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ADVOCACY NEWS- Making your voice count! Engaging Communities Staffordshire (ECS) awarded Advocacy Quality Performance Mark (QPM) from National Development Team for Inclusion (NDTi) Our wonderful Advocacy Team learnt that they have been awarded the Advocacy Quality Performance Mark (QPM) after a lengthy assessment and accreditation process. This is followed by a structured site visit by NDTi assessors who meet with our advocates and the people we support. The QPM is the UK’s only independent quality performance mark for organisations offering independent advocacy; an essential service for people who need support to express their needs and have increased choice and control in their lives. Liz Learoyd, Complaints Advocacy Manager, said: “We are very proud to provide a professional, independent and confidential service free of charge to Staffordshire residents who are accessing or wish to access health and social care services. The award and the feedback from the NDTi reflects the high quality of independent and confidential advocacy services provided by the Advocacy team” Jan Sensier our Chief Executive said: “I would like to congratulate the whole team on a very well deserved award. We are delighted to receive this award as it reflects on the hard work done by the staff and our volunteers. We hope that we will be able to provide our services to even more people in future, as we know there is real need for high quality, independent and confidential advocacy services.” We look forward to proudly displaying our new quality standard and encouraging people to get the support they need to get their voice heard! 2
The advocacy text number has changed! From 1 February 2016, the Healthwatch Staffordshire NHS complaints advocacy text number has changed. The 60006 number is no longer active and our new number is: 07724172811 Connecting with service users when they’re on the go is more important than ever, and our new text message service allows us to send texts as well as receive them, which is more user friendly than our old service. We hope to be able to reach out to people who may find it easier to communicate with us via text messages and be more user friendly and accessible to people with hearing impairments. Text us for a response within 48 hours and let us provide you with advocacy support if you have a complaint about the NHS in Staffordshire. Healthwatch Peer Review In July 2015, Healthwatch England launched a peer review initiative, which was based around the Local Healthwatch Quality Statements designed to assess and understand the impact and effectiveness of a local Healthwatch. The initiative is a partnership between Healthwatch England and Professor Mark Gamsu and Jennie Chapman from Leeds Beckett University. Peer Review approaches have been in existence for some time. It is an approach that is used in academia, government policy and a number of professions to improve quality and performance. “Peer review is the evaluation of work by one or more people of similar competence to the producers of the work (peers). It constitutes a form of self-regulation by qualified members of a profession within the relevant field. Peer review methods are employed to maintain standards of quality, improve performance, and provide credibility.” Peer Review provides an opportunity to bring external, critical challenge to a local organisation or service. Some of its potential advantages are: • Expertise - peers will bring with them an understanding of the challenges and opportunities that a local Healthwatch faces. • Trusted - for some organisations a perspective from a peer might be received better and carry more credibility than that of someone with no direct experience of local Healthwatch • Confidentiality - in practice this is a boundaried process, the peer reviewer will come from a different Healthwatch/local authority area, so the review will be removed from local commissioning and relationships • Learning - the peer review process might provide opportunities for shared learning - both for the local Healthwatch and for reviewer Continued on next page... 3
Page 1: Newsletter February 2016 Inside Thi
Page 5 and 6: Volunteering News Engaging Communit
Page 7 and 8: Experience Exchange Your feedback c
Page 9 and 10: Wed UPCOMING EVENTS Wed 16th Mar: H
Page 11 and 12: Staffordshire Neurological Alliance
Page 13 and 14: No one should face cancer alone; co
Page 15 and 16: New recruitment drive for library v

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