Public Involvement Evaluation
It is important that we are continually examining our public involvement practice and the impact this has on our work with people and communities.
An effective formative approach to evaluation will enable Derbyshire Integrated Care System (ICS) to:
- Demonstrate the impact of working with people and communities
- Learn as we implement our strategy
- Be held accountable to people, communities, NHSEI and the Integrated Care Board (ICB) and partners.
The development of the evaluation framework presents us with a golden opportunity to co-produce and co-design an approach to how we evaluate and quality assure our work with people and communities.
Evaluation Event 2023
We held an evaluation in the summer of 2023 which was an opportunity for colleagues across the system, Voluntary and Community Sector and Enterprise (VCSE) partners, system lay representatives to come together to help co-design our approach. We held discussions around:
- Why it is important for the ICS to ensure the voices of patients, carers and communities are sought out, listened to, and utilised?
- What is the ultimate goal or outcome of engaging people and communities?
- What is important about how people and communities are engaged in the work of the ICS?
- What would be the elements of success?
The feedback from the event has been used to develop our Theory of Change (ToC) Model which will be at the heart of our Evaluation Framework. The ToC is a recognised method of evaluation that provides a visual representation of an organisations overarching ambition, principles, and outcomes with a clear path from the current situation to the desired one and considers the necessary resources, activities, and outputs to achieve that.
The key to a formative approach is the ability to evaluate as you go. This allows for a more nuanced and responsive model of evaluation that acknowledges that the environment is in constant development, we are constantly learning and what is right for today maybe different in the future.
We will now work with a smaller group to share the Theory of Change, and check that it fully reflects the feedback, further refine it, and finalise it.
Oversight and Monitoring Success
We are intending to launch a Lay Reference Group will be a sub-group of the Public Partnership Committee (PPC) which sits below the Integrated Care Board (ICB). The PPC is designed to assess risk and seek assurance in relation to the delivery of statutory duties to inform, involve and consult patients and the public as defined within the Health and Social Care Act 2022 and the NHS Act 2006. In addition to getting involved in developing the strategy for engagement at the beginning, the PPC can also review the intelligence gathered at the end of this process to check if the strategy has been implemented correctly and that the intelligence gathered has influenced the outcome.
The PPC has a limited membership of lay representatives, so to support them in their work, it has been agreed that we can create a Lay Reference Group, with a diverse range of people participating to represent a wider range of communities. Part of the core remit of the Lay Reference Group will be to oversee the Evaluation Framework and monitor its success, alongside various other tasks which we hope to co-design.
This work is led by Hannah Morton from the Engagement Team. To find out more contact ddicb.engagement@nhs.net