Fact Sheet Number 2
How to Set Up a Service User Group
January 2009
Promoting Wellbeing Team
Southern Health & Social Care Trust
St Luke’s Hospital, Loughgall Road, Armagh BT61 7NQ
Tel: 028 3741 2468 Fax: 028 3741 2425
Email: carolyn.agnew@southerntrust.hscni.net
If you or your Service Users require this information in a more
accessible format or in another language please contact the above address.
Service User Groups
Service User Groups are groups of people who meet to discuss a
particular project, a specific issue and/or to advocate on behalf of
other service users.
The structure of Service User
Groups can range from informal with very little in the way of
management arrangements to quite formal where the group becomes
independently constituted. The nature of the group will depend on its
purpose and why it was set up. Service User Groups can be an
effective way of gathering views that have the potential to influence
service design and delivery which in turn leads to a more responsive,
effective service for users.
Why Involve Service Users?
Identifying why you are involving Service Users is fundamental to
good user involvement practice. There are many reasons why you
may want to set up a Service User Group:
• To recognise the right and need of service users to be involved;
• To demonstrate the organisation’s commitment to user
involvement;
• To provide an ongoing source of users’ views to evaluate and
assess service development;
• To provide a source of ideas for developing the service;
• To establish a forum which can advocate on behalf of other
service users to improve service delivery.
What is the purpose of a Service User Group
You will need to think about the purpose of your Service User Group.
Consider the following points:
• Who is the group for?
• What is its’ role?
• How will it benefit stakeholders (why would people want to
attend)?
• How does the group feed into the Trust as an organisation?
• Will this group have the power to influence decisions?
• What are the parameters?
Who should be a member of the group?
• Who will lead the group?
• If a User is to lead the group, what training is required/available
to them?
• Who should be involved?
• What is expected of them?
• How will they be appointed to the group?
• Will the group be advertised?
• What is the time commitment?
• How much support do members require?
• What support is available?
• Are members clear about their roles and responsibilities?
• Will service users represent themselves or are they able to feed
back to a wider audience?
• Is Community/Voluntary Group representation required as well?
• What other partners should be involved?
Where should the group meet?
The venue for your User Group meeting should suit the needs of the
Service Users. Try and provide a central location that is easily
accessed. Other points to consider are: 9
9
9
9
9
9
9
9
Do group members need reimbursement for travel?
What are the needs of the group members?
Is there disabled access to the building?
Do any group members require a loop system i.e. for people
with a hearing difficulty?
Are there lifts available e.g. .for older people or people with a
disability?
Is there a need for an interpreter for those who do not speak
English or for those who have a sensory impairment?
Is the venue comfortable i.e. heating, lighting etc?
Can refreshments be provided?
9 Do people feel safe in this venue/area?
9 Are there any distractions?
When should a Service User Group meeting be held?
The timing of your group meetings is really important. Service Users
will need plenty of notice to prepare for the meeting and to make
alternative arrangements. If, for example, you are meeting with
carers they will need to get someone in to look after the person they
are caring for to enable them to attend the meeting. Here are a few
points to consider: 9 Have members been contacted to ask when suits them e.g.
best day, best time?
9 Should the meeting be held in the morning/ afternoon/ evening
to suit the needs of members? For example, if you are meeting
with mothers of young children, mornings may be better for
them to coincide with school times
9 Have participants been informed of date, time (start and
expected finishing time), and venue well in advance of
meeting?
9 Do participants know what to expect?
What is the life expectancy of the group?
You will also need to think about how many times your group will
meet? Is it going to be a short-term group or an ongoing long-term
group? Consider the following:
• Is the Service User Group for a one-off project?
• Does the group need to meet regularly for a short period of time
for a specific project?
• Is this a long-term project that will need long-term commitment
from Service Users?
• If it is a long-term project, does the group need to think about
developing formal structures? i.e. constitution, committee etc. If
this is the case, please refer to our fact sheet on constitutions.
Resources
You will need to think of what resources will be needed to establish
your Service User Group. Funding needs to be provided to cover the
cost of involvement and specific budgets should be set aside to cover
this.
Costs
may
include
venue
hire,
hospitality,
interpreting/translation and the reimbursement of Service User
expenses such as travel, childcare and caring costs.
How to set up a Service User Group
When you have considered the previous questions of Who, Why,
Where and What? here’s how in two easy steps!
Step 1 – Planning the Involvement
You will need to set up a meeting to plan the involvement of service
users on the group. Consider the following:
• What other partners should be involved in planning the
involvement
i.e.
other
relevant
staff
members,
community/voluntary representatives with a special interest in
the particular area of focus
• Contact your User Involvement Team for advice and support
with planning if required.
