Message from Sophie Lowry

Welcome to our latest edition of Partners with People!

We recently celebrated the 75th anniversary of the NHS, and we had the privilege of attending a special ceremony at Westminster Abbey to mark the occasion. Faith Smith, one of our Lived Experience Partners, was chosen to represent the HIN and the wider AHSN Network. Since joining us, Faith, along with her colleague Aurora, has played a crucial role in involving service users and the public in projects aimed at improving health and care in south London and beyond.

Reflecting on the ceremony, Faith said:

"It was an honour to be selected to join my NHS colleagues to celebrate 75 years of the NHS. I felt so proud and humbled to be there, the atmosphere was very moving and inclusive. The service reminded us that we all have benefited from the dedication of those present, either directly as patients ourselves or through our loved ones.

"I trained as a nurse qualifying in 1983, and as a family, we have worked for 102 years to date within the NHS with my mum working as a district nurse for many years. My role as a Lived Experience Partner along with my colleague Aurora, guided by our manager Sophie, has allowed me to support the involvement and inclusion of so many voices across different projects all working towards improving the health of our population."

HIN Chief Executive Dr Rishi Das-Gupta said: “We were delighted to have Faith as our representative at the NHS 75^th anniversary celebration. Since joining the HIN she and Aurora have become invaluable in shaping our approach to involvement and ensuring we keep it at the core of everything we do. With Faith’s extensive personal experience and family history in the NHS, she embodies much of what is great about our health and care system, and I was delighted that she was able to help mark this important anniversary on behalf of the HIN.”

In addition to the NHS anniversary celebrations, we took part in events organised by NHS England during Co-production Week. These sessions covered a range of topics, putting power sharing and co-production at the heart of quality improvement. If you missed any of these sessions, you can find recordings on the FutureNHS Collaboration Platform. To gain access to the platform, please reach out to england.eoccoproduction@nhs.net for an invitation.

During these events, a set of resources supporting co-production of quality improvements was launched. Developed through collaboration between We Coproduce, the Improvement Team, and the Experience of Care Team at NHS England, these resources are now available on the NHS England website. This is a comprehensive toolkit for anyone interested in fostering co-production.

As always, we are committed to celebrating and highlighting the involvement and contributions of individuals within the HIN and beyond. If you have any stories, initiatives, or experiences you would like to share in our upcoming newsletter, please get in touch with us.

Sophie Lowry
Implementation and Involvement Manager, Health Innovation Network

News and opportunities to get involved

Get your voice heard in the use of GP digital health services

On behalf of NHS England, the HIN are inviting you to share your experience of using digital health services in GP practices by completing a 10-minute survey.
Participants will be entered in a draw with a chance to win a £100 shopping voucher. The draw will close on Friday 11 August 2023.

Take part in the survey here.

Survey responses are anonymous and the results will be made publicly available via the Health Innovation Network.

HIN Lived Experience Partner awarded for contribution to co-production in Newham

HIN Lived Experience Partner Aurora Todisco has been recognised during Co-production Week this month for her contributions to involvement in the London Borough of Newham. Aurora's award celebrates her as a rising star of co-production with an high level of understanding for involving people and communities across the local population. Reflecting on this achievement, Aurora said:

"It was a great honour for me to receive this award for my dedication towards co-production and involvement, having worked in equal and reciprocal partnership to the priorities that are being brought forward by my local authority. I hope that all residents of Newham, and in particular the community of Beckton and Royal Docks, will benefit from the outcomes of my work."

Find out more about co-production activities in Newham and how you can get involved.

The South East London People's Panel

The South East London People's Panel brings together people from across Bexley, Bromley, Greenwich, Lambeth, Lewisham and Southwark to inform and feedback on a range of health and care issues. The panel provides our Integrated Care System (ICS) in south east London with an additional innovative engagement tool to gathering insight and feedback on a range of health and care matters from a representative sample of the south east London population.

Find out more.

My learning from working with people with lived experience: it’s more than just parking and waiting lists

Emma James, Musculoskeletal (MSK) Project Manager in the Planned Care Team for South East London Integrated Care Board (SEL ICB), writes about how her job has taught her the importance of incorporating lived experience into healthcare. In this blog, she discusses her learning from working across different communities and and the key to making quality improvement changes across MSK programmes in south east London.

