At NHS Kent and Medway we are committed to having a range of ways for people to engage with us to help improve services.
Governance
The responsibility to make sure the organisation is adequately engaging sits with the Board who seek assurance the public has been involved where required.
Board and committee papers have a front cover where those submitting papers are required to indicate how they have considered patient and public engagement.
We provide a section in our annual reports about how we’ve engaged with the public and there is an NHS England scrutiny process and rating as part of the assurance.
Involving people and communities strategy
We have developed a new Involving People and Communities Strategy, which was agreed in our board papers November 22. This builds on work developed in previous years with patients and carers and different communities across Kent and Medway. Read more on our ways to get involved page.
By 2025, our strategy aims to:
- Embed effective engagement in everything we do – with co-production as the gold standard for how we work
- Inform and empower people about health and wellbeing – targeting our resources to support communities experiencing worse health outcomes and providing accessible information
- Build trust in NHS Kent and Medway – providing clarity on our role and vision as an NHS organisation, partner and employer
- Develop communications and engagement skills – supporting our colleagues, partners and local communities to play their part.
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Establish an oversight approach to decision-making: making sure we put the voices of people and communities at the centre of decision-making and governance, at every level of the ICS.
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Create tools and platforms to increase engagement and co-production: to maximise our engagement and co-production with people and communities using multiple engagement methods and tools.
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Understand our people and community needs, experiences and aspirations for health and care: using engagement to facilitate change and making sure it is has the desired effect.
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Inform and empower people about health and wellbeing: using community development engagement approaches to empower people and communities, especially those experiencing worse health outcomes and providing accessible information.
