What are our plans for 2011-12?

Here's our work plan for 2011-12!

The areas selected reflect both the statutory obligations of the LINk (the things we have to do) and also comments received from people in Somerset. The projects will continue to be based on comments from members of the public and this year we hope to gather far more stories from people in Somerset about treatment provided by health and social care services.

1. Building and encouraging our volunteers

We have recently welcomed 14 new volunteers to carry out the work of the LINk over the next year. These volunteers form a Stewardship Group (overseeing the LINk) and a Priorities Panel (project managing the work of the LINk and forming working groups). Various stakeholders have offered to help with training these volunteers in patient involvement and in equality and diversity: a theme which is becoming a more important part of the work of the LINk as time progresses. We are also hoping to recruit more Enter & View representatives this year in order to continue this volunteer-led work. We are intending to extend and develop our network of LINk Representatives who are currently attending key meetings across the county on behalf of the LINk. This work will be more formally reported over the next few months and will feed back to our Stewardship Group and Priorities Panel via a formal process.

2. Meetings and events:

The Stewardship Group and Priorities Panel have already agreed dates for future meetings including public meetings and events which have been publicised. Along with the new volunteer structure, we have a more formal plan of quarterly public meetings over the next year, with the aim of ensuring that volunteers and participants feel comfortable in engaging with the complex issues of NHS and social care reforms. The new volunteers will set the agenda and the themes for these meetings, and the staff team will provide the practical and back office support needed to ensure that these are well advertised and well attended, in accessible venues. Please get in touch with us if you would like our list of events for the year.

3. Patient Stories

This is our big project for the year. We aim to collect stories from people across Somerset, in order to collect together first-hand experiences of using health and social care services across Somerset. We will be collecting patient stories from across health services and also stories from people in care homes across Somerset. While engagement and collecting of issues is a part of the LINk's ongoing work, this will be a more formal project, with volunteers acting as distributers and collectors for patient stories, ensuring as wide a distribution and collection as possible. Key stories will be grouped into themes and written up into separate reports and individual issues will be followed up by the Priorities Panel and passed to the relevant providers or commissioners as required.

4. The Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA)

5. The Equalities Delivery System

The Equalities Delivery System is the mechanism through which the NHS will meet its public duty in relation to the Equality Act 2010. We are part of the EDS working group that is organising and responding to the new Equality Delivery System and the relevant duties. We have passed reports to NHS Somerset and are making sure that we are as informed as possible about how community groups can play in part in having their voice heard. This work is likely to feed into the work of HealthWatch who will be required to monitor health providers' responses to the new equality duties.

6. Enter and View

This year we will continue the rolling programme of Enter & View Visits looking at dignity in care in care homes and we will continue to identify best practice and provide reports & recommendations. Our trained group of volunteers in our Enter & View Team will continue to carry out visits this year and will feed their findings to the CQC. We expect to carry out approximately eight Enter & View Visits over the next year.

7. Public representation in the new health and social care landscape

The world of health and social care is changing rapidly with the planning and eventual ushering-in of the Health & Social Care Bill. It is an important time for us to make sure that patients and the public have an opportunity to make themselves heard in the new organisations that are emerging, such as GP Commissioning Consortia (GPCC) and Health and Wellbeing Boards. The LINk has good relationships with the organisations that are involved with these developing boards. We have a patient representative on the new interim GP Commissioning Consortium for Somerset and we are discussing how we can help support a public representative on the emerging Health and Wellbeing Board, that will be up and running in shadow form in the autumn of 2011.

8. GP Patient Participation Groups

The Patient Participation Group Network now represents around 60% of Somerset surgeries and we will continue to work with NHS Somerset and the PPG Chairs Network and support the development of PPGs, particularly in surgeries where these are emerging. We will continue to support the Chairs' Network and monitor its progress as it discovers ways of making the most of opportunities for patient engagement in the new world of GP and clinically-led commissioning. We also hope to continue to provide a PPG fund to enable local groups to run their own small involvement projects and cover their running costs.

For more information

For more information about this year's workplan, or if you would like to help with any aspect of this work, please get in touch with us by emailling somersetlink@makesachange.org.uk or telephone 01458 250674.