Co-production within Hampshire NHS Continuing Healthcare (CHC)

By Lara Blake, Senior Project Manager - and Tracey Knatt, Quality Improvement Manager, Hampshire and Isle of Wight Integrated Care Board.

The CHC Co-Production group was established in 2018 with an initial focus on Personal Health Budgets.  The group has evolved over the last four years and has been involved in a number of activities with a positive impact on both staff and individuals involved in the CHC pathway.  

The group consists of those working within the CHC service and those with expert lived experience. 

The groups aims are:

·     To support collaborative working and embed co-production within Hampshire CHC.

·     To work together to achieve more than could be achieved separately ─ sharing knowledge and information ─ improving existing and developing new services.

·     To ensure those with lived experience are involved in service design and decision making.

·     Achieve continuous improvements in the quality of the CHC service through closer working relationships between partners and those with lived experience.  

 

One of the more recent initiatives implemented by the Co-production group is monthly ‘coffee morning’ sessions.

These sessions are an opportunity for staff employed in the CHC service to meet informally with those who have direct lived experience of CHC.  The sessions are mandatory for all new starters and open to the whole workforce.

The sessions have been extremely well received by everyone involved.  Some comments below from staff demonstrate how valuable these sessions are:

“It was so good to speak to the group and really interesting and beneficial to help our practice. The hour went very quickly and it felt like we had only really touched the surface of what we could gain from them”

“Firstly, thank you for arranging these sessions.  There can be no better way to hear the person with lived experience’s voice.  I found the session very insightful and inspiring.”

It was good to hear that there has been a dramatic change in recent years with the PHB process, information sharing etc and I particularly liked the comment that having a PHB enables (them) to be ‘pro-active rather than re-active’ with (their) care and support.

“Thank you very much for sharing!!! I think you are truly amazing”

“Thank you for arranging, I REALLY enjoyed that and would love a continuation”

“Fantastic - so interesting - to hear a personal perspective has been so interesting” “What an inspiration XX is!”

 

Another workstream we are collaborating on is the NHS Continuing Healthcare review process and documentation.

We have a small working group including staff responsible for completing the reviews and two members of our co-production group.  This has given us all a real insight into how the process makes people feel and the preparation they feel they need to do.

It has been invaluable to gain their views on what the documentation means to them and explore whether in the current format; it is fit for purpose?  The answer was no it is not!

We are in the process of developing a form and process that should enable people to feel more comfortable about the process and ensure the framework requirements are met.

From a staff perspective it has been a really valuable experience working with people who use our service and really understanding the impact some processes that we ‘just do’ have on people, and it has inspired them to think differently about their own practice.

 

" As one of the lived experience members of this group, I would like to say how valuable it has been for me to work on an equal basis with a range of staff within CHC.  It is great how we have identified that there are no barriers to change, development and improvement. The only barrier is in our own minds. We have challenged strategies and changed information documents for what we believe is better, making them more effective and easier to understand. There is clearly still work to be done but everyone seems willing to continue this process. I think it would be extremely valuable if this could be duplicated right across the country."