Patient and Public Engagement Strategy to 2030
Patient and public involvement
- Overview
- Current page section : Patient and Public Engagement Strategy to 2030
Introduction
This strategy sets out our goals and priorities for patient and public engagement until 2030. It has been created to support the delivery of the whole Trust strategy Better, faster, fairer healthcare for all.
Our 4 goals for patient and public engagement will help all teams and departments across our hospitals and community services to work with patients, their parents, carers and communities to deliver the Trust strategy.
How we developed our patient and public engagement strategy
This strategy has been developed by the Trust Patient and Public Engagement (PPE) team, together with:
- patient and public Trust governors
- clinical and non-clinical Trust staff
- local healthwatch bodies
- South East London Integrated Care Board
While developing the Trust strategy we asked patients, carers and communities to tell us what was most important to them. To highlight what patients told us matters most, we have included their priorities throughout the strategy to show how they fit with our goals.
Why patient and public engagement is so important to us
Patient and public engagement means working with patients (children, young people and adults), their families, carers, and communities who need and use our services to make sure their views are included in our decisions. This is an important part of living our Trust values.
As an NHS organisation, we also have legal duties to involve patients and the public in our work.
Most importantly, we believe that we need to truly listen to and work with people and communities, to make sure our services and buildings continue to meet the needs of those who use them.
Patient and public engagement helps us make sure that marginalised communities (people who are not always included or treated fairly) have a say.
It is a privilege when people share their care experiences with us. Patients, carers, families and communities inspire us. Their stories, help us to design and transform care, deliver ground-breaking research and make a meaningful difference to people's experience of using our services.
Our goals for involvement
Goal 1: Build a culture of involvement
We will make patient and public involvement everyone's business by increasing staff awareness, understanding and skills. We will build strong relationships and trust with the communities we serve by ensuring that meaningful involvement is central to the way we design, develop and improve our services.
Find out how we will achieve our priorities.
- Increase staff and patient awareness of patient and public engagement at the
Trust. We will make sure staff know where to find the PPE team, support and practical resources. We will make it easier for patients, carers, families, and communities to find opportunities to get involved. - Help staff develop the skills and confidence to engage patients and the public. We will develop training and tools to help more teams learn how to plan and deliver meaningful involvement activities.
- Build on best practice and find ways to embed the patient-public voice in all clinical groups. Build on best practice and find ways to embed the patient-public voice in all clinical groups. We will make sure this voice is ever-present in our daily work and decision-making. We will learn from engagement activities by asking those we involve for feedback and by sharing examples of success and good practice. Looking at what has gone well and what could be better will be a routine part of involvement.
- Make patient-public engagement part of the Trust process for monitoring and quality checking all projects and programmes. Make patient-public engagement part of the Trust process for monitoring and quality-checking all projects and programmes. Patients, carers, families and communities will be involved from the start in programmes that affect how services are designed and delivered. Patient and public engagement plans will be reviewed as part of the Trust’s programme management process. By doing this, we will ensure that those who rely on our services have a say in the decisions we make.
To develop the Trust's strategy for 2030, we asked patients, carers, and communities what matters most to them. By putting patients at the heart of everything we do, our goal to 'Build a culture of involvement' will help us address these key patient priorities:
- waiting for diagnosis and treatment
- preventing ill health
- communication – contacting the Trust
- future of healthcare
- services working together
- relationship between patients and staff
Goal 2: Act on what matters most to patients, carers and communities
We will ensure that patient and carer voices drive the improvement, transformation and development of our services. We will support the delivery of patient-led care by prioritising involvement activity and resources on the areas that patients, carers and communities care about most.
Find out how we will achieve our priorities.
- Ensure that patients, carers and communities are involved in setting the priorities for service development and improvement. Patients, carers and communities will be involved at every step – from developing ideas and shaping proposals, to reviewing options, and making decisions.
- Prioritise our patient-public engagement resources in programmes delivering on priority areas, from getting the basics right to major service transformation. The Trust strategy describes a number of service improvement and development programmes. These areas will be a priority for our patient and public engagement activities, to make sure the patient voice is included.
- Drive continuous improvement by listening to and acting on patient feedback. Drive continuous improvement by listening to and acting on patient feedback. We will make the most of the ways we receive patient feedback (for example through patient experience surveys). We will also look for new ways of hearing peoples' views – gathering ideas where people share them, not waiting for them to come to us.
