Engaging and involving service users and the general public can be done in a variety of ways. We can help make sure patients are at the heart of your decision making and are involved in helping develop your services on a continuous basis.
Whether you need to consult to comply with statutory legislation during major change or to help continuously improve services, doing it in the right way with the right people will help you meet the needs of your communities. You can be confident that whatever the reasons for your consultation, the support from our experienced team will be best practice, robust and rigorous.
We have helped our customers to negotiate and interpret legislative and democratic processes, and given expert advice on communication and engagement methods, and how these should be best used to enhance service delivery.
Engagement
Involving patients and the public can help develop service improvements, test ideas out, get suggestions and feedback. Our experienced team can advise on how to do this in a strategic way as well as develop the tools and deliver the engagement activities for you.
Consultation
Our experts have many years’ experience public consultation and know how to deliver this in the right way, from reaching the target audience to analysing results. Whatever the issue we make sure all consultations are carried out rigorously and to best practice standards.
Our offer
Our offer is bespoke to customer needs and can include:
- Development of engagement strategies to suit your organisation
- Expert knowledge of best practice
- Experience and ability to identify and reach a diverse audience
- Ability to identify and use the best tools for engagement
- Delivering engagement and involvement strategies using the most appropriate methods and best practice approaches
- Analysing and reporting of results
- Advice and guidance on when consultations should be carried out
- Expert knowledge of adhering to legal and statutory requirements, including the NHS Act 2006 and Equality act 2010
- Research into and understanding of the right stakeholders to consult with
- Knowledge of the best tools to reach different audiences
- Delivery of consultation exercises including collation of results
- Analysing and reporting of results and impact.
How we’ve helped – Gaining public insight on reshaping health services in Nottingham
Nottingham and Nottinghamshire CCG conducted a phase of pre-consultation public engagement over November and December 2020 on proposals to transform hospital services at Nottingham University Hospitals (NUH) NHS Trust.
NECS was asked to support the CCG by developing and delivering the following public engagement materials and events including a public-facing engagement summary document and stakeholder briefing, including easy-read versions to allow for accessibility.
Working within the budget the NECS Communications and Engagement team developed an engagement plan and all associated collateral within a three-week period. This involved liaising closely with the customer and key stakeholders including NUH and Healthwatch.
Read the full case study here: Gaining public insight on reshaping health services in Nottingham
How we’ve helped – Specialist Rehabilitation Centre in the East Midlands
From late 2019 to autumn 2020 NECS worked with NHS Clinical Commissioning Groups in the East Midlands on a major public consultation on proposals to create a £70m specialist rehabilitation centre on the Stanford Hall Rehabilitation Estate, near Loughborough.
The creation of a new centre aims to transform the quality and capacity of care for people recovering from major trauma, musculoskeletal conditions, amputation or neuro-rehabilitation issues.
Find out more in our full case study here: Specialist Rehabilitation Centre in the East Midlands
How we’ve helped – Public consultation on the future of urgent care services at the Friarage Hospital in Northallerton
Our Communications and Engagement team provided planning, delivery and advisory support to the urgent care consultation led by NHS Hambleton, Richmondshire and Whitby Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) which took place between 13th September 2019 and 17th January 2020.
Find out more about how we helped in our case study here: Friarage Hospital Urgent Care
How we’ve helped – Patient engagement on the future of Breast Diagnostic Services in South Tees
In 2019/20 NECS worked with South Tees Clinical Commissioning Group in the planning and delivery of a twelve-week patient/public engagement exercise, listening to service users experience of Breast Diagnostic Services and how they work for patients in the South Tees area.
Read the full case study here: Patient engagement on the future of Breast Diagnostic Services
