Service User-led and Carer-informed Care

Adult social care providers strive to deliver care that places the service user truly at the heart of everything they do. This is sometimes easier said than done. Care managers and teams strive to deliver care safely and to an exceptional standard, but they can sometimes miss the views and opinions of the people they are providing care for when making decisions.

However, moving forward, services must renew focus on care delivery that is service user-led and carer/manager-informed to ensure they are meeting the needs of the people in their care. There are various opportunities that can be explored to fulfil this outcome. We outline a few below.

Service used-led recruitment

Bear with us here… One significant area that service users should be involved in is the recruitment of staff. This might raise some feelings of discomfort – isn’t recruitment hard enough! – but why shouldn’t those most directly impacted by recruitment be involved in the process? It’s time to acknowledge that some of the best decision makers for staff appointments are those using the service. Yes, skills, knowledge, and experience are considerations, but so too are personal attributes.  

Service user meetings

Regular meetings with service user groups should have a clear focus and set agenda items that include various aspects of service provision. These meetings should be chaired by the manager with minutes takes and shared with service users and wider stakeholders via a newsletter. For example: in care homes, these could focus on home decoration and garden space, menu and activity planning, and plants for social events and trips.

Service user ambassadors

Service providers should also consider appointing a couple of service user ambassadors. These would be elected by other service users and demonstrate a keen interest and involvement in how the service is delivered, as well as having the desire to act as a representative of all those receiving care. Ambassadors could also support new and prospective service users and their families, being available to answer questions and providing honest feedback of their own experiences of the service.

In addition to this and to obtain maximum impact, the Board should consider including ambassadors in monthly Board meetings. This would provide an opportunity for the Board to hear valuable feedback from service users, helping to inform strategy and decisions within the business. At the same time, directors and executives would have the opportunity share information directly with service users via the ambassadors.

The heart of the service

By putting service users at the heart of everything we do as service providers, we must give them a voice and enable that voice to be heard at all levels within the organisation. Only by doing this will providers be able to evidence that they deliver care that is led by the users of their service.

For more information on Service User-led and Carer-informed Care talk to W&P Assessment and Training Centre