- Measure and share the impact of patient, carer and community involvement. We will show people how their input has made a difference and involve them in measuring our progress. We will be honest about what we cannot change, and will celebrate what we have done well together.
To develop the Trust's strategy for 2030, we asked patients, carers, and communities what matters most to them. Our goal to 'Act on what matters most' will help make sure we address these patient priorities. The top 5 topics that people said mattered most were:
- waiting for diagnosis and treatment
- preventing ill health
- communication – contacting the Trust
- services working together
- getting the basics right – focus on well-run services as well as innovation
Goal 3: Promote health equity through meaningful involvement
We will identify and challenge health inequalities, and the barriers to accessing services by involving our diverse patients, carers, and communities. We will ensure people who are often under-represented are involved in planning, innovating, and improving our services and research.
Find out how we will achieve our priorities.
- Work with patients, carers and communities to identify inequalities and at-risk groups. Involving groups and people who aren’t always included or treated fairly (people who face health inequalities) will be an important part of our programmes, service developments, improvements, innovations, and research. We will work with the communities who use our services to understand how service improvement and developments might affect their experiences of care.
- Ensure equity of access to involvement opportunities across the Trust. We will provide different ways to take part in service development, innovation and research to make sure as many different people and communities can join in.
- Proactively reach out to people who are often under-represented in our work. We will build trust within communities who are often overlooked, to show that we want to listen to their views. We will meet people where they live and work, joining their activities and forums to understand what matters most to them.
- Make inclusive patient-public involvement central to research and innovation. Patients, families, and communities will play an active role in every step of our research and innovations projects to make sure they genuinely reflect the needs and experiences of those who use our services.
To develop the Trust's strategy for 2030, we asked patients, carers, and communities what matters most to them. By focusing on fairness, our goal to 'promote health equity through meaningful involvement' helps to address these key patient priorities:
- fair and equal care
- preventing ill health
- services working together
- relationship between patients and staff
- patients, carers, communities as partners
- responding to individual needs
Goal 4: Work in partnership with people, communities and our health and care partners
We will strengthen our partnerships with patients, carers and communities who need
and use our services. We will harness our dynamic local and national health and care
partnerships, using every opportunity to align our involvement plans, share learning, good
practice and impact.
Find out how we will achieve our priorities.
- Build stronger relationships with our Foundation Trust members. We will work with Foundation Trust governors to support member engagement. We will make sure our Foundation Trust members know how they can get involved.
- Collaborate with people, communities and system partners to develop patient-public engagement plans that support the programmes and priorities we work on together. For example: MyChart, reducing wait times, improving heart and lung care, and improving our healthcare facilities.
- Support the Voluntary Sector and Social Enterprise Charter. We will find new and different ways to work with voluntary and community organisations.
- Strengthen our role as a proactive member of our health and care system and community. We will work with organisations that help and care for people in their community (like community groups, Healthwatch, and GPs) to help us listen to and learn from what our communities are saying about their care. We will be open to community feedback, and honest about what we can do to make our services better.
- Make the most of our local and national system partnerships, by learning from our partners and share what we have learnt from our patient and public engagement activities.
To develop the Trust's strategy for 2030, we asked patients, carers, and communities what matters most to them. Our goal to 'work in partnership with people, communities and our health and care partners' means finding ways to work more closely with patients, communities and local services. This will help us address these key patient priorities:
- services working together
- waiting for diagnosis and treatment
- patients, carers, communities as partners
Putting our patient and public engagement strategy into action
Delivering our goals
We will work closely with patients, staff, and partners to put this strategy into action. Our 4 clinical groups and all Trust departments will make sure the goals and priorities for patient and public involvement are part of their plans.
It is not always easy to measure the impact of patient and public engagement and understand what has changed because people were involved. We will work with teams across the Trust to gather information about the different ways that people have been involved and the changes that have been made when patients, families and carers have been involved.
The Trust Board will review our progress on patient and public engagement every year. We may update our engagement priorities to make sure they continue to focus on what matters most to patients, families, and communities.
Contact us
For more information about this strategy or getting involved in our work, please email gstt.getinvolved@nhs.net.
More about patient and public engagement at the Trust
The full strategy sets out our goals and priorities for patient and public engagement until 2030.
The summary version is also available as a PDF. Please contact us if you would like a copy.