This Policy summarises the Organisation’s approach in involving service users, and their relatives / advocates, to participate in the development, implementation, monitoring and review of their personalised Care Plans. This Policy will be considered in conjunction with the following additional Policies and attendant record forms:

Policy No: 2100 Staff Monitoring & Review of the Care Service

Policy No: 2101 Monitoring of Service User Feedback

Policy No: 3002 Assessment of Service Users’ Needs

A: BASIC PRINCIPLES:

The key objectives of this Policy is to define a broad strategy for enabling service users to participate in the decision-making process regarding his / her personalised Care Plans, and to monitor the effectiveness of this participation or involvement, making changes where necessary. (In all cases, the term “service user” will include relatives and advocates as appropriate to circumstances).

The Policy addresses service user participation from 3 standpoints:

• Developing a culture of participation;

• Putting participation into practice;

• Feedback and review.

B: SERVICE USER PARTICIPATION:

1. Developing a culture of service user participation:

This will be achieved through the following:

1.1 Giving the service user more power over decision-making regarding his / her care through the acknowledgement and respect of their life experiences.

1.2 Agreeing clear objectives and outcomes for the service user, including the identification of overall benefits.

1.3 Identifying any additional staff training and support needs to enable these outcomes to be realised.

1.4 Identifying stereotyping or attitudes that may prevent the service user from becoming fully involved in decision-making processes. (See clause 2.1 below).

2. Putting participation to practice:

2.1 Management practices and procedures are designed to ensure that the service user feels valued and that their input is welcomed. Issues which can act as barriers to successful service user participation are challenged through staff awareness and training.

2.2 Practices and procedures also address the needs of ethnic minorities and other special interest groups that may have unique requirements. For example:

• service users from black / minority ethnic groups;

• the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered communities;

• service users with special communication needs;

• service users with dementia and other mental health issues.

2.3 Staff training is geared to address these requirements, and where possible bilingual interpreters are involved for those service users whose first language is not English.

3. Feedback and review:

3.1 There is a formal policy for evaluating service user feedback (ref Policy No: 2101). The purpose here is to identify any problem areas of care service delivery, and to agree upon the following:

• remedial action needed;

• the target dates for completing this action;

• who will be responsible for achieving these targets.

3.2 Service users will be fully involved at all stages of the review of his / her personalised Care Plan, as appropriate to circumstances.

3.3 Ref. clause 3.1 above, service users are regularly up-dated on the progress of any remedial action taken, ensuring that the results are fully shared with the service user and the Organisation’s staff, as appropriate.