Western Sydney LHD consumer representatives

[Female voice over an animated video throughout] The seven habits of highly engaged committees. Habit number one, co-design thinking. It's really challenging in our big and busy Health Service to make sure we focus on how our consumers experience our services. 

[animated text in video: We want to understand your healthcare experience]

None of us want to be involved in ideas that don't work because our consumers haven't had a say in designing what we do. 

[An animated man with both hands up and a thought bubble with a thumbs down. Lightening and clouds behind it. Text in video says: Bad Idea. Oh no! We forgot to co-design with consumers!]

That's why it's crucial to have our consumer reps working with us in committees. 

[Animated men and women stand together waving. Text above them says: Our committee. Below each person, text shows left to right: Staff, Staff, Consumer rep, staff, Consumer rep]

Co-design is a proven approach to hearing the voice of our consumers. 

[Animated people standing on a text block that reads: Co-design works] 

Co-design is a process of equal partnership in all aspects of the business of the committee. It goes beyond asking consumer reps what they think of what you're thinking, you do the thinking together. 

[Stick figure of a women with a speech bubble that says 'Coralie', with animated text: Equal partnership. More than consulting. Thinking together.]

While co-design methodology is often applied to consumers and staff working on a particular clinical service to improve it, in a committee context its application is simply thinking, planning, discussing, and deciding together the business of the committee.

[animated figures jump and smile, text above them: We are designing a new service.] 

[another animated stick figure of a woman with a speech bubble that says 'Tara'. Text with numbers 1 - 4: Thinking, planning, discussing, deciding]

Before you start developing an idea, start the conversation with your consumer reps and develop your ideas together. 

[animated people stand together waving. Text above says: We're thinking together before we get fixed ideas.]

At the outset the chairperson makes sure that all members of the group take part in setting the agenda for the committee's work. Within the purpose and scope of the committee, co-design maximizes the committee's output everyone becomes a vital part of the brains trust. 

[animated people standing in a group smiling. Text above says: We feel valued because we are all involved in setting the agenda for our communities.]

[Speech bubbles appear above a few of the animated people, all of them say 'consumer rep']

If yours is a new committee identifying the terms of reference together is using a co-design approach. 

[animated stick figure of a woman with a pointer in hand. Text on screen: Is this a new committee? TOGETHER... work out your terms of reference, this is a co-design approach, you are a legend!]

Well, how does some committees do this? 

[animated people sitting at desks with laptops looking at a large speech bubble that says: How do some committees do this?]

One national standard is the committee asks all members of the team to identify issues that they would like to tackle for the year ahead.

[animated text on screen with a large dart board and dart: This year's goal. We all identify issues we want to tackle.]

Issues that are achievable are listed and prioritized by the whole group together. As the team works through the priorities, consumer reps are integral in developing strategies to achieve the goal and subsequently the evaluation involves everyone, including the consumer reps. When you apply this approach not only to consumer reps and other members of the team feel valued the output is really powerful.

[four animated icons appear representing priorities - a battery, magnifying glass, a chart, and a round sprocket or cog - text above reads: our co-designed priorities]

[animated people standing in a group smiling. Text above says: We work out the strategies and we ALL design and conduction the evaluation.]

[Speech bubbles appear above a few of the animated people, some say 'consumer rep', 'awesome process', 'this is easier than I thought', 'wow! it's better than I expected']

The next video will show you what's involved in providing a good orientation to the committee. If you'd like help recruiting consumer reps, click this link and complete the survey.

[two female stick figures stand on either side of the screen. Text between them reads: 'up next...Good orientation' and a link appears below]

The seven habits of highly engaged committees. Habit number two: we provide good orientation to the committee. 

Have you ever been introduced to a large group of people and thought, I'll never remember their names let alone what they do? This is what our consumer reps often experience when they turn up to our committees. 

This video will outline an approach to make sure that when you recruit consumer representatives onto your committee, they have the best chance of being able to make a good contribution as soon as possible.

It's about orientation. Firstly, arrange for a member of your committee to be the consumer buddy. The buddy meets your consumer reps before the first meeting and commits to being available at other times to discuss the business of the committee.

The buddy gets to know the reps and makes them feel welcome and supported, they ensure the reps are given copies of previous minutes and the terms of reference.

Secondly there's huge value in providing a one-page profile of all members of the committee. Profiles give an immediate snapshot of each member.

This supports a level playing field for consumer reps. Our consumer partnership team already develops consumer profiles and will help you put together your staff profile. At the first meeting introduce consumer reps and make sure that they and the other members have everyone's profiles.

Finally having name plates really helps. Name plates should be large enough for people across the room to be able to know who is speaking.

Coming up next, strengthening the consumer rep voice on your committee. To create your staff profile now, click on this link and get started.

The seven habits of highly engaged committees. Habit number three: we strengthen the voice of the consumer representatives. 

The big reason we work with consumer reps is to bring a focus to the experience of our consumers, our patients' families, and visitors to our committee. 

We don't want to waste our time because the voice of the consumer rep isn't strong enough and we don't get that important consumer insight. 

So how do we make sure that their voice is strong and heard? 

Consumer buddies supporting consumer reps is a great way to strengthen their voice. It enables the consumer rep to feel welcome and comfortable and much more confident that their valued. Consumer reps get a good background to the business of the committee and this enriches their perspectives.