Read the full blog and find out directly from people with lived experience about their involvement journey and outcomes achieved in the Musculoskeletal programmes in south east London.

HIN podcast: Looking after the NHS Episode 3

Looking after the NHS is a podcast produced by the Health Innovation Network which discusses how we can make the NHS even better. Whether you are a health and care professional or simply have an interest in innovating healthcare, Looking after the NHS aims to motivate and reassure listeners that change within the health and care sector is possible.

This podcast is hosted by Catherine Dale, Deputy Coordination Director at The AHSN Network, and Ayobola Chike-Michael, Senior Project Manager at the HIN.

In episode three Catherine and Ayo sat down with Hazel Steele, a Matron in Medical Specialities at Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospital and former Project Manager at the HIN. The episode discusses the importance of clinical and non-clinical roles collaborating during projects which aim to improve outcomes for patients.

Stream the podcast on Soundcloud.

NIHR commentary: My involvement with Heal-D, a diabetes self-management programme for African and Caribbean communities

HEAL-D is a diabetes self-management programme specially designed for adults from African and Caribbean communities living with diabetes. In this interview, Matilda. a member of the lived experience reference group for HEAL-D, talks about her experiences of the programme and how she is supporting its scale up to other parts of the country.

Read the full story.

Blog: To save the NHS, listen to frontline staff, patients and carers

Patients and their families are an untapped resource for improving services, not a burden to be reduced. Bev Fitzsimons, Chief Executive of The Point of Care Foundation, responds to the Guardian’s article, ‘A future worth fighting for’: five health experts on the state of the NHS at 75’.

Read the full blog.

Blog: The arts and involvement in research: tie-ins and tensions

Savi Hensman, Involvement Coordinator at ARC South London, reflects on how the creative arts can connect with health and care research, with a particular focus on involvement.

Read the full blog.

Your chance to get involved in our Experience-based Co-design project

Do you live with chronic (persistent) pain? Do you live in south London?

The HIN recently completed a chronic pain experience-based co-design (EBCD) project. We are now looking for people to take part in a short film, to share what alternatives to pain medicines help you to live well with pain. We are aiming to start filming in late August/early September 2023. If you are interested in taking part, please email Natasha Callender, Project Lead. You can read more about the chronic (persistent) pain EBCD project we have completed here.

Do you have any news or great examples of work related to involvement for a future bulletin? Let Sophie Lowry know.

Upcoming Events

Co-create webinar: Where to start with co-production for public sector organisations?

Thursday 27 July, 10 - 11.30am

Do you find yourself stuck discussing what co-production is and how to do it, when you want to get on with involving people? Or maybe you know co-production is important and agree with it in principle, but don’t know what it means in practice in healthcare services today and how to get started

This 2-hour online workshop will give you the knowledge and tools you need to agree locally on how you describe your work with people and communities and some practical ways to get started.

With the “Is this co-production?” question out of the way, Co-create will guide you through some practical ideas to develop co-production and similar approaches in your area.

During this interactive online session you will learn:

Guidelines for creating a shared definition of your work with people and communities;
Principles of co-production to help guide your work;
Approaches to develop diversity in your work.

After the webinar, Co-create will be sharing some helpful free digital resources, slides and a recording of the session.

Register to attend on Eventbrite.

Co-Pro Collective Cuppa: August

Tuesday 1 August, 11am - 12.30pm

Co-Pro Cuppas are run by the Co-Production Collective. They are informal monthly sessions to connect with friends, meet new people and chat about whatever you fancy over a cuppa!

Please join some or all of this very informal session on Zoom (via video or phone call).

Please register to join on Eventbrite or email the UCL Co-Production team if you need assistance. Dial in details will be shared nearer the time.

The Courageous Conversations Project

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Are you a patient? Are you a professional working in healthcare? Are you passionate about improving healthcare services and interactions to make them more human and personalised?

The Point of Care Foundation are looking for people with clinical or lived experience of healthcare to help us to co-design a card deck and training package to support professionals to have the confidence and skills to lean into conversations that matter.

Click here to see how you can get involved.

