News
Latest news
Read the latest news and updates at the North London NHS Foundation Trust.
“Our voices are being heard” – how service users are helping shape better care planning across North London
Being involved in decisions about your own care can make a significant difference to recovery and wellbeing. Yet many people still feel excluded from conversations about the support they receive.
A new care planning service user reference group at North London NHS Foundation Trust is working to change that, bringing together service users, carers and staff to improve care planning through coproduction.
Coproduction is when people with lived experience work alongside staff as equal partners to design, improve and evaluate services.
When Diane felt excluded from decisions about her own care, she decided to get involved to help improve the system for others.
“I hadn’t been involved in the sense that I haven’t had access to my care plan, and there had been discussions that’s not really involved me, so I’d come out the meeting thinking what was all this about? I feel I can make a difference. The group energises me, and I believe that our voices are being heard and through coproduction, changes will take place,” said Diane.
The group’s work reflects a growing national focus on personalised care and patient involvement. The government’s 10 Year Health Plan highlights the importance of listening to patients and integrating care around their needs. However, research from the Nuffield Trust suggests that around one in ten patients still feel they are not involved in decisions about their care and treatment.
Care plans are personalised agreements between service users and their healthcare and social care providers, detailing the support that people need to manage their health and recover.
The value of co-production
The new care planning group has been meeting since February, working to establish a firm foundation to build the group on. So far, they’ve been developing clear principles of what makes quality care planning from a service user and carer perspective, and quality improvement (QI) tools like a fishbone exercise to map out what might be some of the root causes of poor care planning.
“Coproduction helps staff see past our blind spots,” said Cerdic Hall, Head of Recovery, Involvement and Engagement, who is part of the group.
“When you hear directly from service users about not being able to access their care plans or feeling excluded from decisions, it becomes clear why their involvement is essential to improving services.”
Diane found out about this group through the trust’s service user involvement register – a register of nearly 300 service users, sometimes known as service user or carer representatives, who have signed up to help inform services using their lived experience.
The group has already identified opportunities to improve how care plans are shared with service users, ensure information remains accurate and up to date, and help staff strengthen conversations about care planning.
Asked how the group will make sure that their work translates into real, tangible improvements for service users, Neha, quality improvement advisor at the Trust, said that using a QI approach will ensure that changes are tested and data driven.
“We use the five stages of quality improvement as our approach. It starts by ensuring the right people are on board, then taking time to truly understand the problem, set an aim and link it to measures. Change ideas are tested using structured plans, do, study, act cycles, before the successful ones are embedded and sustained over time.”
Cerdic said the group is keen to share learning and ensure that it feeds into other QI initiatives happening within the organisation and across North London. They’ve already started meeting with other similar service user groups in North London, and he’s calling on staff and other groups working on care plan initiatives to get in touch so that they can share learning and collaborate.
Anyone wanting to get in touch with the group can do so by emailing cerdic.hall1@nhs.net.
“We want to be a part of all those conversations so that care planning has common principles led by lived experience,” said Cerdic.
For Diane, the group’s work represents more than service improvement – it’s about making sure people feel heard, respected and involved in decisions that affect their lives.
“Care plans should be personalised, holistic and shaped by the person receiving care,” she said. “That’s what we’re working towards.”
To join the service user involvement register please sign up on our website.
