Supporting People
Consultation Statement
The Bath & North East Somerset Supporting People Team is
responsible for providing and monitoring housing related support
services. These services help people who need support to live
in a place which suits their needs.
Values
The Supporting People Team is committed to talking to and
listening to service users. The Supporting People Team
believes that talking and listening to service users can help us to
plan and provide good services. We believe that service users are
the best people to tell us about the services they receive and that
this will help us to improve the quality of the services.
The Supporting People Team believes that all people who use
supported housing services have the right to tell us what they
think about the service they receive or might want to receive in
the future. We also believe that service users should be able
to tell us what they think in a way that suits them and their
needs.
The Supporting People Team recognises that all people are
different and tries to understand that people have different
values, views and experiences.
Aims
The Supporting People Team will talk and listen to service users
about :
- The service(s) they receive.
- The Supporting People Strategy, which sets out what services we
hope to provide in the future.
The Supporting People Team aims to increase inclusion by :
- Promoting community user-led organisations.
- Developing services for client groups whose numbers are
small
- Ensuring that services are sensitive to users and carers
different beliefs, lifestyles and cultures, taking proper account
of users’ race, religion, age, gender, sexuality and
disability.
- Being responsive to what service users tell us.
Actions
1. Develop consultation methods which suit the needs of
all service users and for all parts of the service Supporting
People Team.
2. Grow and build good or interesting practice and
find more creative ways of finding effective consultation methods
eg. offering incentives, refreshments, using known venues,
investigating non-traditional forms of consultation.
3. Recognise that people may have been discriminated
against throughout their lives and be sensitive to this when
talking to them Ensure that service users are offered the
opportunity to be consulted as far as is meaningfully possible.
4. Present complex issues in a simple way, avoiding
jargon and providing accessible places for discussions.
5. Be clear about the purpose of each consultation
exercise, eg. whether it is about information sharing or giving;
what views are being sought; what is the subject to be discussed;
be open and realistic about what can and can not be changed or
influenced through talking to service users.
6. Provide feedback on the outcomes of any consultation as
quickly as possible, addressing all concerns raised with clear
statements about what actions will be taken. This will be done in a
simple way avoiding jargon and in accessible formats.
7. Ensure that service user involvement and consultation
is a central part of the Supporting People
Programme.
8. Ensure that service users are involved in the strategy
and planning groups for the programme.
9. Ensure that a range of views are gathered which reflect
the views of the whole. This will be achieved by conducting a range
of informal and formal events both small and larger
