS5 cohorts;
- Defining the tools that are needed to embed positive on-going involvement;
- Driving cultural change by supporting system leaders to champion the value of involvement to the wider workforce;
- Establishing an agreed approach to sharing insight generated through involvement and engagement activities across system partners, including exploring the development of a single or linked repository of all insight;
- Establishing an agreed approach across system partners to any other key areas which would benefit from a common approach.
Continuing to work with our two local Healthwatch organisations and the VCFSE Sector as key partners – focusing on developing routes to support the participation of VCFSE Sector partners in co-production, decision making and governance at all levels of the system.
VCFSE partnership is embedded in how the ICS operates and the VCFSE Sector is a key strategic partner supporting the delivery of the priorities shared across the Coventry and Warwickshire Integrated Care Strategy and this plan, including through:
- Continuing to engage with and involve the VCFSE Sector to gain their insights and perspectives on how to collaborate together on activity and understand the utilisation of resources at system, Place and neighbourhood levels;
- Working collaboratively to design a network/alliance framework for working with the VCFSE Sector across a geographical area;
- Piloting the framework in selected areas, testing through doing.
- Evaluating the effectiveness of the framework, using feedback from the VCFSE Sector, health and care commissioners and provider organisations to make adjustments as needed and ensure continuous improvement.
Working collaboratively with the ICB People Function to ensure that local organisational development approaches support clinical, health and care professionals and staff to develop skills and experience around engagement and involvement.
Working with the ICB PHM Business Intelligence Function to develop how we use insight from public engagement and involvement, alongside other analysis and evidence, as part of the local development of PHM.
Scoping the development of a system level Patient Experience Network to have a specific focus on individual patient experience and support broader quality governance arrangements (see Section [TBC]).
Delivering engagement and involvement activity related to the priorities of the ICP and the ICB as reflected in the Integrated Care Strategy and this plan.
Building understanding and trust by providing clear and accessible public information about the vision, plans and progress of the ICP and the ICB via the ICS website.
Demonstrating the impact of engagement and involvement, including through a dedicated ‘You said, we did’ section of the ICS website.
Key Challenges
Lack of trust in the NHS and wider services means that people are less likely to engage as they believe their voice will not be listened to and they will be unable to effect change for their communities.
Developing the new ICS Involvement Network will take significant time both in organisation and participation, which will need to happen in addition to the day jobs of the individuals involved. The Network will be the delivery engine for development of the structures to put people at the heart of everything that we do across the ICS. Without active input from individuals across the ICS it will not be possible to deliver meaningful change and there will be an impact on the ability of the ICB to deliver on its statutory obligations against NHS England’s 10 principles of involvement. Resources will need to be committed from all participating organisations in order to successfully develop the Network.
Coventry and Warwickshire has a large and divergent VCFSE Sector and communities that are characterised by diversity. There are hundreds of VCSE and faith organisations across Coventry and Warwickshire of varying sizes and focus that are playing a crucial role in understanding, championing and supporting the needs of our communities. We acknowledge that there is a challenge in maximising the involvement of the VCFSE Sector in the transformational agenda of the ICS and that this is not solely about engagement, it is about developing a collaborative framework that includes involvement, co-production and moving away from traditional power bases and responsibilities.
Key Metrics and Deliverables
ICS Involvement Network established by Q2 2023/24.
Local involvement principles developed by Q2 2023/24.
Involvement Framework developed by Q3 2023/24.
Mapping of engagement and involvement activity completed by Q2 2023/24.
Engagement and involvement activity to support the priorities of the ICB and ICB:
Across 2022/23 the ICB Communications and Engagement Team undertook extensive activities to support the delivery of the priorities of the ICB and ICP. A detailed list of those priorities and the role of involvement can be found in the Communities Strategy and on the ICS website. Our focus was on engagement to inform and co-produce the Integrated Care Strategy, winter and system pressures, vaccination and other more localised campaigns. This work will continue into 2023/24, responding to the three strategic priorities in the Integrated Care Strategy and this plan, and the feedback from the engagement on both documents.