Monitoring involvement
Carr-Gomm knows that its user involvement programme is producing positive results for clients across the country but we know we need to provide evidence of the benefits of the work. With this in mind, we have developed a monitoring process for all events that clients attend so we can see the current level of service user involvement and continue to improve our work.
Our client involvement strategy contains a number of targets around monitoring and evaluation of client involvement. Outcomes that we expect from our work include increasing client involvement in Carr-Gomm (especially in those groups underrepresented at the moment), making sure that everyone knows why client involvement is important and the benefits and outcomes leading from it and making sure that both Carr-Gomm clients and staff are aware of their responsibilities to client involvement.
Empowerment Audits
With a grant from the Community Fund we were twice able to employ an external consultant to survey our service users on their feelings of support and empowerment from Carr-Gomm at an interval of 2 years.
The results of these audits have been the basis of many of our new client involvement projects and our strategy. For example, clients said that they felt listened to by Carr-Gomm but they didn’t always hear about the actions resulting from the comments and suggestions that they made. To combat this, we now produce a clients’ newsletter that has articles entitled, “Your views shape…” and follow with an example of something that has changed in Carr-Gomm as a result of client involvement.
Feeding back
As well as through the newsletter, Contact, we feedback and give our clients information through a number of other channels. Each Carr-Gomm house and project is encouraged to hold regular meetings together. This gives clients a chance to discuss issues together whilst allowing staff to update them on any regional news. At area and regional focus groups, senior members of staff and board members are on hand to answer questions directly.
In the case of formal requirements to report to clients, we may send a letter directly to each client, but the project staff are always briefed in advance so that they have the information and are prepared to answer any questions that may arise.
Measuring the outcomes of our work
A group of Carr-Gomm employees are working on developing on a number of indicators that can help show that the work we do is having a positive effect on the lives of our service users. “Soft outcomes” such as people feeling happier or more confident are difficult to measure in an objective way, but we hope that the indicators being developed will be a useful guide for ourselves and hopefully, in the future, other organisations, to show how well we are doing.
Information about this work will be available in our facts and figures section. Go to Outcomes to see more information.
