Making sure that the public and communities can have their say about health services and are able to influence service improvement is an important part of the NHS. Over the next few months, we will be telling you about some examples of positive engagement activity in Southampton. This month, we are reporting on the work of Solent NHS Trust.
SOLENT NHS TRUST COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
Solent NHS Trust has been running a series of online community conversations to actively listen to what matters to people and help the Trust plan its future community engagement strategy. The Trust is building a network of Community Partners, which is open anyone who wants to work with and influence the direction of this NHS Trust.
What is a Solent Community Partner?
Community Partners are members of the local Community made up of Voluntary, Charitable, Patient Representatives and NHS representatives, whom share knowledge, skills and expertise with each other to improve the experience of care and reduce health inequalities for our local areas. Would you like to be a Community Partner?
To join this growing network of people interested in health, contact: CommunityEngagementandExperienceTeam@solent.nhs.uk
Community Engagement Approach
Before lockdown, in early 2020, Solent started reviewing its community engagement approach. From the first Community Partner event in January, it was clear that people wanted more ways to get together for conversation, share stories and together work towards meaningful change to improve people’s health. Since then, there has been a series of smaller workshops to learn from people’s experience of health during Covid19. There are also other projects with a community theme, as reported in this June 2020 Engage Solent online book.
More information about Solent’s approach to community engagement can be found in this July 2020 Healthwatch Southampton news article here.
Solent NHS Trust is developing the Our Community section of its website, so watch this space for information and updates.
Solent NHS trust hosted an online event on 31 July 2020, with three key areas explored:
- Building trust
- Sharing knowledge
- Next steps
The event was designed to give everyone a chance to speak, so instead of having a series of presentations, it was based on small-group workshops. The attendees (totalling 50 people) were divided into groups of about 6 people, so that people could talk in more detail about community engagement and how this can be done effectively. There were three separate sessions. At the end of each session, the key points were summarised by the group facilitator to all the attendees.
Solent NHS Trust are taking this information from the event and other discussions and turning it into their community engagement strategy for the next 5 years.
OUTCOMES FROM THE DISCUSSIONS
A report of the meeting is available here:
Snapshot Feedback Engagement Event 31st July
KEY LEARNING FROM COMMUNITY PARTNER PRIORITIES
The following is a summary of the key points that came from this event.
Community engagement needs to be based on action. It must not be all talk, but people need to see that things are happening and health services are improving as a result.
Communication needs to be better. Information about services needs to be accessible and presented in an interesting and friendly way.
Working together needs approaches that build positive relationships. Generally the idea of ‘meetings’ is not universally popular as they can be dry. However, community conversations are important, enabling people to meet as equals, to share knowledge and information and together find ways to make improvements. The focus should be on connecting people and enabling discussions in ways that people find welcoming, engaging and purposeful.
More clarity is needed about the health services that are available. People are confused about which NHS Trust offers which health service. There is also a wealth of community-based charities, social enterprises and groups. It is hard to know who is doing what. Many organisations try and share information, including Southampton Information Directory (SID) but there are issues around providing current comprehensive information. Who is responsible for gathering information about different services presenting it in a way that is accessible to the public AND ensuring it is up-to-date?
Ensuring continuation of care is important, with better communication between different health services, between health and social care, when patients get passed from one service to another. Again, there is a sense that health services themselves aren’t knowledgeable about other commissioned health services or community-based support that may be available to their patients.
More work is needed to bridge the gap between individuals, communities and health providers. Heath services like Solent NHS Trust need to come out into the community to talk to people and support their health needs. There needs to be better understanding of the important role that community organisations do to help individuals navigating health issues. Social prescribers, such as the Southampton’s SO:Linked community navigation service, and the work of Local Solutions groups and Primary Care Clusters and Networks have an important role in this respect.
Health prevention is important, so people aren’t needing NHS services.This remains a really important part of community, voluntary, charitable and social enterprise activity.
Funding and commissioning plays an important role. Large NHS trusts working alongside small community groups, all of which need resources of different types. It is important that equal working relationships are created.
Being visible and accountable. Making sure actions are visible and NHS organisations such as Solent NHS Trust are accountable for their work, including how they engage with the community around the issues mentioned.
NEXT STEPS
The next Solent NHS Trust Community Partners event is on 8 September at 1pm.
To join this event email CommunityEngagementandExperienceTeam@solent.nhs.uk
Here at Healthwatch Southampton, we will monitor progress and keep you updated.
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