Service user participation

We are committed to ensuring that everyone who accesses Sue Ryder services is listened and responded to, so that they receive high quality, personalised care.

Service users have a unique contribution to make as they are experts by experience in addition to any other skills, qualities or knowledge they have. Their voices, experience and support, shape and direct our activity across health and social care: this is evident in our approach to quality improvement and in our influencing and policy work.

We are also expanding our service user participation to other activities, such as recruitment, service planning and delivery, and assuring the quality of our services.

Some examples of how we do this:

• The people we care for, and their families, are invited to feedback on the care they receive on our website, postcards displayed at services, Civica (our feedback tool) and paper surveys.
• We have a national database that records all feedback, including complaints, comments and compliments, which we can monitor, evaluate and respond to.
• Our Experience and Engagement group made up of representatives from all our services, as well as people with lived experience of grief and bereavement, meets quarterly to review the feedback we’ve received.
• Service User Participation Training has been mandatory for healthcare staff since August 2022
• All services receive a weekly report, which details compliments, complaints and concerns from people using the service, as well as how we have responded.
• Compliments are printed on posters and displayed in staff areas, helping us highlight what our services users value most and inspire staff.
• ‘You said, we did’ postcards, as well as other printed materials aimed at people using our services are available in all our services. They detail feedback we’ve received and how we’ve responded, helping people using our services feel confident their views are being listened to.
• Feedback from the people we care for and their families is used in staff appraisals.
• People who are using services are invited to take part in recruitment.
• Our influencing team make sure the people we care for and their families have a say in our campaigning work.
• We invite people with lived experience to contribute to much of our online support content through social media, email marketing and our online bereavement community.

Service user participation is now 'business as usual' at Sue Ryder. However, our strategy, running from 2021-23, helped us achieve this.