Press Release

People power's a Shaw thing

8 December 2005

NATIONAL charity Shaw Trust has welcomed the chance to inject its expertise into powering up nearly half of London's health watchdog Patient Forums.

"We are really proud of the professional service that we have delivered elsewhere in the country and we're very pleased to be able to bring that service to London," says Lesley Knapton, an Operations Manager for the UK's leading provider of employment services for people disadvantaged by disability, ill health or social circumstances.

The 23 year-old charity is the largest not-for-profit Forum Support Organisation (FSO). It has been awarded new contracts by the Patient Forums' independent governing body, The Commission for Patient and Public Involvement in Health (CPPIH), after previous performance was measured by the CPPIH and the Patient Forums themselves.

Lesley Knapton's team have increased their tally from 12 to 49 Patient Forums, after two years of making a success of their support to six Patient Forums in Lincolnshire, three in North and North East Lincolnshire and three in Norfolk and Suffolk.

Shaw Trust has more than quadrupled its staff to add on 30 new Patient Forums in London and seven in Suffolk. Shaw Trust manager Kirsty Regan moved from Lincolnshire to the capital to head up the performance and quality management.

"We recruited 20 new people in London alone, and they have been wonderful," adds Lesley, whose teams are based in Shaw Trust offices in Wapping and Bexley Heath, with several other outreach offices for the Patient Forums' use.

"They had to hit the ground running, as we had just six weeks to meet the take-over deadline. By 4pm on the crunch day, they were facilitating their first Patient Forum meeting."

Shaw Trust welcomes the four-fold increase in the number of people power Patient Forums it supports as a natural leap forward.

"It looks like a big leap on paper, but actually we have grown this service very slowly and carefully, ensuring that we had a rock solid foundation on which to build," says Lesley, who runs Shaw Trust operations in the North East and East Midlands, as well has heading up its FSO service.

"Shaw Trust is all about enabling and empowering people to have a voice and to be heard. We do it every day with our clients. Now we're doing the same for the hundreds of volunteers on the Patient Forums, who, along with overview and scrutiny committees, are the public guardians of how our health service develops and is delivered."

Some 5,000 volunteers on the 569 Patient Forums work on local health decision making, backed by legislation that gives them the power to inspect NHS premises, and makes them part of the consultation system for any local health service changes.

They were set up in December 2003 and are responsible for setting their own agenda for debate and action. This can cover anything from hospital superbugs and ward closures to the lack of NHS dentists and sexual health.

Patient Forum volunteers have already achieved improvements in public health and members' feelings, on everything from spending cuts to new policies are relayed to government ministers.

The FSOs are independent of the NHS and already expert in the local communities in their own field. They are tasked with supporting the Patient Forums in any way necessary, from arranging and facilitating meetings to recruiting and training forum members. They help Patient Forums to monitor the NHS and make decisions, and act as an information conduit between the members, the CPPIH, the Department of Health and the Trusts.

"We are a successful provider because we have the Shaw Trust expertise and business machine behind us. We already have close links with the health service and many of our key drivers come from a health background," adds Lesley, who herself sits on a PCT.

"We're also very flexible and quick to react. There are enormous changes happening in the NHS and we will have no problems with adapting and responding to those and to what ever replaces the CPPIH in 2007.

"From the Trust's point of view, the contract adds to our expertise, and to our employment opportunities.

"But, most of all, the Patient Forums were set up to provide a voice for patients and the public in healthcare, and empowering people is what we do best."