ICE

Creativity and innovation are two of our key driving forces at ICE. In these particularly challenging times for public services where all organisations are being tasked with delivering more-for-less, ICE’s Director of Social Change, Aaron Garside, examines why they’re crucial attributes for any initiative…..

Aaron Garside, Director of Social Change

“Whereas the instinct for many in such an environment could be to shrink from such a challenging landscape, it’s really positive to see organisations from Local Authorities to Health Trusts embracing innovation to deliver a sustainable future for public services by engaging and involving the public in designing services and delivering efficiencies.

We’re proud to be partnering a number of public organisations in helping them to lead the way in designing engagement activity to really connect with their citizens. However, one particular leading light in this approach has to be NHS Coventry.

Over the past 12 months we have worked with them on a number of major public engagement campaigns, including piloting a spectacularly successful smoking cessation and physical activity project; a multi-media led approach to encouraging citizens to ‘Get the Right Treatment’ for minor ailments; and devising new and innovative ways to hold conversations with local people through public engagement events.

Highlighting this innovative and technology-led approach, each project has been documented on web videos for fast dissemination to citizens and professionals alike. 

Come on down!

Working in partnership with NHS Coventry’s Public and Patient Involvement Team, we developed a stakeholder-led approach to engaging with the general public to both involve them in local decision making, and raise awareness of the costs and statistics related to the delivery of NHS Services.

Through this process, we developed an initial pilot event held at a Coventry City Centre location with an invited audience consisting of members of their Public Consultation Panel, with interactive games providing a ‘funfair’ atmosphere. Well-known and much-loved TV game show formats such as ‘Play your cards right’ and ‘The price is right’ were adapted to test knowledge into the cost of NHS services – with many of the attendees being genuinely surprised at some of the results! See the video>

Despite some understandable initial reticence at such a new approach, the public really engaged and got involved in the activities -and the format is now being in the process of being rolled out across much wider audiences such as children and hard to reach groups. This approach has further empowered local people to work with NHS Coventry in re-shaping their services from a more informed position, ultimately driving a more people-centred approach to designing more efficient services. The approach has, in fact, recently attracted the attention of the Department of Health, who are interested in adapting it for use in other regions and cities.

This approach has led to the re-shaping of the entire patient and public engagement process, helping the public to consider the difficult decisions facing the NHS and which areas of health care they feel should be prioritised.”

Look out for the second part of Aaron’s blog later this week!