The purpose of this report is to provide the committee with information relating to the intentions of Herefordshire Clinical Commissioning Group to undertake a county-wide public engagement programme relating to community health provision. 

The director of operations, Herefordshire Clinical Commissioning Group, presented the slides (appendix a), making the following key points:

•      The intended approach to engagement was informed by feedback from engagement work carried out by Healthwatch.

•      The vision was to empower patients to access the right care in the right place at the right time. This was represented in diagrammatic form as a blue print model which would be a talking point during engagement with communities. The blue print model was designed to show how support should begin within communities, around the person, with short-term specialist services reaching in.  It sought to ensure all services used the same language and shifted to an integrated approach.

•      The scope for engagement was wide, with top level strategic engagement and primary care working together to ensure that services were appropriate for managing both physical and mental health care needs. Engagement processes differed for urban and rural areas, with differing priorities and solutions, so the intention was to focus on localities.  

•      It was recognised that the distinction between engagement and consultation was not clear to everyone, so this had been explained in presentations. However, the patient story was the key and the critical point was for people to be able to tell the CCG about their experiences and whether they are getting access to the right support. Some sessions included one to one conversations to talk about specific issues and other approaches were more collective.

•      A key emerging theme was that people wanted help to remain as well as possible; the Healthwatch engagement was helping to draw out themes which were published online and would be used to feed back to communities and encourage further engagement.

•      There were various approaches to reaching communities including social media, although some aspects of this needed refining to ensure it was locality focused. 

•      A number of future events were arranged and details were on the ‘your conversation’ website. There was encouragement for communities and individuals to spread the word and members were asked to suggest other groups.  This approach was intended to identify some firm proposals for consultation and it was hoped that these would reflect back in the consultations so that people could recognise them.

Members made a number of observations and suggestions for developing the engagement during the presentation. These included:

•      That the pathways and support for people could be expanded and further examples made available so that people were better informed to know that they were receiving appropriate care and support for their condition. It was noted that not all people understood the various care pathways, such and what happens between seeing a GP and attending hospital and what support is available in the community, including the signposting role of WISH.

•      That the local radio such as BBC Hereford and Worcester would be an effective way of reaching people, such as through a phone-in session which would encourage engagement of people who did not use online social media or who were unable to attend events. 

•      Rural areas were notably difficult to get to, but events in these localities could be promoted via parish councils for example through their magazines or websites. So far it was felt that the engagement had been very low key and that more could be made of existing meetings or groups within localities.  Officers added that these were a target group and there were links already made with library focus groups and patient participation groups, with which there was an ongoing relationship.

•      A further suggestion for reaching people was to set up a presence in supermarket foyers. Officers Recognised that more was required to engage with different parts of the community and confirmed that there were pop-up events coming up which also included GP practices and surveys. Groups were welcome to promote their services and activities at the same time as this would encourage community self-help. There were other hard to reach groups and individuals and the right approach was being considered in conjunction with Healthwatch.

•      Members commented on the engagement within GP surgeries, observing that whilst this would mostly be focused on people who had existing medical conditions, they would have a lot to tell about their experiences.

•      In terms of the level of engagement as a percentage of the population, this was dependent on the venue and it was noted that a target area yet to reach was South Wye.

•      As regards people talking about mental health, dementia had been included in particular the impact on carers, and the events had been used to promote certain services such as ‘Let’s talk’ for mental health. The whole spectrum of health and wellbeing was being included but it was noted that there were particular groups of people who were less aware of services, such as young to middle-aged men.

•      It was noted that there were many different ways that people could be targeted but also that people had differing preferences over how they access support and so a variety of engagement methods was required, but this needed to be achievable with the resources available.

RESOLVED

That

a)    Officers be commended for the approach to engagement as outlined;

b)    it be recommended to the CCG to consider making further use of existing community groups and networks, including parish councils, supermarkets and local radio; and

c)    that the outcomes from the engagement phase ending in October be presented to the committee at the next available meeting in order for the committee to consider further recommendations for next steps.