People tell us that their voices are not always heard and don’t feel they are educated or informed well enough in a way that’s meaningful to them, to be able to make decisions about their care, health, wellbeing, situation and or longer-term outcomes.

Personalisation and delivering personalised care help address some of these challenges and is rooted in the belief that individuals want to have a life and not a service.

It’s a way of working that changes the conversation from “what’s the matter with you?”, to, “what matters to you?”  This is a significant change in the way we work together and should be considered an integral way to how we deliver services.

Delivering this enabler will focus on four key themes:

Theme 1: A new relationship with the public

Theme 2: Making decisions together and ‘what matters to you?’ conversations.

Theme 3: Supported self-care and self-management

Theme 4: Community Development 

Working with people, the aim is to evolve the relationship and conversations between the people of Lincolnshire, professionals and the health and care system to one which focuses on people’s strengths and assets and ‘what matters to them’. This will provide a positive shift in the balance of power and decision making to enable individuals to have more choice and control in order to live their best life.

Together with the people of Lincolnshire, we are developing ‘Our Shared Agreement’:  a shared view on what the best wellbeing, care, and health  looks and feels like, for individuals and collectively as a community.

At its core, ‘Our Shared Agreement’ describes the foundations of the evolving relationship between health, care, communities, and the people of Lincolnshire that is rooted in partnership, education, personalised care and in making decisions together.

Our Shared Agreement, and the five foundations listed below, have been co-produced with Lincolnshire people and have been shaped by what people and staff have told us is important to them.

1. Being prepared to do things differently
2. Understanding what matters to ourselves and each other
3. Working together for the wellbeing of everyone
4. Conversation with and not about people
5. Making the most of what we have available to us

It is important that we then use this way of working to develop and co–produce services together, we continue to develop stronger relationships with the public, users of services, carers, volunteers, staff and community groups and work alongside them to improve the development, delivery, and accessibility of health, care and wellbeing services.

This will be achieved by applying the principles of enduring education, co-production, and engagement.

If you’d like examples of how we’re bringing ‘Our Shared Agreement’ to life, or would like to get involved, please click here.

If you’d like more information or would like to get involved in co-production, please click here.

As the complexity and uniqueness of the needs of people and carers continue to change, and expectations towards health, care and wellbeing evolve, we need to work together to ensure people have information that is relevant, meaningful, and accessible to all, to enable informed and timely shared decisions making.

Making decisions together ensures that people are supported to make decisions that are right for them, ensuring their values, beliefs and culture are understood.

Co-production is a collaborative process where people and professionals work together to reach a decision about their support, care, or treatment.

The conversation brings together:

• What the person knows best; their experience, knowledge, preferences, personal circumstances, strengths, and goals.
• Professional expertise and knowledge of available care or treatment options, including timescales of delivery, evidence of success, and the risks, benefits, and expected outcomes of each option.

“What matters to you?” conversations aim to discover what’s important to the person their carers and those who are important to them; to explore their strengths, wants, wishes and goals to live their best life.

Making decisions together and “what matters to you?” conversations enable a much better understanding of people’s strengths, their wishes and their potential, which can be realised by collectively agreeing realistic outcomes and goals.

This ensures the right support goes to the right people at the right time reducing a reliance on statutory services and enabling people to live the life they want to live.

This link will take you to examples of good practice and personal stories and experiences of making decisions together and “what matters to you?” conversations.

We will work with people, their carers, and those who are important to them, to encourage, educate, support, and empower them to manage their own physical and mental health conditions, making positive changes to their lifestyles where feasible, and remaining as independent for as long as possible within their local communities.

Supported self-care and self-management is a way of working together to understand the knowledge and skills and confidence of people, their carers and those important to them, to look after their own health and wellbeing.

This can be achieved through strength-based conversations, coaching, structured education, and positive risk-taking, tailoring the response and or intervention accordingly.

Thus, supporting people and carers to grow and enhance their expertise and confidence to be able to look after themselves.

Visit Strength Based Approaches and Patient Activation Measure (PAM) on the Its All About People website for more information and examples of these approaches in practice.

Recognising that the health and wellbeing of people is significantly influenced by a range of social, economic, cultural, and environmental factors, it is essential that Lincolnshire has strong and vibrant local community networks and services that are accessible and available when required.

‘Local community networks bring together voluntary, community and faith organisations as well as social enterprises to respond to local need, however, we know that coverage across the county is not equitable and further development of these networks is needed, especially in some rural parts of the county.’

We know there are examples of where the local community and statutory health and care services work well together to offer alternatives to statutory services, and we want to build on this to increase coverage across the county.

We will:

• Continue to enable health and care professionals to link the people they support with someone, who will take the time to explore ‘what matters to them’ and support them to access community-based services. This will include the diverse range of groups and support provided by the local VCFSE sector.
• Develop, agree, and utilise a clear framework for engaging with community networks that represent adults, young people and children and the places in which they live, work, go to school and play.
• Use learning from these approaches to further shape the way we develop, deliver, and evaluate services to improve our offer to local communities.
• Continue to develop our connections with, learn from, and understand local communities so we have a shared understanding of available support and how to access it.
• Continue to develop clear engagement plans so that people know what we are working on, how co-production can be utilised, and how people can get involved.

We will work with communities to understand where our help and support can be best directed and what we jointly want to achieve.

We will work with our partners and community groups to co-produce improved education, prevention, health and care delivery, and evaluation pathways. This will further strengthen relationships and support our desire for innovative and modern delivery methods that are inclusive of all in Lincolnshire.

For further information visit:

Social Prescribing and Community Based Support on the It’s All About People website.

Lincolnshire Voluntary Engagement Team (LVET) – About Us

LVET: Membership – What does it mean to be a member of LVET?