Since March, ecdp has been working with our members and other disabled and older people from across Essex and with a variety of lived experience, to understand how views of health and social care can be effectively captured. In total we engaged directly with 121 people for this work and indirectly engaged with over 470 people and 21 organisations. We also distributed almost 1,000 separate pieces of promotional material to other stakeholders across the county. This is the set of slides of this research, which was presented to HealthWatch Essex in July 2012. For more information, please visit www.ecdp.org.uk

1. User engagement research:
Findings and recommendations
Monday 9 July 2012
HealthWatch Essex Executive meeting

2. Overview
• About ecdp’s lived experience approach
• Purpose and scope of the research
• 3 fundamental findings
• Reasons to be optimistic
• The part for HealthWatch Essex to play
• Things to do
Your views shaping health and social care 9 July 2012

3. About ecdp’s approach
• Disabled people’s user-led organisation
• All of our work based on lived experience
‒ Lived experience log
‒ Wide range of communications mechanisms
‒ Research
• Lived experience in practice
‒ Welfare reform – DLA and PIP
‒ Access to Work
‒ Disability hate crime
‒ Right to Control
‒ Social Care and personalisation
Your views shaping health and social care 9 July 2012

4. Purpose of the work
People don’t know how to share views but they’ve certainly
got views. There’s a big group of people not being listened to.
•How effective are different, practical mechanisms for capturing
people’s voices?
•How these practical mechanisms can be developed and
deployed in the future?
Your views shaping health and social care 9 July 2012

5. Scope
• Relatively small piece of work
‒ Based on review of 80 publications
‒ Direct contact with 121 people
‒ 470 people and 21 organisations
• Relatively short timescales
• Gathering people’s views on gathering people’s views
Your views shaping health and social care 9 July 2012

6. What we would do
differently next time
• The Tendring question
• More explicit on collective rather than individual voice
‒ Importance of good facilitation
‒ Reassuring it’s not just the same old voices
• More direct engagement of equality-specific groups
Your views shaping health and social care 9 July 2012

7. 3 fundamental issues
1. People aren’t aware of the ways they can share their views
• There is a fundamental information problem – a 58%
problem
• VCS, local news, word of mouth… then online, library,
elected representatives
2. Even if they are aware, people aren’t engaged enough to
share their views
3. People don’t feel commissioners are serious about listening to
what people have to say
Your views shaping health and social care 9 July 2012

8. If there is good news…
• Captive audience
• People understand the limitations of input received through
engagement
‒ Acknowledgment first, making a difference second
• The results will be worth it
‒ For commissioners
‒ For the people involved
Your views shaping health and social care 9 July 2012

9. Mechanisms
• Clear preference for:
‒ Surveys
‒ Focus groups
‒ Area forums
‒ Citizen’s panels
• Giving information
‒ Seminars
‒ Social media and online
Your views shaping health and social care 9 July 2012

10. 50-50-50-50-50 problem
• People didn’t differentiate on who should be responsible for
collecting views
‒ ECC (56%)
‒ Health representatives (59%)
‒ VCS (52%)
‒ Other users (59%)
‒ HealthWatch (56%)
• Does HealthWatch Essex have a USP?
‒ What is it?
Your views shaping health and social care 9 July 2012

11. What to do about it
• Address the information problem
‒ Commission a series of surveys and focus groups
‒ Commission a seminar series
‒ Use lever of influence to secure senior speakers
‒ Could be the means by which to begin to promote
HealthWatch’s USP
• Ciizen’s Jury
‒ For commissioning a new service?
‒ For the closure of a service?
• Address the commissioner problem
‒ “Training” on the importance and benefits of engagement
‒ Underpinned by strong evidence – £££ and citizen
outcomes
Your views shaping health and social care 9 July 2012

12. Practically speaking
• Action plan for engagement
• Dedicated budget
• Involvement policy
• Equality Impact Assessment
Your views shaping health and social care 9 July 2012