PLAIN TEXT - Resource pack: People, places and health agencies: lessons from Big Local residents

Published December 2016.

These resources were produced during the course of research undertaken by the Institute for Voluntary Action Research (IVAR) and Big Local partnerships to explore the role of Big Local in supporting and influencing resident-led health and wellbeing in England. The research was carried out between January and October 2016.

The pack contains the following resources:

1. Representing your data: How to present health inequality data in a striking, easy to understand format. This resource builds on work by Beechwood, Ballantyne and Bidston Village Big Local who worked with local health and housing agencies to gather data about their area.
2. Representing your experiences: How to collect and present residents’ stories about health and wellbeing. This resource builds on work by the Big Local group, PEACH, which is based in Custom House, Newham. PEACH spoke to around 30 residents about how they had personally been affected by poor access to health services. They did this because they wanted to give people who felt too ill to come to many meetings a chance to say how the issues were affecting them and to show the human impact of healthcare. Based on the evidence gathered they produced a report and leaflet that explains the issues and describes what PEACH Health Group has achieved so far.
3. Representing what you bring to the table: How to describe and explain the role your Big Local partnership can play. This visual resource builds on ideas that were shared with us by Big Local Ewanrigg.

Instructions for use:

• Save this document as a template.
• Save the resources as separate files and delete the pages you don’t need if you wish to share them as single items.

In a nutshell:

Population (delete example text and add new): 

• There are 3,950 people living in BBBV.
• 66% of people have access to the internet.

Housing (delete example text and add new):

• 2% of households lack central heating (3% nationally).
• 58% of people live in social housing (18% nationally).

Vulnerable groups (delete example text and add new):

• 44% of children live in ​‘out of work’ households.
• People claiming mental health-related benefits is more than double the national average.

Crime (delete example text and add new): 

• Reported crime is lower than the national average.
• The reported violent crime rate is below national average.
• 26% increase in alcohol-related crime since 2008.

Health and wellbeing (delete example text and add new):

• 29% of people have a limiting long-term illness (20% nationally).
• Life expectancy is five years less than the national average.
• 41% of people smoke (22% for England).

Education and skills (delete example text and add new):

• 39% of people have no qualifications (22% nationally).
• By Year 1, there is a 5% shortfall in achievement by pupils against naitonal average.

Economy (delete example text and add new):

• The largest employment sector in the area is health and social work.
• The % of people on JSA is double the national average.
• There are 17 claimants per job (three claimants per job nationally.

Deprivation (delete example text and add new):

• 3,687 (93%) people live in the most deprived 20% of neighbourhoods in England.
• 52% of children live in poverty (22% nationally).
• Pension credit claimants are 2.5 times the national average.

Access and transport (delete example text and add new):

• 46% of households have no car (26% nationally).
• 71% of pensioners have no access to a car (59% nationally).

Communities and environment (delete example text and add new):

• The percentage of people ​‘satisfied with their neighbourhood’ is higher than the national average.

Patient experiences:

Gathering residents’ stories about their experiences of using local health services can be a great way to show the impact (good and bad) that these services have on residents’ day to day lives. It also provides an opportunity for residents who are not able to attend formal partnership meetings to still have their say.

The following gives an example of the sort of data you might find it useful to collect when gathering stories from residents about their experiences of using local health services.

Name:

It is usually best practice to anonymise responses and discuss this with the person giving you their story but you might want to keep a reference for your own records of which person said what.

Delete example text and add your own text here.

An experience or problem that you have had at (add the name of surgery/​health care facility):

Add your text here.

How did you feel?

Add your text here.

How did/​does this affect your health or other healthcare arrangements? 

Add your text here.

Once you have gathered stories from residents about their experiences of using local healthcare services, think about who you want to share these stories with and how you are going to present them. For example, PEACH Big Local presented the stories they gathered in a short report and leaflet that explain the issues they uncovered including positives as well as problems. Below is the template that PEACH Big Local used and which you may want to adapt for your own use.

Stories:

Summarise whose stories are being told here, i.e. which local residents, and why. For example, in the case of PEACH Big Local Partnership, they wanted to give people who felt too ill to come to many meetings a chance to say how the issues were affecting them and wanted to show the human impact of healthcare.

Delete example text and add your own text here (use ​‘Body’ style in document format).

Issues:

Summarise what the common issues appear to be from across all the stories. For example, the common issues identified by PEACH through residents’ stories were:

• Direct effect of worse health and more pain.
• Additional stress and impact on employment, education etc.
• Feeling frustrated, angry or upset and losing trust in the service.

Delete example text and add your own text here (use ​‘Body’ style or ​‘Body-bullet’ style for bullets in document format).

Positives:

Summarise what the main positives coming from the stories are.

Delete example text and add your own text here (use ​‘Body’ style in document format).

• Structure and support: Helping residents get started and maintain momentum.
• Resources and time: At least £1m worth of funding and ten years or more to spend it.
• Bringing people together: Providing opportunities for residents, health agencies and local decision-makers to come together.
• Local data on health issues: Gathering insights into experiences and perceptions of health services.
• Health promotion: Delivering health messages and activities that are right for locals.
• Community action: Working with health agencies to try out new health and wellbeing activities.