| Title |
HSCP Participation and Engagement Strategy |
| Lead officer(s) |
Danielle Rae |
| Telephone number |
|
| Email address |
danielle.rae@east-ayrshire.gov.uk |
| Date summary created |
25 Mar 2024 |
| Date assessment completed |
19 Mar 2024 |
| Summary of policy aims |
The Partnership has a statutory responsibility to involve people in developing and delivering services and is expected to demonstrate to our communities how we are engaging with them and the impact of that engagement. The Public Bodies (Joint Working) (Scotland) Act 2014 sets out the requirement to have a Participation and Engagement strategy. The vision of the strategy is to ‘Hear the voices of local people and how we work together to improve the quality and delivery of our local services for everyone.' The Strategy contains 4 draft outcomes:
i. The quality and consistency of our participation and engagement activities are improved through the Partnership workforce having access to training, resources and tailored support.
ii. The public, users of our services and carers have a clear picture of the different ways in which they can engage with the Partnership via a method that best suits them.
iii. The public, users of services and carers are supported to participate through structured or tailored support and are clear on what's entailed.
iv. We will take additional measures to involve groups with protected characteristics and people who are excluded from participating due to disadvantage relating to social or economic factors. |
| Key issues |
The strategy will have a positive impact by considering appropriate methods of participation and engagement to suit individuals needs. The strategy acknowledges the additional barriers faced by people with protected characteristics to participate and has identified this as a key area of focus for the strategy. |
| Summary of involvement with Groups |
Through June to August 2023, a number of engagement and consultation activities were carried out across East Ayrshire. There are clear themes that appear throughout all of the engagement that took place with the majority of responses detailing the need for face to face engagement in order to collect feedback. It was made clear that people feel more comfortable and listened to when someone engages with them in person rather than over the phone or a computer. Allowing for a more honest and open conversation if it is carried out face to face. One of the main areas for improvement was around how people are not always aware of where their feedback will go, and even though they provide the information, it is rare for a follow on to occur where they are told what their feedback helped with and what are the outcomes that have come from this. |
| Key recommendations |
The strategy will be formally reviewed on an annual basis by the Strategic Planning Group. The Action Plan will be a live document and will be reviewed regularly. The monitoring will begin in March 2024. The Partnership Engagement Officer is the lead for the Plan. |