2 December - Mental Health Network - governance during the COVID-19 pandemic

We were joined for last week’s session by Iain Eaves, Director of Oversight and Assessment at NHSEI, who discussed the Single Outcome Framework rating process.

Overheard during the webinar:

“We can work together to get shared and beneficial outcomes for our local communities by using the current period of change to ensure improved outcomes for communities. Providers are being supported to set the right targets for the right outcomes, which are aligned to the needs of the local populations, and then aligned with regulatory bodies.”

[During a discussion about performance indicators]

“We can never do enough on patient voice, and this should be a starting point. In our trust, we are working on patient stories, and co-design between patients, carers and families in the design of services. We are missing the governor voice, which has changed over the years, which we are trying to focus on.”

We reflect patient voice via a video story, a report from Healthwatch and a report from our People's Council at every public board. We find it quite a natural thing to do, and have a theme in each public board around a particular service which centres around the patient. The People’s Council consists of patients, people from local voluntary and community sector organisations and Healthwatch, which is a way to hear multiple perspectives. We try to include as many patient-focused outcomes in our reports as possible, and we have a focus on access currently to try and improve this and the speed of the pathway.”

“Co-production is part of our DNA as an organisation. We include patient stories in boards, and it is grounding and powerful. We also have service users on our quality and safety committee, who bring a huge amount of knowledge and experience and helps inform how services are run. We also have diversity in decision-making representatives who attend all committees and consider the diversity aspect, and whilst they are staff they live in the communities the providers serve and helps make the trust consider different perspectives in decision-making.”

“Being in a lower grade and under scrutiny can become a Cath-22, and it can be hard to see the wood for the trees when there are immediate challenges and can feel harder to apply innovative practice. Carving out the time to begin those changes is important. We have recently introduced patient stories at the board and are ensuring there are clear outcomes of how it links back to the service, with concerns around ensuring patients don’t feel traumatized by sharing aspects of their stories. We are

considering the organisation as a whole and are interested in mapping where there may be

good practice and how we can share that across other services.”

These meetings are by invitation only. For further details, visit our events page.

If you have any comments, questions or suggestions about these webinars, please contact: events@good-governance.org.uk