Co-designing New Community Approaches

• Importance of engagement, PPF approach, lived experience involvement

Your role in transforming health and care

Plan for the Future outlines our intent for the Grampian health and care system to listen to what is important to people and work in collaboration with people to build the best system possible. This is about how services are designed but also about working as a system which connects with community supports and assets to enable people to take an active role in their own health and wellbeing.

Putting People First is our agreed approach to listening to and involving everyone living in the local area. This is endorsed by the NHS Grampian board and is a long term commitment to changing how we do things. You can read the full framework here: putting-people-first-approach-may-2024-2.pdf

Developing Community Appointment Days and other approaches which work with the public as equal partners is part of how we are starting to work differently.

This is not a one size fits all approach but about collaborating within our system, creating the conditions where we value the expertise of lived experience equally alongside service expertise to co-produce new ways of doing things which increase people’s ability to take ownership over their health.

Whilst this makes common sense, this is also supported by a strong evidence base that empowered and engaged colleagues leads to more effective services and that co-production with communities can create more effective approaches to helping people live well.

You have an important role to play as we need people from all parts of the system to collaborate and be willing to try new approaches together.  There is no blueprint for how this is done but our approach is to find new partnerships, be willing to test new models and learn together.

How to find the right people to connect with, Community of Practice etc.  

You are not alone – join fellow travellers and get support

If you are thinking about setting up a CAD or a related approach which works with the public as equal partners, please contact: gram.puttingpeoplefirst@nhs.scot and you will be added to the Teams site.  This site will give you access to all the paperwork, tools as well as inspiration from other areas. You will also see here any upcoming learning events which are being planned.  You can also post an announcement in the Teams site and ask any questions you have.

When you send your email to gram.puttingpeoplefirst@nhs.scot your CAD idea will be logged on the PPF CAD development plan. This is to ensure we have an overview of all the potential CADs planned so we can make sure that they are spread across the year and also to see if there are opportunities to join up connected approaches.

You will also be offered the opportunity for a 1-1 conversation with one of the team who has been actively working on the CADs in Grampian to help you get started.

• Who are the key people needed at the start of the process

Getting started – taking time to think and connect

To get started, a key element is defining what you want to achieve; doing this will help you identify who are the key NHS, HSCP and third sector partners who are working in this space.   Once you know this, get interested people around the table for a conversation to explore what might be possible as early as you can.  This will ensure you are able to connect and collaborate with others so you can build cross system buy-in from the onset.  It may take a bit of time to get going, but our advice is to preserve and go with the willing to get started.

If you are unsure where to start, email gram.puttingpeoplefirst@nhs.scot for an exploratory conversation.

• Potential funding required and where to get it

Don’t let money/lack of resource stop you from progressing

The idea of Community Appointment Day and related approaches is to make the most of the resources we already have in our system by improving how we collaborate around a specific group of people, whether that’s by a specific condition or by a geographical area.  There is support already in the system to help with monitoring and evaluation, planning the events, supporting with how best to involve lived experience and the CAD community of practice and we can help you connect with these supports.

However, some CADs have initial start-up costs such as banners, rooms hire, costs of teas and coffees.  The best advice would be to get started and see what is possible within existing resources, see what can be borrowed or shared from the existing system.  If this leaves gaps, some areas have applied for small amounts of charity funding and we can advise on this depending on the specifics of what you are planning.

Back to Community Appointment Day Guide