Department of Health: Creative engagement programme with staff, patients and the public to surface the values of the NHS
During the first three months of 2008, SHM delivered, on behalf of the Department of Health (DH), a programme engagement activity to surface draft value concepts for the NHS. This work was designed around a series of 20 creative workshops with staff, patients and public, designed to engage them directly as partners in the challenge of identifying the core values that underpin the NHS.
The workshops were structured around five themes reflecting key aspects of the service-user’s experience: staying healthy, when you get ill, children and families, getting older, and living with a long-term condition. These themes, which were informed by the eight themes identified in Lord Darzi’s interim Next Stage Review, were developed and tested with colleagues from DH and the NHS Institute. The workshops (which lasted 3 hours) and interviews alike were designed to engage participants creatively with the challenge of identifying the core values of the NHS. A key input for the workshop process was existing insight into what matters to patients, public and staff. Simple processes and stimulus materials (e.g. character cards) were designed to enable workshop participant to engage with key elements of the evidence base.
Outputs from the workshop and interview programme were analysed by SHM to create inputs and stimulus materials for an Accelerated Change Event (ACE) run by the NHS Institute on 12th-13th February 2008. A further analysis session on 15th February brought together the extended programme team, with representation from DH, NHS Institute and NHS Confederation. As well as drawing on the raw material from workshops, this phase of analysis provided an opportunity to test emerging values against:
Five further 3-hour workshops were then run, one in each of the five areas, bringing together all the participants from the first set of workshops and (where possible) interviews to discuss the findings from workshops across the country and the emerging value areas. The responses of the participants helped to confirm, clarify and develop the emerging concepts.
In total, the SHM workshop/interview process engaged over 200 people, over 80 of them working in the NHS in a wide range of roles. Our oldest participant was 92, our youngest five. The NHS Institute ACE involved around 70 more staff and others in the analysis and discussion process.
Following a further process of collaborative review and refinement, the NHS-wide values were finalised and now appear in The NHS Constitution, which was published in January 2009 and can be found at http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Healthcare/NHSConstitution/DH_093184.
During the first three months of 2008, SHM delivered, on behalf of the Department of Health (DH), a programme engagement activity to surface draft value concepts for the NHS. This work was designed around a series of 20 creative workshops with staff, patients and public, designed to engage them directly as partners in the challenge of identifying the core values that underpin the NHS.
The workshops were structured around five themes reflecting key aspects of the service-user’s experience: staying healthy, when you get ill, children and families, getting older, and living with a long-term condition. These themes, which were informed by the eight themes identified in Lord Darzi’s interim Next Stage Review, were developed and tested with colleagues from DH and the NHS Institute. The workshops (which lasted 3 hours) and interviews alike were designed to engage participants creatively with the challenge of identifying the core values of the NHS. A key input for the workshop process was existing insight into what matters to patients, public and staff. Simple processes and stimulus materials (e.g. character cards) were designed to enable workshop participant to engage with key elements of the evidence base.
Outputs from the workshop and interview programme were analysed by SHM to create inputs and stimulus materials for an Accelerated Change Event (ACE) run by the NHS Institute on 12th-13th February 2008. A further analysis session on 15th February brought together the extended programme team, with representation from DH, NHS Institute and NHS Confederation. As well as drawing on the raw material from workshops, this phase of analysis provided an opportunity to test emerging values against:
- Insight into what matters to patients, public and staff
- Work on ‘values’ at leadership events in 2007
- Existing examples of values for NHS organisations, professional bodies, etc
Five further 3-hour workshops were then run, one in each of the five areas, bringing together all the participants from the first set of workshops and (where possible) interviews to discuss the findings from workshops across the country and the emerging value areas. The responses of the participants helped to confirm, clarify and develop the emerging concepts.
In total, the SHM workshop/interview process engaged over 200 people, over 80 of them working in the NHS in a wide range of roles. Our oldest participant was 92, our youngest five. The NHS Institute ACE involved around 70 more staff and others in the analysis and discussion process.
Following a further process of collaborative review and refinement, the NHS-wide values were finalised and now appear in The NHS Constitution, which was published in January 2009 and can be found at http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Healthcare/NHSConstitution/DH_093184.
