Submitted by Daniel Mapp on Thu, 06/01/2011 - 16:08
Participants at a recent workshop on developing service specifications felt that the key to great community involvement would be to make it easier to find out what specifications are being written and how organisations and individuals can get involved.
The second workshop in a series of four looked at how service specifications are developed, and how people can get involved.
The workshop was open to members of the Westminster LINk and to local voluntary and community groups. There were presentations from NHS Westminster staff, and plenty of time for questions and group discussions.
Download notes for the workshop and a list of participants
The first presentation explained what a specification is
John Higgins (Joint Head of Commissioning for Older People and Disabilities) explained what factors influenced the development of a service specification, and what was likely to be included in a specification.
Download a summary and notes of questions and answers
The second presentation looked at local example of how the community had been involved in developing mental health service specifications
Sarah Rushton (Joint Head of Mental Health Commissioning) gave three examples of how local people and voluntary groups had been involved in the development of the personality disorder service; a service for people in a medium secure care who had been involved in severe offences; and a crisis house service.
Read more about community involvement in mental health service specifications
How can we influence what service providers are contracted to do?
Participants discussed what could be done to give communities and voluntary groups more influence over service specifications.