What is it?

Tameside’s Supporting People Service User Involvement Strategy was developed in recognition of the essential role service users have as part of the Supporting People programme.

Part of the strategy included the development of a policy stating how users’ contributions should be rewarded, recognising the input of service users’ skills, time and expertise involved in their work with the Supporting People programme.

What’s involved?

Tameside recognises, values and rewards the contribution of service users in a number of ways, including:

• Introducing systems that ensure feedback from service users is fed into the Supporting People Strategy review
• Feeding service users preferred means of communication into the Communications Strategy
• Choosing only the highest quality venues and refreshments when hosting events
• Inviting service users to key events such as launches
• Free training for service users
• 'Paying' peer reviewers for their time - normally consisting of a £10 gift voucher of the user's choice per half day to attend events and meetings, to deliver training and to produce work plans – as above
• Organising transport and paying for transport costs, as appropriate
• Providing child care facilities, where appropriate
• Recording thanks for contributions made by service users, both individually and in appropriate publications

What has it led to?

The success of the policy has led the Supporting People Joint Commissioning Group currently to consider adopting the ‘Payments for Involvement to Service Users and Carers’ policy, which is a draft document
produced by the Pennine Care NHS Trust.

This policy includes the systematic payment of money to service users and carers for their involvement in
initiatives and, if adopted, would result in changes to Tameside’s Supporting People Reward and Recognition Policy.