The Black Country Transforming Care Partnership (TCP) is committed to working alongside people who have lived experience of services, their families and carers, as well as key stakeholders to agree and deliver local plans for the programme. Using the nine principles from the National Service Model and guidance from NHS England, the TCP undertook service user engagement between April 2016 and July 2019 to develop a new clinical model for adult learning disabilities services in the Black Country.

Meaningful service user engagement has been continuous throughout the development of the Black Country TCP new clinical model, upholding the statutory and constitutional duties to involve public in commissioning decisions.

Engagement activity has been focused on service user empowerment, how health and care services can better support people when leaving assessment and treatment units (A&T), and how providers can strengthen the care and treatment review process when service users are discharged from A&T units. A variety of approaches have been utilised.

• Engagement with carers – undertaken by independent members of the Care and Treatment Review Panel, we gathered the views of family carers on the Care and Treatment review process and spoke to 14 families.
• Service User Experience Questionnaire – Patient experience questionnaires were developed in easy read by Dudley Voices for Choice. The questionnaire was based on the nine outcomes and principles in ‘Building the Right Support’ and was designed to identify perceptions of services; how supported service users felt; how involved and how many choices they had in their care planning and living arrangements. The questionnaire was targeted at service users who were inpatients or at risk of admission. The questionnaire was additionally completed by others who had attended care and treatment reviews, capturing the views of experts with lived experiences, carers, advocates and their support staff. A total of 133 questionnaires were completed.
• ‘So what, what next’ Project – The ‘So what, what next’ Project was designed by the national Transforming Care empowerment steering group, a group of people with a learning disability and/or autism, or family carers, with lived experience of long stays in hospital settings. The project worked with 10 people within the Black Country with a learning disability with or without autism who had recently moved out of hospital, alongside the people who support them in the community. The aim of the project was to support these individuals in creating a plan of action to establish links in their communities, increase independence and enable them to become active citizens, contributing their skills and passions.

The following common themes have emerged across different engagement processes:

• Service users had a negative experience of hospital care and were much happier in their community placements where they generally felt safe and experienced improved health
• Service users have a variety of aspirations and ambitions and should be helped to pursue them to promote independence and self-confidence
• Increased focus on early intervention is vital to avoid hospital admissions
• Service users and their families should be seen as partners in planning their care
• Service users require consistent and ongoing support from a multispecialty team to avoid/alleviate crisis situations and prevent future hospital admissions.

For in-depth insights from this engagement exercise please download our Feedback Report here.