Recruitment of Peer Support Workers and Development of Patient Experience Model within Learning Disability and Autism Services

This section provides an outline of the requirements for service delivery. The contract will be divided into two components for the purpose of describing the two distinct parts of the service, providers will need to be able to deliver both elements.<br/>a) Component 1: Recruitment of Peers with a Learning Disability and Autism<br/>b) Component 2: Design, Development and Implementation of a Patient Engagement Model<br/><br/>4.1 Recruitment of Peers with a Learning Disability <br/>4.1.1 Recruitment of Peers to Provide a Quality Assurance Role:<br/>The commissioning hub currently recruits five peer engagement workers with lived experience of forensic or inpatient mental health services, to work alongside case managers in a quality assurance role. The peers engage directly with current inpatients with a mental illness to establish how they feel about the quality of care they receive, utilising their own experience to bring a lived experience perspective to the way the commissioning hub plans, delivers and quality assures services. <br/> <br/>NLFC would like to extend the peer engagement worker offer to provide a quality assurance role in our learning disability and autism services. To drive this forward we are seeking to commission a provider to recruit peers with a learning disability and autism into paid roles. The peer workers will work alongside our case managers approximately 2 days a week, to undertake the following:<br/>a) Carry out announced and unannounced reviews of wards and community teams with case managers. This involves speaking with staff and patients about their experience<br/>b) Attend inpatient and community user forums to gather intelligence on patient experience, with peers onsite and visible on one of the wards once a week<br/>c) Attend quarterly contract meetings with members of the commissioning team, feeding back on patient experience<br/>d) Feedback patient experience within the commissioning team, and use their lived experience to inform quality improvement and service development across the collaborative, attending meetings within team as required.<br/>4.1.2 Training, Development and Supervision of Peers:<br/>As part of the current NLFC and BEH peer support infrastructure, our current peer engagement workers have access to a robust training and support package. This includes access to a training program for new peers within the organisation that focuses on the key skills and knowledge required to deliver effective peer support, and a bespoke internal training package tailored to the role of peer engagement workers. Peers also have a wellness at work plan, and regular 1:1 and group supervision.<br/><br/>The NLFC would require the provider to offer a similar training, development and support package to peers recruited into this role, with a focus on the following:<br/>a) A training package, that will be co designed with the commissioning team with a focus on patient engagement and quality assurance<br/>b) A package of support and wellbeing, which includes supervision <br/>c) To identify and develop new peers within the NLFC learning disability and autism services, working closely with the user leads in each of the providers to develop this pathway<br/>d) Provide training and support to case managers and the wider commissioning hub team to work alongside the peers<br/>e) Ensure peers are fully integrated into the commissioning hub, working in partnership with the commissioning team to promote inclusivity and ensure the peers are equipped with the appropriate tools and support to enable them to conduct their role and fully participate in the team.<br/>f) To ensure peer workers are able to safely travel to and from sites across North London <br/>4.2 Development of a Patient Engagement Model<br/>It is vital that the voice of people with a learning disability and or/autism, their families and carers are actively involved in shaping, delivering, and evaluating the services they use. One mechanism for this within our forensic inpatient mental illness services is the newly formed patient council which has representation from each of the providers within the collaborative, representing the voices of patients from across all our services. The patient council is embedded in the local provider and NLFC governance structures, reporting directly to the NLFC Delivery Board and the Clinical and Quality Group (Diagram 1), with clear communication processes in place to feedback to patients on the wards. The patient council play both an advisory and co-production role, working alongside the commissioning team and the clinical network groups to provide additional scrutiny on the quality of services delivered and involvement at each stage of the commissioning cycle and quality improvement programs. <br/><br/>The NLFC would like to expand and develop this model to engage with people with a learning disability and/or autism, ensuring that the voices of this population is central to the way we plan, deliver and evaluate services. We envision this to be a two-step process; with step one focused on scoping and co designing the model with patients and staff, and step two implementing and evaluating the model <br/><br/><br/>a) Scoping and Design<br/>• Engage with current patients and staff within our learning disability and autism services to co design a patient engagement model that actively engages and includes the voices of patients with a learning disability and/or autism<br/>• Ensure that the model is integrated with the existing patient council and/or if this requires the development of a separate group. <br/>b) Implementation and Evaluation <br/>• Recruit, train and support patient representatives from across the learning disability and autism services, to enable them to fully participate in the role of user involvement, including the development of appropriate supportive material (e.g easy read)<br/>• Facilitation of the group and ongoing support to sustain the model<br/>• Develop mechanisms and provide support for patient representatives to gather and feedback information through the provider user networks<br/>• Work alongside the commissioning team to develop clear channels of communication between the service users, providers and the commissioning team and that information shared is accessible and elevates the voices of the people who use services.<br/>• To identify patients from within our NLFC learning disability and autism services for future paid peer or expert by experience roles<br/>• Develop a framework to measure the impact of the patient council at an individual and organisational level