Save the date: Active Involvement in Research 2023

Friday 13 October, 12.30 - 5pm

Each year, ARC South London holds an Active Involvement in Research event, bringing together local people and groups, research staff, public contributors and anyone else interested, to explore together how research might influence health and social care in ways that matter locally. This year, for the first time in the ARC, we will be gathering face-to-face for the event. The event will be held at Coin Street Neighbourhood Centre, 108 Stamford Street, London SE1 9NH, near Waterloo.

Find out more.

Catch up on the NRAS Live event: The Future of Remote Monitoring and RA

Past event - now available to stream online

Rewatch this NRAS Live from Wednesday 28 June on how remote health monitoring could impact those living with Rheumatoid Arthritis. The traditional appointments system, with face-to-face appointments at fixed intervals, can mean that patients struggle to access care when they need it most. We hear from the teams at King's Improvement Science and the Health Innovation Network, and their continued work on an experimental remote monitoring system, that prevents unnecessary patient follow-ups. Expect to learn how the system is being evaluated, feedback direct from RA patients, why you should get involved in research and much more.

Rewatch the event on YouTube.

Tips, Tools and Training

New co-production tools from NHS England

NHS England have launched new co-production resource toolkit to support people to co-produce quality improvements together. These resources have been developed by We Coproduce, the Improvement team and the Experience of Care team at NHSE. Together the teams modelled the new way of working described in the resources, with collective leadership and sharing power to foster culture change to improve care together. See the toolkit here.

You can also see existing co-production materials below:

NHS England » Co-production using the Always Events® quality improvement methodology

NHS England » Working in partnership with people and communities: statutory guidance

10 Steps Local Trainer Programme

Monday 18 September and Wednesday 27 September, various times

Are you looking to strengthen the way your ICB, region or provider trust works with people and communities? NHS England are offering a new course to teach you how to deliver the well-established 10 Steps training to your local teams and partners.

The 10 Steps model breaks down engagement planning into easy-to-follow steps to ensure you are asking the right questions when planning to work with people and communities. Our Local Trainer Programme course gives you an in-depth look at how the 10 Steps works, followed by a full day train-the-trainer session to give you the skills and confidence to deliver this model yourself.

Our next course will run in September, please see below for details. For more information on 10 Steps and the Local Trainer Programme, please visit our Community of Practice on #StartWithPeople.

The course consists of two sessions: A half day of 10 Steps training to familiarise yourself with the content, followed by a full day train-the-trainer session on how to deliver the 10 Steps course yourself.

This training is very interactive. We recognise that things can arise unexpectedly, but when signing up for this programme, please ensure your calendar is free for the whole of both sessions. The expectation is that you will be fully involved with your camera on for the entire session where possible. This will help you and other participants to get the most from the session.

The course is accredited and you will receive a certificate upon completion.

Dates:

Monday 18 September, 10am - 1pm (10 Steps overview)
Wednesday 27 September, 10am - 4pm (Train the Trainer)

If you wish to book your place, please contact england.ppve-learning@nhs.net to confirm. Please also block the time out in your diary while you await the calendar invitation.

Partner Updates

The Co-production Collective are looking for two people to help us with project co-ordination of their work and administration. Both roles are full time until the end of July 2025.

These new vacancies are an opportunity to join our small, but growing, core team and work closely with our network of co-producers and wider community.

Main purpose of the job:

To support the Co-Production Collective team in our day to day work including project co-ordination, administration for events, our marketing and our work with our community members.
To work in line with the Co-ProductionCollective strategy ‘Our Direction’ and the next strategy currently being developed.

The deadline for applications for both roles is Thursday 20 July 2023 at 23:59.

Find out more and apply here.

A project run by the ARC South London Patient and Public involvement Research Theme is exploring how patient and public involvement in adult health and social care commissioning can best be supported to be most effective. Commissioning refers to the planning, purchasing and provision of services. Patient and public involvement (PPI) in commissioning is important because it can help improve outcomes for people who use - or might in the future use - health and care services.

The researchers are running a national online survey aimed at the following groups:

Public contributors across England who aim to have a say in commissioning decisions through their involvement in activities/groups, e.g. community, voluntary or charity organisations, service user groups, patient and public advisory groups/panels, etc.
Health and social care staff across England who are involved in commissioning decision making and/or PPI in decision making

The survey takes about 10 minutes to complete. To participate, please scan the QR code in the poster that is relevant to you below.