User Involvement Policy/procedure

Policy Statement

Solihull Mind values the experience, skills and knowledge people with direct personal experience of mental distress bring to the organisation.

Solihull Mind aims to give people the opportunities, skills, support and confidence to enable them to work effectively at all levels within the organisation.

Solihull Mind recognises that people within our services may also use other mental health provision and therefore lobbies other agencies for peoples right to be involved in decisions about their own treatment and care; and also to contribute to local/national commissioning and policy making.

Solihull mind recognises the positive value of engaging with, and learning from, wider user networks and forums (e.g User Voice, Mindlink etc ) ; and other user led organisations, including those within the L.M.A network.

Solihull Mind recognises the diversity of the people who may wish to use our services; and wishes to run an organisation and provide services which reflect this diversity.

Solihull Mind aims to integrate user involvement into all activities including the monitoring/development of individual services; organisational policies and procedures; and overall organisational direction. This approach means that it is the joint responsibility of all staff, volunteers, and trustees to ensure we gather and reflect the views, needs, and aspirations of the people who use our services.

If we are effective in this goal we will expect to have a high percentage of people who experience mental health problems at all levels of influence within the organisation - i.e members, trustees, staff etc; and as a consequence the structures for wider user involvement will be developed and valued.

In addition, having an organisation that is run by people with personal experience of mental distress directly challenges the negative stereo-types/stigma surrounding people with mental health problems; which can so damage people's self esteem, confidence and opportunities for being socially included as full citizens.

We also, however, recognise the right of individuals to use services (ours or other providers) exclusively because they feel they help manage their mental ill-health or promote well-being; and that some people do not want to engage in what they can feel is intrusive or stressful service monitoring activities or wider collective user involvement; and we will not therefore make the delivery/receipt of our services conditional on engaging with these processes.

Areas of Involvement

People can become involved at a variety of levels within the organisation as follows:

Governance - Trustees/committee members.

The Board of Trustees is elected annually ( other than for the positions of Chairperson and Treasurers where it is every 3 years to help provide continuity) by the members at the Annual General Meeting. Any member can stand - membership is open to anyone who lives or works in the borough of Solihull; and costs £1 for people in work and 50p for people on benefits.

All those standing as trustees are required to have been a member for one year and be proposed/seconded by two other members; and both those being nominated and the proposers have to give written reasons why they wish to be a trustee/support the nomination and this information is give to all members to assist them in the decisions.

Basic information on the role/responsibility of a trustee are sent to all members prior to the A.G.M to allow them to consider becoming a member of the Executive committee(Trustee board) ; and this is followed up by more detailed organisational and financial information, plus policy documents etc to the elected trustees. Regular training on policies, procedures, responsibilities and any particular issues facing the organisation is given as part of the support to all trustees

The organisation positively encourages people who have mental health issues to be part of the board of trustees ( it has averaged around 90% for the past 15 years); and in particular those with current experiences of our services so that we can gain the best service monitoring/development guidance both from their own experiences and the views trustees have gathered from other people using a particular service.

Where the Membership elected trustees do not provide the diversity/skills that the trustees feel they need to manage the organisation they can co-opt people with specialist experience/knowledge onto the board.

Planning and policy developments

This can be either routinely as part of the board of trustees; or as part of more specific service developments/ wider guidance on new policy documents etc.

The Board of trustees has overall responsibility for developing policies and organisation planning; however they also need to collect the views of staff and people using the services as part of this activity to ensure they have all relevant information.

For users of our services this may be collected through the established user group, one-off meetings, smaller working groups, questionnaires, or more informal feedback through staff/trustees; and for staff through general staff meetings, one-to-one discussions, or separate one-off meetings depending on the issue being considered.

Service delivery and monitoring

This can be either as part of the general responsibilities of the trustees/staff; or as part of the gathering of information around service developments and routine service monitoring activities.
All services routinely collect feedback/monitoring information from the people using it to guide in the development of that service and/or the organisation policies/ procedures that are applied across all delivery areas.

Where there are specific issues - e.g proposed changes in service delivery, funding concerns etc - then these would be addressed separately through staff meetings/one to one supervision; the weekly user group; one-off meetings; or working groups etc.

Those delivering services for the organisation - whether paid or unpaid - are required to adhere to the same policies, procedures, and code of conduct; so although it is acknowledged that in some cases employed staff may have more/wider experience, routinely service users should get comparable services whoever delivers it on behalf of the organisation.

Staff recruitment

All staff are recruited using equal opportunities recruitment procedures; and panel members will have the training to deliver this. Selection panels have a minimum of 50% ( 2 out of 4) of service users - routinely it is much higher than this - and all members are involved as a team throughout the whole recruitment procedure.

The value of recruiting people with direct lived experience into paid and unpaid roles within the organisation is acknowledged; and over the last 10 years we have had an average of 90% of paid staff and 60% of volunteers/sessional workers who are also either present or recent users of mental health services.

In addition to their direct service delivery, service user workers have an impact on the aims/direction of the organisation; make people feel safer using services and trusting the organisation; provide positive role models for other service users; and challenge the negative stereotypes/stigma associated with having a mental health problem.

External engagement and changing attitudes

People using services/ staff/ and trustees are supported/encouraged to become involved in local mental health forums/ user groups (including Mindlink); local service planning and monitoring committees (e.g the Mental Health LIT/ Partnership Board/ Positive mental health group etc); one-off issue based events/ workshops/ working parties both locally and within the Mind network; and direct contact in groups or individually with service funders/commissioners; in order express their views and contribute their knowledge and skills to mental health service development.

Service users also work with Mental Health Awareness trainer to provide up to date information on the experience of using services; opinions on proposed changes in legislation/ service delivery models; and examples of being stigmatised/ socially excluded; which supports our work around challenge negative attitudes both within mental health service providers and the wider public. Service users may also become involved in the development of training packages and the direct delivery of training alongside the Mental Heath Awareness Trainer; as well as having their experiences/ views gathered and expressed where the organisation has been asked to comment on specific pieces of research or local/national policies etc.

Conclusion

Solihull Mind has at its core the involvement of people with direct lived experience of mental health problems; and seeks both to include people within our own organisation and make sure their voice is heard outside - whether through individual advocacy protecting rights and gaining the most appropriate services; or lobbying for collective rights and involvement in local/national service providers, planning and policy making forums.

In order to achieve this, we aim to be creative in the ways we engage with people so that we gather the views/experiences of as many people as possible, not just those who feel comfortable attending meetings/ completing questionnaires and engaging in the ways we have described above. In order to maximize involvement a range of channels/mechanisms are used to allow people to comment on services, policies, needs, and priorities. These include:

- the open door policy of the Mind Director and other staff members allows routine access for people to express ideas, ask questions, make comments/ suggestions and complaints.

- the easy access to trustees by service users as most trustees use services regularly so they are frequently available in the building for formal or informal contact, which allows them to gather views from people who do not usually attend the weekly user group or one off meetings. This also allows us to pick up issues/needs at an early stage and make a speedy response.

- The supportive/positive environment we aim to develop within services helps people feel they can contribute or make comment (even negatively) and it will be taken seriously and considered.

- The Trustees, Director and staff members get involved in all the one off social/ sports events which helps people get to know them and see them as approachable which allows people to feel safe to express their views and ideas.

More generally the visible involvement of people with mental health problems throughout the organisation gives those who come to use services greater confidence to express opinions, ideas, and get more involved; so continuing to ensure we are a strong user run organisation.

This policy will be reviewed bi-annually or more regularly if new information requires a review.