Why do we need a framework?

The Health and Care Act 2022 requires the NHS, social care, councils, community and voluntary sector to understand the needs, experiences and aspirations of people and communities. This is to inform services and improve health and wellbeing.

Services have a responsibility to:

  • Understand and act on what matters to people.
  • Show how they comply with legal requirements to involve the public.
  • Provide the necessary resources to engage effectively.
  • Collaborate with partners to prioritise people.
  • Listen to and understand the local communities.

The People at the Heart of Care white paper vision, published in December 2021, puts people at its heart and has three objectives:

  1. People have choice, control and support to live independent lives.
  2. People can access outstanding quality and tailored care and support.
  3. People find adult social care fair and accessible.

In Barnsley, we want everyone to have the best possible chance of enjoying life in good physical and mental health. Our Adult Social Care services play a vital role in making sure local people experience high-quality care and support when they need it. To do this, we have developed the Barnsley Adult Social Care Working with People and Communities Framework.

What do we mean by our framework?

Our framework will provide adult social care staff with the principles, tools, and resources for working with people and communities in Barnsley. This will allow people’s experiences to be captured. We can then put them at the heart of what we do in Barnsley Place, Health, and Adult Social Care.

What is expected from our practitioners working in adult social care?

  • Put the voices of people and communities (including children and young people) at the centre of decision making and governance. This is at every level of the integrated care system.
  • Start engagement early when developing plans and feedback to people and communities on how their engagement has influenced activities and decisions.
  • Understand your community’s needs, experiences, and aspirations for health and care. Using engagement to determine whether change is having the desired effect.
  • Build relationships with excluded groups, especially those affected by inequalities.
  • Work with Healthwatch and the voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) sector as key partners.
  • Provide clear and accessible public information about vision, plans and progress to build understanding and trust.
  • Use community development approaches that empower people and communities to connect to social action.
  • Use co-production, insights and engagement to achieve accountable health and care services.
  • Co-produce and redesign services and tackle system priorities in partnership with people and communities.
  • Learn from what works and build on the assets of all ICS partners—networks, relationships, and activity in local places.

No matter the method used, adult social care practitioners will begin by understanding their communities' current needs and experiences. They will also collaborate with colleagues and partners who already have connections within the community. They will recognise and build on the strengths within communities to support people’s health.

We recognise that people and communities have knowledge, skills and experiences that can support physical and mental health. Adult Social Care practitioners aim to work with these people and communities. This will allow us to create better services that meet people’s needs, improving their experience and outcomes.

Our approach to engagement 

We're measuring the success of our framework by evidencing our work with the people whose lives we touch in our communities. This is an ongoing process of reflection and learning, applying new tools and approaches as they develop.

There is no ‘one size fits all’ approach to working with people and communities. Approaches vary depending on the context and objectives, and there is flexibility depending on the aims and scale of the programme.

The starting point for working with people and communities is listening to their priorities, concerns and challenges. From this, we're designing approaches with people that meet their needs. It's important to be open and honest about what and how improvements can be made.

Some of the main ways to work with people to gather feedback are set out below:

Inform Consult Engage Co-design Co-production

Sharing information about proposed changes so people understand what they mean.

  • Letters, emails or social media.
  • Information on notice boards in local community facilities.

Asking for people’s opinions on one or more ideas or options.

  • Formal public consultations to gather views and ensure they are considered accordingly, including webinars, public meetings and surveys.

Listening to people to understand issues and discuss ideas for change.

  • Focus groups or interviews
  • Citizens’ panels and deliberative engagement.
  • Patient and public membership on decision making, committees and boards.
  • Patient forums and advisory groups

Designing with people and using their ideas for the final approach.

  • Service redevelopment tools such as Experience Based Co-Design.
  • Co-design sessions for people with lived and learnt experience.

 

An equal partnership where people with lived and learnt experience work together from start to finish.

  • Community development approaches including asset mapping, appreciative inquiry and community conversations.

Holding us to account

We're making sure that:

  • Adult social care practitioners have a universal understanding and approach to working with people and communities to gather information on their priorities.
  • Gathering people’s views is standard practice across service.
  • People with protected characteristics and those who're not represented enough in the current evidence base, for example, unpaid carers, are included.
  • We are committed to protecting staff time to gather people’s views.
  • We strive to involve people with lived experience in identifying measurable outcomes as part of our evaluation process.
  • A skilled facilitator will lead the co-production process (including evaluation). They'll listen and build relationships, and support communication between different groups of stakeholders.
  • Managers and leadership are involved and provide support to enable the impact of involvement to be measured.
  • Ensure access needs are addressed and managed so that engagement is accessible to all.
  • Feedback is provided to people and communities on their participation in activities and actions that have resulted from asking for people’s views.

Our commitment

This framework will help everyone to continue improving and developing better practice skills for working with our communities.

The Barnsley Better Lives programme and the Adult Social Care Senior Leadership Team will monitor the how well the framework is working.