SCIE Supports the Government’s Aims to Strengthen User Involvement

The Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) is looking forward to its role in the plans for patient and public involvement in health and social care outlined in today’s publication ‘A stronger local voice: A framework for creating a stronger local voice in the development of health and social care services’. The Department of Health (DH) framework specifically mentions that SCIE will promote and support public and patient involvement by providing resources for commissioners, providers and regulators. Today’s announcement reinforces the messages of increased user control and choice outlined in the recent health and social care White Paper Our Health, Our Care, Our Say.

Chair of SCIE, Allan Bowman, said that SCIE’s evidence base and resources will support both social and health care services. “SCIE’s extensive work into stakeholder participation shows the importance of involving users and carers in the design and the delivery of the services they receive. We support the Government’s focus on involving service users in all levels of the health and social care system, including in commissioning and regulating services.

“Social care has an established record of user involvement and has many good practice examples of how local and national organisations can adopt a culture of participation to benefit service delivery. We are looking forward to working with our partners in health to promote and develop involvement systems that ensure the participation of all service user groups, including those who are seldom heard.”

SCIE’s resources on participation include:

• Position paper 05: Working together: Carer participation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland

• Practice guide 06: Involving children and young people in developing social care

• Report 08: Contributing on equal terms: service user involvement and the benefits system

• Position paper 03: Has service user participation made a difference to social care services?

• Report 05: User participation in the governance and operations of social care regulatory bodies

The new SCIE report Doing it for themselves: participation and black and minority ethnic service users, which is due for publication tomorrow (14th July), examines the complex reasons why participation in black and minority ethnic groups has diminished in recent years.

To find out more about SCIE’s resources on stakeholder participation visit www.scie.org.uk