As part of the Service User Involvement Action Plan we have held consultation groups across the region, to review Southdown policies and receive service user feedback. This is then used by senior management to modify and change policies accordingly. There are 6 meetings per year to work on the key priorities. The structure is a ‘core hour’ of discussion time within a 2 hour slot to allow for some lunch and relaxed chat. There is also a guest slot where team leaders and other managers are invited to attend. Recent discussions have focused on: Confidentiality The policy needs to reflect that information sharing is in partnership with service users, except in the case of an emergency. The confidentiality agreement needs to be reviewed at each Development Planning meeting and service users need to know the procedure if they feel confidentiality has been breached. Risk Management The group felt that it would be good for service users to be made aware of the training that staff receive around risk management and that Southdown needs to ensure that contractors are sensitive to the needs of service users when visiting their homes. Development planning The group thought that it would be a good move to rename the process ‘Action Planning’ as this seems a much more proactive process.
They also felt that there needs to be a clear appeals process if a service user doesn’t agree with their action plan, and that the right to appeal needs to be mentioned at every review meeting.