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The East Midlands AHSN host the East Midlands Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) Senate. The Senate is made up of experienced and insightful patient and public contributors bringing invaluable patient and public perspectives. They provide independent advice and guidance both to the East Midlands AHSN and our region’s health and care system, ensuring the public are at the front and centre of what we do.
PPI Senate Co-Chairs play a vital role in steering the Senate by providing leadership, coordination and support to enable the PPI Senate to flourish.
In this blog our new Co-Chairs, Veronica Price-Job and Susan Edge, give us an insight into their backgrounds in health and care, what motivates them and their vision for the East Midlands PPI Senate.
About me
My background is anchored to the voluntary sector, health services and social care. Throughout my career, I have worked in all of these areas at the same time, which has given me a unique view of the health and care system from different perspectives.
As I have a long-term health condition, every week I attend appointments with various health and care professionals. At first, when I started to have appointments, I listened to the professionals and very much took on a passive role. There were a few occasions with healthcare professionals that made me start to think differently. I felt that my interactions needed to feel less like I was being told what to do and needed to be a shared responsibility, where I was proactive. I learnt more about my condition to create the opportunity for a two-way conversation and shared decision-making. I had this opportunity, but not everyone does, which is one of my motivating factors in terms of promoting involvement and inclusion.
I currently work in social care, which is an area that I feel is often overlooked. People reference ‘health and care’ but social care is often not considered. As someone who works in social care and lives with a long-term condition, I am committed to ensuring social care is recognised as we move towards better integrated care.
You can read my full biography here.
The role of the East Midlands PPI Senate
The Senate has such an important role to play. Health and care systems are always changing and evolving and we have a unique birds-eye view, with the ability to recognise those changes and understand the opportunities this presents and identify gaps with Patient Public Involvement.
Our uniqueness is our connectivity across the whole of the East Midlands and through our members and networks we can learn from other areas of the region. We can get a sense of what the difficulties are in particular areas or how the health and care system operates differently and how we can adapt best public involvement across the patch.
At the moment, there is a real public consciousness and public service spotlight in terms of the inequalities agenda. This has been highlighted through the disproportionate impact of coronavirus on Black Asian and Minority Ethnic groups and the growth of the Black Lives Matter movement, sparked by the death of George Floyd. This is a real opportunity to make sure all organisations are addressing inequalities and to make sure the voices of the so called seldom heard come through.
When applying for the role of Senate Co-Chair, I recognised this as a pivotal time where we can maximise on this public awareness and consciousness and is something I feel very passionate about taking a lead role in.
A pivotal time for health and care
COVID-19 has brought health and care operational issues into sharp focus. With the level and pace of what’s been happening, we have a real opportunity to focus on the bigger picture and address the inequalities agenda. Ensuring communities have a voice is critical. We have been pushing in this area for decades. Now is the time to look closely at what we do as individuals, as well as organisations and take significant steps to ensure the most vulnerable don’t continue to be the most vulnerable.
I have quite a different background to Veronica. My career spans working in many roles across the further, adult and work-based learning sector. When retiring from education, I needed something to invest myself in. I have a low boredom threshold and going from 110% to nothing didn’t sit well with me!
When NHS Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) were initially set up in 2012 and replaced Primary Care Trusts (PCTs), I saw an advert for a position of Lay Member for PPI and could see lots of parallels between this and my background working in education.
Working in further and adult education, people don’t have to attend. You have to persuade them that there is value and, whether this is for qualifications or personal interest, they can use this experience. To me, this felt similar to trying to encourage the public and patients to want to get involved in the health and care system so they can influence change.
Since making the move to health and care, I’ve never looked back. I served two full terms at my local CCG before a recent merger. I also became a lay representative for Health Education England (HEE) in the East Midlands and also a PPI Panel Member for the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR).
I want the Senate to be recognised as the well-regarded authoritative custodian of best practice for PPI in the East Midlands. If someone or an organisation needs support, for example, if they want to know how they could do PPI differently or if they want to know the best way to get patients and the public involved, they would naturally think of the PPI Senate as the go-to resource.
Different health and care communities, and even counties and cities, do the same things but differently. There is a tension between local control and determination of that population’s needs, and health and care needing to be fair and accessible to all. The Senate enables a cross-fertilisation of knowledge so we can understand the challenges our health and care organisations are facing if they come to us for support.
I’ve been a member of Senate for over four years. When the possibility arose to become Co-Chair, it felt like a natural development opportunity. The Senate isn’t a governing body or a management board, but an enabling function to release potential and it felt like the right time to take a lead role in helping the Senate to be the best it can be.
For the reset, restoration and recovery of services following the impact of COVID-19, the NHS and social care organisations need to listen to their service users and the wider public and use this as an opportunity to break down barriers and not reinforce inequalities.
The PPI Senate can act as a connector, with the ability to bring together different parts of the system and the community. For example, we can be intermediaries to help health and care organisations make the links they need with under-served groups.
We need to promote the notion that everyone should have access, not just those with the loudest voice or those who know how the system operates.
To find out more about the East Midlands PPI Senate, the Senate members, how to get involved or access support, visit our Senate webpages.
Veronica Price-Job, Co-Chair, East Midlands Patient Public Involvement Senate
Susan Edge, Co-Chair, East Midlands Patient Public Involvement Senate