How the NHS can encourage more community participation – and the difference that can make
Bethany Golding
In this blog I would like to explore a different kind of leadership: the kind of leadership that encourages genuine community participation.
I will then tease out how this kind of leadership can encourage the flow of positive tangible outcomes and service improvements.
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I have been privileged in being able, with colleagues, to fund and witness some extraordinary work and leadership coming out of Central Liverpool Primary Care Network (PCN).
Dr Cait Taylor, the Clinical Director and Dr Fiza Salam the Racial Equality Lead GP came to us at NHS England with an ask: how could they better engage with their local communities to improve service delivery and access? Our Deputy Director of People and Communities responded with enthusiasm, and funded the PCN to collaborate with an organisation called Co-create to find better ways to work with marginalised local community groups.
What happened next?
We were delighted with what happened next. The PCN really picked up and ran with this work and these community-led approaches. They initiated a piece of work around tackling racial inequalities. As a result of their engagement with local communities, they initiated the following changes:
Resources in multiple languages to help people navigate the local NHS services
Language ID cards for reception staff to use, these have written language, also country flags and the language line pin code
PCN and practice staff training including a safe surgery toolkit
Work to simplify and unify the GP registration pathway
Patient involvement in improving ethnicity recording
But this wasn’t all. The Clinical Director and Racial Equality Lead GP went further and made the following, wide-reaching changes:
Increased community representation in the PCN
Community grants in collaboration with Citizens Advice
A strategy to improve diversity of PCN & practice staff
Continuous engagement, partnership and work towards a city-wide Racism Truth Commission
The PCN with its Clinical Director and Racial Equality Lead GP did not stop here either. They continued to identify ways in which they could work with marginalised community groups to improve their experiences of access and care at a primary care level – and beyond. In fact, one of the things they were careful to do was to receive feedback about all parts of the system, not just primary care – then join up their working with other parts of the NHS to take action as a result of feedback.
The PCN went on to create community-based events, such as a prostate cancer awareness event for Black men, and a breast cancer screening awareness event at a multicultural centre, all supported by the PCN engagement leads.
What can leaders learn from this?
Dr Cait Taylor and Dr Salam have pulled together some key pieces of advice that they would like to give to people looking to emulate this kind of leadership and work:
Find community bridges and leaders
Engage in dialogue with humility, accepting we do not have all the answers and that we may not be the experts in the room
Be prepared for working in different ways with lots of ongoing learning
Don’t be afraid of strong emotions
I think there are several examples of leadership here which we can learn from. There is the leadership shown by our Deputy Director in providing funding and support without the expectations being too rigid, allowing the PCN the freedom to explore what worked best with their local communities. There is the leadership shown by Dr Cait Taylor, the PCN Clinical Director, and the leadership of Dr Fiza Salam, the PCN Racial Equality Lead. They bravely went out and changed ways of working so that communities were in the driving seat.
Some of the key lessons we can take from this are around humility and active listening, with intent to work in partnership with communities to effect genuine positive change because of what they tell us. Cait and Fiza didn’t shy away from the big issues or the big conversations. They put themselves out there to hear everything that communities could tell them, to learn, and to act.
I certainly intend to take this to heart and do my best to emulate the leadership style of my Deputy Director, Dr Cait Taylor and Dr Fiza Salam.
What might you do differently as a result of reading this blog?
