Below you will find a list of engagement work we have carried out. .You can find regular reports of our engagement activity here, and read our bi-monthly submissions to the Quality and Patient Experience Committee.

Improving services for children with Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) - July-October 2020

Laura Brown (Local Offer and Participation Officer, CYC) and Victoria Binks (Head of Engagement, CCG) planned and facilitated four training sessions in July 2020 (including an evening session) and two sessions in September and October to explore the understanding and perception of co-production and to establish a common definition of co-production and model of co-production for York. The sessions looked at addressing the key challenges and successes young people may face, and facilitated discussion around how to embed co-production within everyday activities.

• Click here to view the SEND Communication and Engagement Strategy August 2020
• Read the co-production training report here.
• View the co-production training session slides here.

Survey: How have the coronavirus (COVID-19) restrictions affected your mental health and wellbeing?
 

In April 2020 we worked with the public health team to rapidly assess the impacts, risks and unintended consequences of the COVID response, to feed into the Vale of York recovery plan. The survey aimed at the public asked how the coronavirus restrictions are affecting mental and physical wellbeing. For example this might be in the way they get medical help or are able to carry out everyday activities for themselves or someone they care for. This work fed directly into the rapid health needs assessment, and York recovery plan.

• 612 responses in one week – online and via phone calls and email. 
• Worked with the third sector to find out their worries, and gather feedback about what they are hearing from the most vulnerable service users.
• Interviews with voluntary sector advocates and service users – including The Carers Centre, Mind. Dementia Forward, the deaf community, carers and service users with a disability.
• Survey about the impact of coronavirus (covid-19) on the Vale of York residents (May-June 2020)

Accident & Emergency (A&E) / Emergency Department (ED) engagement

We know that finding the right place to go when people become ill or injured can be confusing.  To help us plan and undertake a communication campaign, we worked with NHS partners to gain a greater understanding of who and why people were accessing EDs and their knowledge of alternative urgent care services. Having this insight available helps determine the approach needed with targeted media and promotion campaigns aimed at helping the public access the most appropriate service for their needs whilst also helping NHS services from being overwhelmed.

People were encouraged to fill in an online survey from 22 July 2020 to 25 August 2020. In addition, 3,000 hard copies were available for people to complete in the waiting areas at five A&E/ED departments throughout Humber Coast and Vale area enabling people to complete them whilst they were waiting for assessment and treatment. Posters were also displayed encouraging people to scan a QR code that took them directly to the survey online.  We received 2008 responses and would like to thank everyone for taking part.

Survey Highlights

Almost three quarters, 74.4% of all respondents said that they have seen information about when it’s appropriate to visit A&E/ED.

In total, there are around 25% of respondents who attended A&E/ED with conditions/injuries that could have been treated at one of the other services available to them.

28.4% of all respondents said that they visited A&E/ED after speaking to NHS 111 over the telephone with 21.3% saying no one told them to attend A&E/ED, they decided themselves that they needed to visit. A large majority of respondents said: “I was advised by a healthcare professional to visit A&E/ED”.

The two services with the highest response rate where respondents selected “not heard of or used” were Urgent Treatment Centres and Out of hours GP services.

Next Steps

The results from the engagement and feedback report will aide decisions of promotion and marketing campaigns aimed at helping service users make sound decisions about where and how they access care. These will include:

• Educational, ‘Choose well’ messages to continue to be promoted to the wider population.
• Promote ‘Think 111 First’ messages as the default for service users to call NHS 111 to be directed to the most appropriate urgent care service for their condition.

The full feedback report can be found here.

GP Patient Survey (GPPS) July 2020

In July 2020 the GP Patient Survey (GPPS) is an England-wide survey published its result. It provides practice-level data about patients’ experiences of their GP practices. Ipsos MORI administers the survey on behalf of NHS England. In NHS Vale of York 7,053 questionnaires were sent out, and 3,206 were returned completed. This represents a response rate of 45%.

The survey asked patients about their local GP services, making an appointment, their last appointment, overall experience, their health and what they do when their GP practice is closed.

You can download GP Patient Survey here.

How are the coronavirus (COVID-19) restrictions affecting your health and wellbeing? May-June 2020

In May 2020 NHS Vale of York CCG conducted a short survey to find out how the restrictions to stop the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19) were affecting people’s everyday lives and their mental and physical wellbeing. This may be in the way they accessed medical help or were able to carry out everyday activities for themselves or someone they were caring for.

