Working in partnership; going forward together

Planning and partnerships workshop brings together local people to plan future community involvement in health and care planning.

Over 120 people came together to share their ideas and experiences at a dynamic Planning and Partnerships workshop in Hastings on 07 July.Co-production is - image

The workshop emerged following an extensive review of how people and organisations are involved in shaping health and care services in East Sussex. It provided an opportunity for anyone interested in being involved to comment on proposals for a new countywide health and wellbeing stakeholder representative group.

“I valued the chance to feed in and share ideas. It was nice to meet new people and it felt like we were achieving something.” Participant at Planning and Partnership workshop.

Participants came from a wide range of organisations and backgrounds, including health and care organisations, the fire service, police, large and small voluntary and community organisations and individuals and carers. In small groups, through lively facilitated discussions, they shared their experiences and knowledge of how people can be effectively engaged in shaping services. They:

  • Agreed the principles and values which would be required for this new collaborative approach to be successful and for co-production between people who commission services, provide services and use services to flourish.
  •  Provided a wealth of ideas on how to ensure the group is representative, how participants can best be supported, and they discussed how priorities and agendas should be set.

“We believe that the more involvement, experience and knowledge we build in to our services the better they will be for everyone.” Paula Gorvett, ESBT Programme Manager

The workshop was planned by a working group of stakeholders from 3VA; Care for the Carers; East Sussex Parent and Carer Council; Healthwatch East Sussex; Possability People; SpeakUp; East Sussex County Council; and our three local Clinical Commissioning Groups. National agency Coalition for Collaborative Care (C4CC) also provided expertise around how the new stakeholder group could achieve better conversations and support growth of stronger communities.

Kristi Adams, Senior Co-production Lead at the Coalition for Collaborative Care (C4CC), who spoke at the event said: “It was clear from the energy in the room that people are willing to give co-production a go by making mistakes and coming up with solutions together. If this becomes the foundation on which strategic decision making is built in East Sussex, the future looks bright!”

Overseen by the working group for the project, a full report on the event is being collated which will soon be available via the past events section of the ESBT website. It will capture the breadth and depth of thinking which participants generously shared and distil key themes and recommendations for setting up the stakeholder group in the autumn.

Participants were thanked by health and social care leaders for their commitment to helping improve services and users’ experience, for their time and for their hard work at the event.

To find out more, contact Sally Polanski, Service Development Manager, Adult Social Care and Health sally.polanski@eastsussex.gov.uk.