Service User Involvement

Transition to Adulthood (T2A)
Young Adults with Multiple Needs within the Criminal Justice System

The T2A project is working with an action group comprising young people, service providers and local government. This group will be supported to identify good and emerging practice in this field by a series of project visits and interviews. These findings will then be formulated into a format which will have greatest influence on policy, commissioning and practice.

A significant principle of this Project is that it will harness the insights and experiences of young people who are currently receiving support from services in order to influence improvements at a national level.

The action group is currently being formed and trained to ensure they have the necessary skills and confidence to conduct the project visits.

If you are interested in participating in the Project, or would like further information please contact:

Dawn Hart
dawn.hart@revolving-doors.org.uk

User Involvement Forum

The Service User Forum is an opportunity for people with direct experience from a range of relevant backgrounds and organisations to come together and help Revolving Doors Agency to develop and inform policy. We hope that opportunities will arise for people to get involved in activities such as research, policy consultations, recruitment and other organisational matters. The Forum does not currently have a name; we hope to open a competition for a new name shortly.

Why are we setting up the Forum?
Revolving Doors Agency needs to be informed and influenced by people with direct personal experience in order that our work continues to be relevant and based in the issues facing people today. We no longer provide services ourselves so have no clients or service users to turn to. Therefore, we obtained funding to enable us to set up this forum and engage the organisation in an exciting new initiative.

How will the Forum work?
We had an initial meeting in June 2008 which helped us to clarify some of our ideas. Minutes of this meeting are available here. We plan to have a second meeting in September to take this work further. Currently we are working on the policies and procedures that will help to ensure that the Forum will be able to work well. These include: membership and payment policies, support and training issues, and role descriptions. We plan to offer people opportunities for networking and information, as well as involvement in all aspects of our work. We aim to start an induction programme in January 2009.

Who is eligible to join?
Individuals or groups who have some experience of the criminal justice system and, in addition, experience of issues such as mental health problems, drug or alcohol problems or homelessness are eligible to join. We particularly welcome people from black and minority ethnic communities and women, both of whom are often under-represented in service user and client involvement forums.

How do I join?
If your experiences reflect our areas of interest, please fill in a membership form and we will get back to you with further information. In the meantime, if you have any queries, please contact:

Alison Faulkner
User Involvement Manager
020 7553 6072

Summary Minutes of First Service User Forum Meeting
June 2008

1. Welcome and Introductions: Alison Faulkner (User Involvement Manager) and Tina Coldham (User Consultant) welcomed everyone to Revolving Doors Agency. Everyone introduced themselves and groundrules were established for the day.
2. Revolving Doors Agency: Catherine Hennessy (Director of Operations) gave everyone a brief introduction to the organisation. RDA works to improve the lives of people with mental health problems who come into contact with the criminal justice system through research, service development and policy work.
3. The Forum: Alison introduced the aims and future role of the ‘service user forum’ within RDA, which is to ensure that people with direct experience of the issues that concern the organisation are involved in all of its work.

   There was then a break, and the large group split into two smaller groups to discuss the remaining items on the agenda.

4. Membership: The group discussed the following issues: diversity, networks, sustaining membership, groundrules and the benefits of joining. The group felt that it was important for the Forum to have wide networks and to review its links with diverse communities, considering outreach and a range of different barriers to involvement and membership. A culture of respect was agreed to be important. Benefits included confidence and empowerment, training and skills, and payment.
5. Training. All the suggested items on the list were agreed to be valuable. Other options put forward included advocacy, dealing with aggressive behaviour, using people’s stories in training, and peer support/peer mentoring.
6. Payments. This was agreed to be a complex issue fraught with difficulties and complicated by the fact that individuals would have different needs depending on their circumstances. The issues of payment in cash and/or vouchers were discussed (as above) and most people were in favour of a personalised approach to the issue.
7. Projects. Most people in the group were broadly interested in the projects mentioned; most enthusiasm was expressed for the Arts research project. Other ideas included peer mentoring and training to become support workers in drug or alcohol services.
8. Close of Meeting: Alison and Tina expressed thanks to everyone for attending and giving of their experiences for the start of this Forum. A second meeting will be held in the Autumn in which people will be invited to make suggestions for the key issues they feel RDA should be taking forward over the next few years.
   
   
   
   Full minutes available from Alison Faulkner at RDA