Volunteer Story and Public Engagement at EEAST

Meeting: Public Meeting

Date: 10 July 2024

Report Title: Volunteer Story and Public Engagement at EEAST

Agenda Item: PUB24/07/1.4-5

Author: Rachel Morris, Head of Patient Experience

Lead Director: Simon Chase, Chief Paramedic and Director of Quality

Purpose: Discussion/review

Assurance: Reasonable

Link to Strategic Objective:

• Be an exceptional place to work, volunteer and learn
• Be excellent collaborators and innovators as system partners

Link to Strategic Risk:

• SR1a: If we do not ensure our people are safe and their wellbeing prioritised, there is a risk that we will be unable to attract, retain and keep all our people safe and well
• 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: Previously discussed at Trust Board on 13.09.2023 and 18.11.2023, with further discussion at Quality Governance Committee in June 2024 about wider public engagement, learning and impact.

Recommendation: The Trust Board is asked to review and discuss the feedback from the volunteer stories and the current workstreams in progress to continue to improve co-production and collaboration whilst balancing the financial challenges present across the NHS including the Trust.

Purpose: To provide an overview of the experiences of volunteers and members of staff who volunteer to support the Trust with public engagement. To highlight the success and benefits of this work and some of the current challenges and barriers faced in undertaking it.

The volunteer story will be accompanied by a short presentation by the Head of Patient Experience which highlights the amount of work undertaken by staff and volunteers, the impact and the learning we gain from it as a Trust, and the direction the Trust is travelling to improve engagement and collaboration.

Executive Summary

A video has been co-created with our volunteers and members of staff who volunteer their time for public engagement. They openly discuss their experiences and how we can improve alongside members of staff who co-ordinate this work.

A Trust Board presentation follows the video detailing how EEAST engages the public and how we use and learn from this along with how we can further improve future co-production and collaboration.

Introduction/Background

The Trust Board has previously reviewed and supported the Executive Leadership approach on reimbursing volunteers for strategic pieces of work, such as the use of experts by experience, and are aware that staff have a limited number of days abstraction to support with a number of areas, including public engagement (this was their consensus for not to be paid).

The video and presentation aim to explain the benefits, challenges and wishes from the perspective of those volunteering their time to undertake this work, and links into those previous discussions held by the Trust Board.

Following the recent presentation at Quality Governance Committee, the Head of Patient Experience will attend the Committee on a regular basis to update on patient engagement, learning and impact as detailed in the accompanying presentation.

It is also envisaged that, with the Committee’s agreement, a member of the Community Engagement Group will be invited to support the Head of Patient Experience to provide feedback and patient voice, a concept already underway in a number of internal working groups within the Clinical Directorate.

Key Issues/Risks

Public engagement work at the Trust remains dependent on volunteers and staff volunteering within their own time. The volunteers and staff who undertake this work get a huge amount out of it personally as well as recognising the benefits to the Trust and the public. There are challenges to this work though, including the ability to meet demand, resources, and co-ordination which, combined with it being dependant on volunteers, put a lot of staff off volunteering.

The Patient/Public Involvement team has communicated that the Trust is unable to fulfil additional requests for school visits until the Autumn term due to the volume of requests, the difficulty in staffing these, and ensuring the equipment and vehicles are available.

The benefits of this work to the Trust include:

• Increased public education around how and when to call an ambulance.
• Improved reach of public feedback and consultation, beyond what the Trust employed team could achieve.
• Improved access into harder to reach communities.
• Improved reputation and positive experience with the service.
• Increased interest in EEAST’s work and potential recruitment.
• Morale boost for staff and volunteers involved.

Summary

The breadth and reach of the Trust’s public engagement work is largely dependent on volunteers and staff volunteering in their own time. This work brings significant benefits, gratification for those undertaking, both to the Trust and to those staff and volunteers engaging in it, however there are a number of challenges faced now around increasing engagement within the financial pressures facing the Trust and the wider NHS.