There was a particular focus on reaching those who might be most vulnerable to the effects of the current crisis: those with health conditions or disabilities, carers, people who are visually impaired or have hearing loss, people who feel socially isolated or have cognitive impairment/dementia, and people with mental illness.

This survey was part of a wider piece of work within York and North Yorkshire to look at the impact and unintended consequences of the coronavirus (covid-19) response, and the support that would need to be put in place to help with recovery and next steps.

You can read the full Covid-19 impact survey here.

Maternity Voices Survey - your experience of maternity services

Through the Maternity Voices Partnership the group conducted a survey to gain insight into peoples’ experiences of maternity care in York and surrounding area. The responses were collected September and October 2019 via advertising on social media to local parents who had a baby in 2016-2019. Results are presented from 438 respondents who answered at least some of the questions rating their care, with 302 people answering all questions. Click on the links to read the summary report and full maternity services 2019 survey report.

Have you heard about social prescribing – For Selby GP practice patients only

We wanted to find out how many people know what social prescribing is and if they are aware of the social prescribing service in the Selby area.

Many of life’s problems can make you feel unwell. Social prescribing enables you to talk about the issues you’re facing and find the right services to support you. It is non-medical and involves a conversation with an individual about improving your health and wellbeing.

This information was used to inform a local campaign about social prescribing. 

Smoking during pregnancy

In collaboration with the York public health team, York Teaching Hospital and the NHS Vale of York CCG and partners research group carried out a survey to find out more about smoking cigarettes/tobacco products during pregnancy and the support that people may need to help quit during this time. This information 

Student survey on health

We conducted a survey to find out what young people and students do if they are feeling unwell. This information will help to shape future campaigns about health services such as online, NHS 111 and accessing GPs.

Inclusive mental health research (led by University of York)

Research shows that psychological therapies can improve mental health problems. Unfortunately we do not always know which therapy works best for whom. When researchers test therapies in a clinical trial, they only include a small group of participants. Trial participants might not be similar to the people who suffer from mental health problems in the real world. This makes it difficult to know whether different therapies will work for everybody.

This survey is to inform an application for research funding at the University of York. To make mental health research more inclusive, they need to find out who is included in mental health research, and how they could improve the way research is done.

You will remain anonymous unless you leave your contact details. They will not get in touch with you unless you would like them to. Completing the survey will take most people about 5 minutes.

Click here to take the survey: http://tiny.cc/pv56hz 

August 2019: Understanding why patients attend the Emergency Department at York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

The Emergency Department (ED) and Urgent Treatment Centre (UTC) at York Hospital been under increasing pressure.  We conducted a survey to understand why patients have chosen to attend the Emergency Department, and if they have accessed other healthcare options such as a GP or pharmacist before their visit. We also wanted to understand the public’s aware awareness of the NHS111 service. During the 12 hour period in the ED waiting room we spoke to 103 people.

Read the report on the ED survey from August 2019 

January to June 2019: Engagement principles and strategy

We are recently refreshed our engagement principles as part of our engagement and communications strategy. It was important that we based these principles on what our community said was important to them. In 2019 we have produced a survey and went out to talk to key stakeholders, VCSE organisations and held public sessions. These conversations have been used to develop our new communications and engagement strategy.

Read the report on your input into our engagement principles and strategy 2019-22 

May to December 2018:  End of life care (EOLC) services.

We understand that end of life care, also known as palliative care, may not be an easy topic to think or talk about. That is why we are worked with our community to create an end of life care strategy and Citizen’s Charter that aims to improve and further develop end of life care and support services.

• Read the engagement report for end of life care
• View the end of life care strategy
• View the citizen’s charter created by you

February to April 2018: Improving access to GP services on evenings and weekends

In March and April 2018 we encouraged people living in the Vale of York to have their say on improving access to GP services on evenings and weekends. While some Vale of York GP surgeries already provide some evening and weekend services, the CCG wants to ensure everyone in the region is served equally. The expanded service would provide more same-day and routine evening and weekend appointments, provided by a range of clinicians including doctors, nurses and clinical pharmacists depending on your need.

• Read the engagement report for improving access to GP services
• Read the survey feedback for improving access to GP services