To consumer reps are better than one having three is even better! By welcoming a group of consumer reps into your committee you are enabling, sharing and strengthening of their contribution. Just think about it, if one rep is unable to attend you still have the consumer voice in the room. 

Finally, consumer reps tell us that having other consumer reps working in a committee means that they can discuss and develop perspectives, which means that the consumer voice is strengthened.

Coming up, the next video habit number four - promoting health literacy. Here's how you can get in touch with our team [emails of committee staff shown]. 

[Female voice over throughout] The seven habits of highly engaged committees. Habit number four: we promote health literacy. 

Acronyms! We love using them and people outside of Health struggle to understand what we're talking about. 

It's a good idea to check your past minutes to spot any acronyms that are lurking around, create a list, unpack them and give them to your consumer representatives. 

There's also a list of general acronyms you can give them, and you can find this on the community and consumer partnership website. Becoming aware of the language you use is a thing that takes practice.

Using plain language makes your communication more health literate and more effective. 

While everyone on the team becomes more aware of the barriers that acronyms are to communication the consumer buddy should be especially sensitive to this.

The buddy should be prepared to ask reps if they understand the acronym if someone inadvertently uses one.

And finally, make sure your consumer reps receive the paperwork for the meeting well in advance.

Ask them whether they'd prefer to receive documentation already printed out and mail to them in case they do; perhaps they weren't but clarify their preferences and accommodate their needs.

If you do all this, you are creating a level playing field for all members of the committee. Well done! 

Coming up, in the next video habit number 5 - we ensure our reps are not out-of-pocket. 

The seven habits of highly engaged committees. Habit number 5 - we ensure our consumer reps are not out-of-pocket. 

What does a level playing field mean anyway? One clear example is that we're paid to attend committee meetings whereas our consumer reps are providing an unpaid service to the public health system in Western Sydney.

This is why we have to be very mindful of doing what we can to ensure that our reps are not out-of-pocket. Consumer representatives are choosing to provide this unpaid service as they want to be involved with you to co-design patient-centred health care. They could be doing many other things with their valuable time.

We're prepared to reimburse reasonable travel and parking expenses, carer support, childcare costs and any other reasonable cost associated with attending our meeting. 

If parking is difficult at our venue, we organise parking for the representative. We now have a system for reimbursing these reasonable costs up to a value of fifty dollars per claim. You can download the voucher for each claim here. 

Importantly to save your consumer reps valuable time you can ask one of your teams to present the completed voucher to one of our cashiers and provide the cash reimbursement back to the rep.

Coming up next, habit number six - we trust that consumer reps will keep confidential matters safe.

Remember you can contact us for help at any time here.

The seven habits of highly engaged committees. Habit number six - we trust consumer reps to keep confidential matters safe.

Many of our staff members have shared with us their concerns that the content of their meetings is confidential. They worry that consumers may breach that confidentiality. 

We hear you, to make sure that consumers we recruit onto your committee are able to keep confidentiality, we recruit them using the same processes that we use to recruit you, a staff member. 

This means we interview in-depth each consumer to understand their background motivation. We undertake a national criminal record check, we confirm their identity using 100 points ID, they read agree and sign off on our code of conduct. 

We undertake reference checks, in addition to going through these processes, consumers sign a special charter outlining their role and responsibilities.

For example, they are not complaint makers, they park their own agenda in order to work on system reform together with staff, they undertake special training to enable these skills.

It's helpful to provide committee members with this signed roles and responsibilities charter, it's reassuring to know that our consumer reps undertake this thorough screening.

All our reps are expected to attend the monthly LHD consumer council meeting. Here they listen to the viewpoints of other consumer reps on the council to expand their own perspective, they also listen to presentations made by staff members involved with some of our key programs; in this way, we are building strong relationships - this means we are building trust and respect both ways.

Because of this emerging relationship we don't need to ask our consumer reps to leave the room in light of confidential matters being discussed.

Coming up, habit number seven - we don't waste our consumer rep's time. 

If you want to engage consumer reps to work on your committee with you, click this and get started.

The seven habits of highly engaged committees. Habit number 7 - we don't waste our consumer reps' time. 

By now you are fully aware of the unpaid and highly valued service that our consumer reps provide our public health system in Western Sydney. You also know that there are often very busy people making a choice to work with us in light of the potential to co-design consumer centred healthcare.

It's crucial that we value our consumer reps' time, you don't want consumer reps turning up to meetings to find it's being cancelled, and they haven't been advised. 

This is clearly a waste of time from the rep's point of view. Make sure you have a distribution list that includes your consumer reps and use it at all times. Here are a few simple ways you can make sure that you don't waste their time.

Provide a schedule of meetings well in advance, this enables the consumer rep to lock that commitment into their diary. Avoid changes to schedule, if changes are necessary make contact with your consumer reps as soon as possible. Being accommodating, try to work the arrangements around the consumer reps' availability. 

And finally, the progress of the committee is really important, what are you trying to achieve? Have you been checking that you're making headway? Consumers will notice whether you're setting an agenda and sticking to it. 

Thank you for working with these habits and our suggestions for building a highly engaged committee. Based on the seven habits will provide you with confidential feedback every six months on how your committee is engaging with consumer reps.

The most highly engaged committees will be rewarded and recognized and celebrated as models for staff across our LHD. We support you in your journey as you build partnerships. We welcome your feedback and suggestions about how we can better support you.