Healthwatch Lambeth developing a new strategy to engage local people

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Healthwatch Lambeth is developing a new way on involving people in their own healthcare; this is called their ‘position on participation’. Healthwatch Lambeth seeks to involve local people in their healthcare; to make sure that patients voices and views are taken into account when health and care services are designed and brought into use.

You can read here about this work and how you can get involved.

As champions of patient engagement, Healthwatch Lambeth are a key signatory to the Lambeth Together pledge which aims to improve how services across Lambeth work together; their role is to ensure that local people are involved in shaping and improving these services.

To support this, they have come up with eight key ideas on participation which they would like to get feedback on from people in Lambeth.

Their eight key ideas are:

  • People have the right to be involved in shaping and improving services.
  • Public participation is a spectrum (or ladder) that provides a range of opportunities for people to be involved.
  • Each aspect of the spectrum offers benefits and none of the approaches is better than others.
  • The best place on the spectrum for an engagement activity will depend on the decision or question that needs answering.
  • We must be honest from the start about who has the decision making power in each project and what is on and off the table
  • We must be clear and transparent about which members of the public are or should be involved in particular projects.
  • Participation projects need to be designed with the principles of equality, diversity and accessibility at their heart.
  • Good information provision for everyone involved is essential to every stage of a participation project, including giving people feedback on the outcome.

You can share your thoughts on these principles by email with info@healthwatchlambeth.org.uk. The final principles will be developed in January 2020.

In the meantime, as part of the Lambeth Together team they will discuss where the principles will be applied, and explore with partners how local people can be involved in the key priorities coming up for Lambeth Together.

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