Step 2 – Recruiting Service Users
Attracting Service Users to join the group is the first step in
establishing a Service User Involvement Group. You will need to
gauge interest from service users/carers who are currently accessing
your particular service or from users/carers who have been through
the system in the past. There are a range of methods you can
employ to recruit service users. Consider the following:
• Develop a newsletter about your service and use it to
promote/publicise the group with contact details for people who
are interested to forward nominations
• Organise a poster ‘campaign’ where posters are displayed in
waiting areas/day centres/wards etc to publicise the group
• Send a letter out to patients when inviting them for
appointments explaining about the service and outlining the
benefits of having a Service User Group (Remember to always
use plain English and never use jargon)
• Develop an information leaflet about your service. Include a
piece on the Service User Group and ask people who are
interested to contact you.
• Advertise in local newspapers – there is no charge for this if
you make your ad a press release
• Get a slot on your local radio station to promote your service
and ask for interested people to contact you.
• Trawl for members through existing community/voluntary
networks, for example Alzheimer’s Society, Disability Action,
Mental Health Forums, Senior Citizen Forums, Women’s
Networks, Child Care Forums etc (Your locality Promoting
Wellbeing Team can provide a list of networks in your area)
• Hold a public event to promote/publicise
• Develop a short questionnaire to gauge people’s interest in
joining your service user group
Don’t worry if you don’t have a lot of numbers to start with. Quite
often these groups start small and evolve and develop over time.
Step 2
Organise a meeting.
When you have successfully recruited members for your group, you
will need to set up a meeting to discuss the Terms of Reference.
These should outline why the group is being established, aims and
objectives, membership, and functions of your group. These should
be discussed and agreed by all stakeholders. If you are unsure about
conducting your first meeting, consider inviting an independent
person to facilitate. Seek advice from your local Promoting Wellbeing
Team who will be able to advise and support you with this. At the first
meeting consider the following points:
• Ground rules should be agreed at the beginning of the first
meeting and should include a statement outlining the
boundaries of the group’s functions;
• Identify clear aims and objectives together as a group;
• Agree communication mechanisms i.e. how will the group feed
into Trust structures in order to influence decision-making?
• Identify clear outcomes to be achieved;
• Appoint a chairperson to facilitate meetings. It is good practice
to appoint a service user to chair meetings. (If they need some
training on how to do this you should contact your locality
Promoting Wellbeing team for advice and support)
• Be honest with people about why you are asking them to be
involved and what their level of involvement will be;
• Encourage people by highlighting the value of their involvement
however big or small;
• Be clear about timescales and deadlines;
• Avoid using jargon. Where you have to use technical language
and jargon make sure that it is explained;
• Make sure that any information that is provided is clear,
attractive, brief and easy to understand;
• Be clear about what can and cannot be changed;
• Set small attainable goals for change. It is easier to build on
small successes than to overcome large failures;
• Allow involvement to be flexible. Make sure anyone is able to
withdraw if they choose to and make sure that substitutes are
available;
• Agree clear procedures for keeping everyone informed of
development;
• Set the date and time for future meetings;
• Administration – check contact details.
After the first meeting
Remember to always feed back to everyone after each meeting and
keep members involved in and informed of developments between
meetings. For specific projects or pieces of work you may want to
consider establishing smaller working groups for this purpose who
could feed back to the larger group.
Remember groups take time to develop so be realistic about
timescales and expectations.
How will the involvement process be evaluated?
It is important to review and evaluate the involvement process that
you have gone through to establish your service user group.
Consider the following:
• Does the group have appropriate and relevant representation
i.e. are all stakeholders involved? E.g. community/voluntary
sector/users/appropriate staff representation?
• It is important that the group is not ‘top heavy’ with statutory
representatives. A good ‘rule of thumb’ is to have 50% + 1
user/carer representation.
• Do
you
feedback
important
information
to
other
individuals/organisations?
• Do you have a database of relevant contacts?
It is also important to review and evaluate the effectiveness of the
group. This should be carried out after the first 6 months of the group
being established and should be an ongoing process on an annual
basis or more frequently if appropriate. Consider the following:
•
•
•
•
•
Is the group doing what it was set up to do?
Are the work streams for the group based on need?
Are members clear about roles and responsibilities?
What outcomes have been achieved?
Has involvement had any impact on the decision making
process?
• Are members committed to the aims and objectives?
• Do members attend meetings regularly?
If you require any further advice, assistance or support, please
do not hesitate to contact us.
The Role of the PPI Team
The role of the PPI Team is to work across Directorates and
Programmes of Care to ensure user involvement and volunteering
practice are integral within the development and delivery of their
services. The PPI Team are here to provide advice, information,
education, and training and will also support managers and staff
within Directorates and POCs to develop action plans to enhance
user involvement and volunteering.
Carolyn Agnew (Head of Service for User Involvement and
Professional Lead for Community Development)
Tel: 028 3741 2519
carolyn.agnew@southerntrust.hscni.net
Nikki Girvan User Involvement Development Officer (Mental Health
and Disability/Acute Services)
Tel: 028 3741 2493
nikki.girvan@southerntrust.hscni.net
Sinead Hughes User Involvement Development Officer (Older
People and Primary Care/Children and Young People’s Services)
Tel: 028 3741 2523
sinead.hughes@southerntrust.hscni.net