Mersey Care NHS Trust has a proven track record of involvement.
One of the fundamental starting points for involvement was when the Trust was established in 2001 it set about involving the people who use our services, and their carers, in having a real say in how those services are provided. This includes a wide range of involvement, from recruitment and selection of staff, to assessing and monitoring different aspects of the Trust, a Service User and Carer Forum and representation on the Trust Board.
All staff are members of the Trust and play a key role, their opinions count - a joint consultation committee works with the various Staff Side organisation, in addition to the various clinical and professional interest networks. The Trust also supports a variety of special interest staff support groups for disabled people, black and minority ethnic people, a lesbian gay bisexual and transgender group, a women's group, and a group representing faith communities.
The Trust works collaboratively with its key stakeholders, such as the Liverpool Mental Health Consortium, a network of local organisations who represent a number of service users and carers, as well as other groups which represent the bodies that commission the services the Trust provides.
Like many public bodies Mersey Care has a statutory duty to involve the wider public in major changes to service provision and back in 2005 embarked on a widescale public consultation (administered by NHS Sefton) over the long-term future of our local services. Overwhelming public support was shown for for a model of purpose-built facilities close to the communities they serve. These have been incorporated in the TIME (Time to Improve Mental health Environments) Project. The first phase of the TIME Project will provide new in-patient facilities at the old Walton Hospital site and at Edge Lane Retail Park - local residents and councillors have been involved in our plans and we will continue to keep them involved.
The development of a large, diverse, representative membership is a natural progression for the organisation in building and maintaining effective links with the community that we serve and the staff that work with us, ensuring the direct involvement of stakeholders in the organisation’s corporate governance and decision making processes.
Becoming a Foundation Trust (FT) provides an opportunity for Mersey Care to transform the way in which service users, carers, staff, members of the public and other stakeholders can be involved and engaged in the planning, development and monitoring of services through the creation of a Trust membership and a Members' Council.
