Changing social care: an inclusive approach
Stakeholder participation - Facilitate involvement in all aspects of change
- Ensure involvement is more than a one-off consultation. Although this is a valuable start, genuine involvement is a continuous process rather than a separate event.
- Invite and enable involvement at all stages of change, including planning and decision-making.
- Offer support, information and training to stakeholders, to enable them to become more effective participants.
- Recognise that different people have different types of expertise and think about how the organisation can make use of and value this diversity.
- Acknowledge that different stakeholders may have different priorities and opinions, and be prepared to work with any conflict.
Using an appreciative approach
The appreciative inquiry (AI) framework has been found to be helpful in situations where individuals feel stuck with a particular challenge and unable to move forward. It encourages participants to think of what ‘works’ and what they do well, generating positive energy and confidence to tackle difficult issues. It can be a powerful way to change attitudes and mindsets, which is key to culture change in social care.
For an example of applying the AI framework, see Workforce involvement and participation: Case example 1.
AI is based on a five-step approach as follows:
- Definition – specifying an issue, problem or opportunity to work on
- Discover – identifying what works well in an organisation
- Dream – envisioning an ideal future
- Design – planning and prioritising different ways of doing things
- Delivery – implementing the proposed design and making it happen
For more informationvisit the ai-consulting website.
How we know this
- One-off consultations often make people who use services feel that the consultation is part of a requirement, rather than a genuine wish to utilise their expertise (Carr 2004).
- More effective processes include:
- continuous participation
- offering training and feedback
- recognising and validating different types of expertise
- allowing conflict
- encouraging partnerships between user-led organisations and providers (Elder-Woodward 2002; Evans and Banton 2001)
