Inner north east London projects

Patients, carers and staff have been involved in a transformation programme for neurological and stroke community services in Tower Hamlets, Waltham Forest and Newham. This work was initiated following the identification of different levels of provision of these services across the boroughs. The engagement team designed and ran a survey to identify what the important issues were for patients and carers. We also scoped interest in joining a Patient Panel, which would long-term work with staff to ensure the services are effectively responsive to patient and carer needs. In addition, the engagement team developed and delivered, with transformation colleagues, a staff engagement event to ensure their viewed shaped the improvement of services. We are planning to deepen this engagement with patients and carers with a series of focus groups to ensure the service development is appropriate for all our communities.

We held three round table sessions with the borough partnership in Newham to develop an approach to engagement. We are currently building on this and exploring how we can work more effectively together and align engagement and co-production.

We have supported the Newham partnership board to hear patient stories at their board meetings. This allows local residents to put forward their experience of the health system in Newham, where they’ve experienced gaps with their own or their loved ones’ care and what they would like to see the Integrated Care System improve upon. These discussions have directly led to shifts in service designs, including reaching out to deaf residents who experience significant barriers to access primary care services. We have worked with the transformation team to explore solutions to service gaps and aligning work with wider borough partners.

We have supported and developed the Newham Patient Participation Group Network to move the group towards better integration with the Place-based partnership’s priorities and create a feedback loop for local concerns. Work is ongoing to improve membership and establish its role within the engagement function.

We have started engagement on a neighbourhood proposal in line with the Fuller stocktake which was presented at the Newham Co-production Forum. A pilot programme has been identified with Docklands Primary Care Network, with wider engagement work to take place on local services.

We have developed a high-level proposal for an engagement project to look at the Type 2 diabetes pathway in Newham. The work is to be supported across the place-based partnership and will focus on 25,000 residents already within the pathway. The work will be looking to understand resident experience of the existing pathway, barriers to access and how to improve outcomes.

Following significant issues raised at the place partnership board by a resident and historic issues voiced by the community, work is underway with Healthwatch and Newham Council to improve access to primary care services, standardise BSL provision, and improve digital services for D/deaf residents. This work is currently being scoped with partners.

At the request of Tower Hamlets Together (THT) partners, we convened a task and finish group aiming to embed co-production within the work of the partnership. This takes forward local work, particularly the ActEarly programme, Public Health’s Communities Driving Change and the council’s Co-production Framework. It is chaired by a member of the community, Farzana Khanom, and involves representatives from the council, NHS, local universities, the VCS and the community. The group mapped past and current co-production and co-design, with three workshops to improve the use of co-production. These workshops will again include people from the council, NHS partners, VCS including faith, communities and local universities. The workshops seek to understand and overcome cultural barriers to the implementation of co-production, alongside developing a better process to mainstream co-production. This work will produce a best practice guide and will link to two locally commissioning programmes to test the co-production process.

We have developed an ‘Emotional Support for Young People’ steering group. The steering group aims to use 10 young people from Tower Hamlets as peer researchers to explore the impact of the pandemic and cost of living crisis on young people’s health. This links to the Integrated Care Systems children and young people priority and a report is due in March 2024.

ower Hamlets has high levels of asthma and NHS North east London are supporting a Tower Hamlets Primary Care Network to improve engagement with families with children with asthma to improve access to treatments and awareness of asthma. Summary:

• Working with Tower Hamlets primary care colleagues, designed and ran a focus group with families with children with asthma
• Listened and learnt how they experience living with asthma, alongside testing and re-designing an online assessment tool to understand the emotional experience of living with asthma
• The focus group was the start to build a group of families who with work long-term with primary care to develop better support and treatment for those living with asthma.
• Developing community communications on asthma targeting the ‘unconcerned unwell’ i.e. people unaware their poor breathing is asthma related.

Together with partners from across the council, trusts and Healthwatch we have created an engagement working group to promote joint working and align our approach to engaging with local people.

To reach into seldom heard communities we have developed a new health literacy project to discuss their health and care needs and respond as a system – we will focus on building a health network across Waltham Forest to work together and build capacity within our community addressing health inequalities.

We have supported the development of a voluntary, community or social enterprise  partnership leadership group for Waltham Forest who meet monthly to contribute to partnership priorities. Mind in City, Hackney and Waltham Forest appointed as lead organisation and a VCSE co-ordinator recruited in March 2023.

In order to inform proposals for care and support for people at end of life and during bereavement, engagement leads across the partner organisations in Waltham Forest and Redbridge have worked together to ensure the views of the people affected are reflected.  

Due to the sensitive nature of the topic, independent experts were commissioned to carry out a first phase of engagement that included confidential interviews with people from across Waltham Forest and Redbridge who are experiencing life limiting conditions or bereavement. Commissioning these experts also removed any bias from conversations. Commissioning a specialist organisation also allowed for interviews to be carried out in community languages, if the participant did not speak English as their first language.

Interviews and focus groups were held with community stakeholder groups who support people with a life-limiting condition or support carers. These groups included community funeral directors, charities supporting people with lifelong conditions and action groups.

A full report was submitted to the project team and presented to Whipps Cross End Of Life (EOL) Board, EOL clinical reference group and Whipps Cross Joint Health Oversight Scrutiny Committee, to influence decision making.

Work has continued to plan for and start the delivery of a second phase of more in-depth community engagement – which will involve a further set of one to one interviews, initiation of a co-design working group and a dedicated piece of work focusing on the development of a new bereavement service.

We have created a communications and engagement strategy and delivery plan for the Waltham Forest Health and Care Partnership and its transformation programme. This work has included:

• Supporting the development of a Centre of Excellence via engagement with people with multiple long-term conditions or complex health needs
• Developing a mechanism for receiving feedback on transformation programme work – piloted via Digital Hub programme, as part of the Centre of Excellence

Working alongside Healthwatch Waltham Forest to develop a 6-month plan of engagement to ensure local people have their voices heard across services such as care home provision, multi-disciplinary working and hospital discharge.