Enter and View Authorised Visitor Training from Staffordshire LINk on Vimeo.

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The aim of the training session was to introduce the legislation that enables LINks to enter and view services as they are being provided. Consider and practice the skills and personal qualities required of members of a visiting team. Understand when to carry out a visit. Recognise the key elements to a successful visit. Plan a visit using a range of health and social care case studies. Consider the key elements of a successful report and how to ensure an impact on how services are delivered

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High Quality Care for All highlighted the importance of measuring what we do in order to drive improvements in the quality of care, but it is how we use this information and the changes we make as a result which are key to successful improvement and high quality services.

By 30 June 2010 all organisations are required to develop and publish a Quality Account which is designed well will assure commissioners, patients and the public that trust boards are regularly scrutinising each and everyone of their services.

Combined Healthcare’s Quality Account is our Annual Report to the public about the quality of services we provide. We hope your organisation and the general public and patients will use our Quality Account to understand:-

• What our organisation is doing well
• Where improvements in the quality of service we provide is required
• What our priorities for improvement are for the coming year
• How we have involved service users, staff and others with an interest in our organisation in determining these priorities for improvements.

We are keen to ensure that our Quality Account reflects the views and needs of the local population and the people who use our services. As such we are commencing a process of involvement and engagement in the development of our Quality Account. As such, I write to seek your support in helping shape this document in order that our Quality Account improves our organisational accountability to the public and key stakeholders and partners that we work with.

In terms of structuring this, we propose to structure our Quality Account around three 3 domains of quality, namely:

Patient Safety Clinical Effectiveness Patient Experience

For the first year of Quality Accounts, our Trust will be required to produce a Quality Account but not in relation to the provision of primary care or community health services. We will therefore focus this first year’s Quality Account on the quality of inpatient services.

I attach for your information a short survey which provides some examples of information that we think you would like to see which we believe will be of interest to your organisation and the general public. Please review this survey and let us know if these are the areas you are interested in or whether there are other areas you would like to see included. I would be really grateful if you could comment upon these and respond to me giving either your comments or broad support for these principles. Once our draft Quality Account is produced, I will contact you again to ensure that your organisation, has chance to comment on the document before it is published on our website.

It would be appreciated if you would return the completed survey by Fridav 16 April 2010 to allow us the time to include your views.

In conclusion, we look forward to gaining your support in producing our first year’s Quality Accounts, and may I take this opportunity of thanking you for your support with this process.

Pease download the survey here.

Community Involvement is Key for LINks from Staffs CC on Vimeo.

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“Staffordshire’s Local Involvement Network (LINks) needs a wide and diverse range of people involved.” That’s the message from County Councillor Matthew Ellis, Cabinet Member for Adults and Wellbeing.

This short video is an update on Staffordshire’s Local Involvement Network (LINk) to show the progress made following extensive consultation.

What is it like for you when you go into hospital, or receive care from local NHS services in Staffordshire? Everyone has a story to tell about the NHS, good or bad, and it’s really important that the people who run our local services hear them and even more importantly, act on them.

We’re working with Patient Opinion (www.patientopinion.org.uk) who run a website on which you can share your experiences. You don’t have to give your name, you offer your story anonymously. Patient Opinion are all about putting patient’s views at the heart of decision making about how our local NHS services are run and we, at the LINK, want to help make that happen.

Patient Opinion work with NHS trusts to help them understand how to make the most of the new tools of the web in hearing from their community and responding to what people need and want from their local services. They always try to ensure that just the right person hears the story (for example, the Ward Manager) to enable them to get that vital insight into what it’s really like for you and to make a difference. There are over 19,000 stories on the site now and lots of examples of where staff have listened and made a change, however small, to make things better. For an example: http://www.patientopinion.org.uk/opinion.aspx?opinionID=29378.

We’re not talking about surveys and questionnaires which give your time in hospital a 1-5 score, we’re talking about your story, what made a difference (or could have made a difference) in your own words.

Go to www.patientopinion.org.uk or www.staffordshirelink.org.uk/?page_id=635 and tell your story - it really could change your local NHS.

Staffordshire LINk Interim Report is now available here.  An Executive Summary is also available here.