Colleagues from a wide range of health and social care charities, voluntary sector organisations, along with commissioner and service provider representatives met on 27 February in London to discuss various approaches for ensuring people are put at the heart of their care, making the vision of ‘no decision about me, without me’ a reality.
The one-day conference featured successful case studies from the Year of Care programme and The Health Foundation which have run projects within local communities to involve people more widely in decision making about their care. Jeremy Taylor, Chief Executive of National Voices, also spoke about the importance of identifying what steps need to be taken by individuals and organisations to make this happen.
Delegates had an opportunity to discuss the roles that patients, service users and their representative organisations, commissioners, providers and the centre need to take to allow people to take more control of their care, identify what the various challenges might be for the different parts of the system, and propose possible solutions for overcoming these challenges.
One attendee reflected that the “excellent networking and sharing of ideas and different approaches with others was very valuable….we are at the beginning of a journey, which requires patient input from the beginning.”
The afternoon also saw Sir David Nicholson, NHS Chief Executive and David Behan, Director General, Social Care, Local Government and Care Partnerships, attend the event to discuss and answer questions about the opportunities we have for changing health and social care services so that they best meet the needs of patients and service users, and the importance of doing this.
Further information about the themes discussed on the day will be made available shortly.