Our principles for involvement 

We recognise the value of meaningful involvement and its integral role in helping us to provide the best possible services for the people we serve. Communicating and engaging effectively – at the right time and in the right way - will be central in helping us to do this. You can read more about our approach to public involvement in our communications and engagement strategy.

Our overall approach to engaging and communicating reflects the good practice set out in national guidance and the Sefton wide Public Engagement and Consultation Framework. The framework was developed jointly and adopted by the local NHS, Sefton Council, and Sefton CVS in 2009 to set standards of good practice.

We will ensure our activities are: 

Relevant, planned and timely

We will firstly establish the need to inform, engage or consult, so we are clear about our purpose. We will plan our approach, so that activities begin early, are timely throughout the process.

Proportionate and appropriate

The scale of the activities we plan will be proportionate to the need to engage, consult or communicate with the different communities we need to reach.

Accessible and inclusive

We will ensure our engagement and communications are appropriate and accessible by all.

Integrated and coordinated

Our communications and engagement activities will be integrated to get the best possible results, and we will work with our partners to organise and coordinate activities when possible to reduce duplication and resources.

Credible and informed

Our communications will be clinically led whenever possible and our messages will be consistent with our vision, values and objectives.

Open and two way

We want people to be clear about how they can get involved in our work and how their views and experiences are being, or plan to be, used – co-producing services when we can.

Effective and measured

We strive to always demonstrate value for money and good outcomes from the activities we carry out, so we constantly learn from experience when we are devising future activities.

Systematic and responsive

We will manage the insight and outcomes gained from our activities to ensure this knowledge is used effectively to inform our decision making.

Fed-back and well explained

Letting people know how we respond to their views, comments and experiences is important to us and we constantly strive to do this in an effective and timely way.