Community Engagement Group (CEG) Quarterly Report - February 2025

Meeting: Trust Board – Public Meeting

Date: 12 February 2025

Report Title: Community Engagement Group (CEG) Quarterly Report

Agenda Item: PUB25/02/4.4

Author: CEG members – Rhys Hibbert, John Newman, Indra Jones

Lead Director: Simon Chase, Chief Paramedic (AHP) and Director of Quality

Purpose: Discussion/review

Link to CQC domain:

• Caring
• Responsive
• Well Led

Link to Strategic Objective:

• Be an exceptional place to work, volunteer and learn
• Provide outstanding quality of care and performance
• Be excellent collaborators and innovators as system partners

Link to Strategic Risk:

• SR2: Failure to achieve continuous quality improvements and high-quality care delivery
• SR3: If we do not ensure we have the ability to plan, influence and deliver across our systems to secure change, we will not be able to meet the needs of our public and communities

Equality Impact Assessment: No negative impact identified

Previously considered by: Standing report to Public Board – not discussed at committee-level.

Recommendation: To increase the resources for use in public information / awareness.

Purpose: To give a direct reporting mechanism to the Board from the Community Engagement Group (CEG) and ensure that Patient and Public voice is considered in strategic decision-making within the Trust.

Executive Summary:

This report provides an overview of CEG activity over the last 3-months (October to December 2024) and details key challenges for the CEG at this time. These primarily relate to resources and funding to deliver engagement activities and the need to meet requests for educational visits.

The group is also keen to highlight the work to introduce younger people to Community Engagement volunteering at EEAST and ask for the Board’s support to approve measures introduced to support 16-17 year olds in volunteering.

Introduction/background

Summary of activity completed by the CEG in last 3-months (October to December 2024)

Number of people CEG members engaged with = 796

Summary of activity over the last couple of years

Key Issues / Risks:

Key issues facing CEG this year

1. FUNDING – Currently we do not have a specific/dedicated revenue stream which allows us to support all of the PPI events that are requested. Historically, when children engaged in public with the police, fire brigade or any other emergency services, they were rewarded with a free pencil, or stickers which happily reminded them of those services and positively inspired them to be more inquisitive about those services and possible adult careers. We do have a specified funding line in our budget, it just isn’t very much and we have had difficulty with Procurement allowing us to spend it. The situation currently with CEG is that we simply do not have the funding to give out such educational/awareness items anymore and we could for example, be giving ‘clip-on reflector badges’ to school children in the winter to use as a preventive and safety measure to keep them safe, which fits with the values of the ambulance service and the current ‘Change NHS’ drive with a shift in emphasis on prevention and health promotion.

2. Young People – currently we have three young people (16 to 18-year olds) from Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire who have successfully applied to join CEG. There is, however, one outstanding hurdle, ie. safeguarding. The PPI team have worked with the Safeguarding team to produce the necessary paperwork to protect these young people, which now needs the final sign off urgently.

   a. Can the Board please give this due consideration promptly when it reaches them.

   b. We cannot afford to lose the enthusiasm and potential community intelligence on the use of our services and wider health issues that these 16 to 18-year olds could bring to the Trust and NHS. We need to ensure that young people have a say on health service provision and help to enrich the sustainability of future CEG. We are already behind our ICB partners and hospital Trusts who have successfully established Youth Councils within their establishments and reporting positive outcomes.

   c. We need to protect our young people and any vulnerable volunteers from coming to any harm while supporting and representing the Trust.

3. Increased Demand for Public Education – as the data/evidence over the last 12-months shows, we have seen a 26% increase over the last 9-months in demand for representation at public events or to engage directly with the public, which will increase further by the end of the year. This is fantastic news for EEAST and needs to be embraced by all. It does, however, put a huge amount of additional pressure on the PPI team. Consequently, what we are asking for are ideas on how the Board can support us to fulfil our obligations with reasonable resource provisions. We would be negligent in fulfilling our duties to turn down these requests which are crucial to an effective yet economical PPI agenda. The ROI benefits would far outweigh the cost.

4. We do not wish to give the impression of disinterest by our communities at a time when the NHS has enough negative publicity but rather support our CEG/PPI endeavours to amplify our patients’ voices as found wanting in the Darzi 2024 report. Hence:

   a. Is there a way for support staff who take time out of their rest days to support these events to be compensated in some practical way (perhaps contribute to their fuel expense to the station)?

   b. Is there a way to support the PPI team to facilitate all these requests?

   c. Is there a way that operational managers can be empowered to support these events through making vehicles available for public display, or allowing staff to stand down from frontline duty to carry out these roles, or even make use of staff on TRD for these events?

5. Is there anything else you would like us to consider and action in 2025-26?

Options:

1. What can we do to secure the additional funding needed to support the continued growth in public engagement?

   a. Can we have support from Procurement to spend our existing funding before the end of the year?

   b. Can we approach the EEAST Charity – do they have capacity to support us?

   c. Can we get extra funding from Finance?

   d. Is there another revenue stream within the NHS or education where we can tap into some funds?

   e. Can we canvas any local businesses (eg. banks, supermarkets) within the EEAST catchment area to sponsor/support these schemes?

2. The PPI team have worked with the Safeguarding team to produce the necessary paperwork to protect these young people, but it now needs final sign off.

   a. Can the Board please give this due consideration as soon as it reaches them?

   b. We can’t afford to lose the enthusiasm and community intelligence on the use of our services and wider health issues that these 16 to 18-year olds will bring to the team and ensure sustainability of future CEG.

   c. We need to protect our young people and any vulnerable volunteers from coming to any harm while supporting and representing the Trust.

Summary:

This paper has provided an update on current CEG activities and the increase in demand for public engagement. It set out some of the funding challenges for the CEG and how these impact upon the community engagement work that the CEG is trying to undertake. It also identifies opportunities where we could be taking this work further, and highlights the plans in place for expanding CEG membership to 16 and 17-year olds.

The paper presents a range of suggestions around additional funding sources.