The Engaging Communities Staffordshire project aims to establish a social enterprise that brings together public engagement, consultation, complaints, and consumer advice services. Work began in 2010 in response to recommendations around public involvement. Jessie Cunnett has led the work, involving 19 organizations. The new organization will operate as a Community Interest Company, sourcing services locally and directly. It will benefit commissioners by supporting evidence-based decisions and providers by bringing independence to feedback mechanisms. The goal is for the organization to launch in January 2012 after a transition period.

1. Engaging Communities Staffordshire Project
FAQs May 2011
1 What is Engaging Communities?
The Engaging Communities vision is to establish a social enterprise that will ultimately bring
public engagement, consultation, complaints and consumer advice and insight services
together through a central independent organisation.
2 When and how did the Engaging Communities Staffordshire project start?
Work started on this project in May 2010. It came about as part of a DH sponsored project to
develop partnerships across patient and stakeholder groups in response to the David Colin
Thomé report into Mid Staffs. The initial phase of the project has been sponsored by
Staffordshire County Council in partnership with South Staffs PCT, Mid Staffs and the DH and
has had two phases, May – August 2010 was a chance to test the idea and September 2010
to date has been to develop and refine the idea and the model. The original group has met
periodically throughout to oversee the project from a strategic point of view.
3 Who has been involved in the work to date?
Jessie Cunnett from Patient and Public Involvement Solutions has been leading the work to
date. Along with members of staff who are directly involved in public involvement locally as
well as the Local Involvement Network and other voluntary and community sector
organisations. In all, 19 organisations have been directly involved in the design of the
Engaging Communities model and proposals.
4 How will it benefit you?
By co-ordinating information centrally it will become a county-wide hub of consumer
information, an intelligent organisation, to enable you to see the ‘bigger picture’ in a way that
has not been possible before, informing your decisions and alerting you to problems. You will
know who is being engaged and who isn’t and be able to address the imbalance of influence
to ensure all voices have an equal platform. You will be able to make efficiencies by reducing
duplication of effort and pooling back office functions. The more agencies that commission the
organisation the more intelligent it will become.
5 How will it operate?
It will be a Community Interest Company acting as an umbrella body, it will source and sub
contract to agencies, groups and organisations that locally already do things well, as well as
where appropriate provide some services directly. It will have an Advisory Committee made up
of statutory sector and voluntary sector stakeholders.
6 What’s in it for you as a commissioner?
You will be able to procure the new organisation to develop relationships with communities
and generate feedback to provide evidence based intelligence to support your commissioning
decisions. You will also benefit from a wider set of patient and public intelligence gathered
through the other services it provides, for example access to trends generated through
HealthWatch and its consumer advice services.
7 What’s in it for you as a provider?
The new organisation will be able to bring independence and transparency to some of your
existing patient and public feedback mechanisms. For example it could host your complaints
or PALS services. That doesn’t have to mean that teams are ‘off-site’ or ‘outside’ the
organisation but that the service is provided through an independent third party. What better
way to show that you are open and have nothing to hide, directly influencing public trust and
confidence. It will also help GPs to meet requirements in the patient participation DES and
CQC compliance.
Patient and Public Involvement Solutions Ltd. 2011 www.patientpublicinvolvement.com 1

2. 8 What’s in it for you as a regulator or scrutineer?
This is really where the value of the new organisations ability to create a sense of the ‘bigger
picture’ through its engagement with the community comes into it’s own. Acting as an early
warning system to ensure the experiences of users are heard and communicated to those who
need to know will be invaluable.
9 How will it help you to comply with the legislation to involve and consult?
You will be able to commission the new organisation to carry out consultation and engagement
activity on your behalf. Creating a more co-ordinated approach, reducing duplication and
bringing the added value of the shared intelligence.
10 What’s in it for our consumers?
At present there are in excess of 10 statutory organisations in Staffordshire who have a legal
duty to involve and consult their communities. It is not unusual for a number of these
organisations to engage with the same communities on similar issues, sometimes at the same
time leading communities to become tired and disengaged. Through Engaging Communities
Staffordshire statutory organisations will be able to signpost local people through a single point
of access, the new organisation will ensure people can be involved and engaged, supported
and have their voices heard through a range of options that most closely meet their needs.
11 How will the new organisation relate to Healthwatch?
We anticipate that Healthwatch will be one of the services provided through the new
organisation.
12 How will the new organisation support the new Health and Well Being Board?
Through access to the community the new organisation will be very well placed to help the
Health and Well Being Board to consider its objectives including; assessing the needs of local
populations, promoting partnerships, joint commissioning and scrutiny of major service re-
design. There is more work to be done, but we envisage this would be achieved through the
Healthwatch seat on the Health and Well Being Board.
13 When will the new organisation be operational?
A transition phase will take place between April and the end of December 2011, we expect the
organisation to launch in January 2012. As part of the transition we will appoint a project
manager and a shadow board who will get the new organisation up and running.
14 What is happening next?
We hope you are as excited as we are by the Engaging Communities project and the
possibilities it provides. Involvement from a wider group of project partners is now essential to
move the creation of the organisation to the next stage. We are aware that we exist in difficult
times and that budgets are very tightly squeezed but local organisations can see the benefit of
a small investment to meet the challenges head on to triangulate quality, safety and efficiency
by putting patients and the public at the centre.
15 What sort of commitment are we looking at?
We are not looking for a long-term commitment at this stage as there is clearly lots more work
to do. We have already managed to secure £32,000 from the Social Enterprise Investment
Fund. Staffordshire County Council, the PCT Cluster, Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust
and the SHA as well as other local providers are committed to taking this work forward and to
funding their share. Please get in touch to discuss your involvement further.
16 Contact Details
For further information contact the project lead Jessie Cunnett on 07964 007884 or
Jessie@patientpublicinvolvement.com or via Julie Thompson Edwards on 01785 854235 or
Julie.thompson@staffordshire.gov.uk
Patient and Public Involvement Solutions Ltd. 2011 www.patientpublicinvolvement.com 2