Community engagement group (CEG) report

Meeting: Trust Board – Public Meeting

Date: 7 May 2025

Report Title: Community engagement group report

Agenda Item: PUB25/05/5.4

Author: Community engagement group

Lead Director: Simon Chase, Chief Paramedic and Director of Quality

Purpose: Discussion/Review

Assurance: Reasonable

Link to Strategic Objective:

• Be an exceptional place to work, volunteer and learn.
• Provide outstanding quality of care and performance.
• Be excellent collaborators and innovators as system partners.

Link to Strategic Risk:

• SR2: Failure to achieve continuous quality improvements and high-quality care delivery.
• SR3: If we do not ensure we have the ability to plan, influence and deliver across our systems to secure change, we will not be able to meet the needs of our public and communities.

Equality Impact Assessment: No negative impact identified.

Purpose: To enhance the use of resources available to the CEG when dealing with public information / awareness /education, through the PPI team and empower staff and volunteers to represent the Trust to the public through allowances, funding and permissions.

In addition, to enable the CEG team to support and enhance the Trust through engaging with young people and supporting the key messaging of the Trust through the community networks.

Recommendation: Consideration in further working on availability of resources for use in public information / awareness through the PPI team and work to empower staff and volunteers to represent the Trust to the public.

Support the Community Engagement Group (CEG) team to engage with young people recruitment.

Executive summary:

During the last quarter, the CEG have continued to engage with a wide range of the public to further their awareness/education, conducted IPC audits, reviewed patients’ complaints, participated in PSEG and VAF meetings, engaged with leaders through the Trust and provided input into a significant Trust research funding application. We have also heard the patients voices externally through ICB Patient engagements and regional Healthwatch links.

Introduction/background:

Since the last Board meeting, the group has been preparing to engage with more young people through collaboration with schools and education centres and learning from other similar organisations who are ahead of us with voluntary youth councils and forums.

We have also worked on the governance and safeguarding needs with a view to allowing more young people to volunteer with the CEG group in line with relevant policies.

Key issues/risks:

1. Funding: CEG understand the current financial landscape and wish to work closely with the Trust in how best to use their resources to maximum effect within the cost envelope that will be provided. If further funds are available, the CEG would like to prioritise this towards promotional materials and reimbursement of staff travelling costs to increase activity of the group.

2. Young People: The Trust Policy has been approved, and we continue to work with the safeguarding and governance teams to get young people onboarded into the CEG. A target date of 1st July has been suggested to go live and CEG are looking for support from the Board to enable this.

3. Public Education: Further support is offered to teams collaborating with ICBs and other services teams and be given the necessary support to work with other NHS colleagues and the regional ICBs to educate and promote to the public about the role of the ambulance service. This will help support the actions underway that have been highlighted in the Patient discovery interview. A further example for board consideration: West Essex public perception: Jan to April 2025, CEG representatives conducted five sessions for U3A (total 74 persons); one session for Women’s church group (16 persons), and an Epping Forest district Council stay well and safe day (65 persons). Anecdotally it was clear that a significant proportion of the participants welcomed a better understanding of how the Trust responds to 999 calls and were surprised of the large geographical area the Trust covers.

4. Improving Patient Experience: At public board on 06.11.24, it was discussed that the CEG could support with reviewing of the EOC scripts to improve understanding of these scripts and reduce unhelpful public perceptions resulting from these scripts. CEG members remain committed to undertake this work.

5. Improved Internal Communication: As friends to the Trust, we have observed that there is a culture across all areas of the Trust with regards the timely response given to email replies to colleagues and volunteers. From engagement discussions could we put forward a best practice adoption to reply within three working days, as it believed this will have a positive culture change. We have picked up the above culture from our work conducting IPC audits, engaging with staff whilst serving at the welfare wagon, and our general contact and engagement with staff across all six regions and across all staff departments both operationally and administratively.

Options:

1. Consideration of using the CEG to its maximum capacity.
2. Consideration of fundraising specifically for the PPI team through the Trust Charity.
3. Consideration of reimbursement of mileage for staff who come into work on a rest day to support public engagement and provide appropriate budget for this.
4. Facilitate the CEG team working with the EEAST teams to collaborate with the wider NHS and other community services.

Summary:

CEG members continue to engage with a wide range of the public to further their awareness/education, conducted IPC audits, reviewed patient’s complaints, and participated in EEAST meetings, engaged with leaders through the trust and provided input into a significant Trust research funding application.

The group wish to highlight the need for investment in resources for public education and to support engagement work. The group wishes to stress the value they could add to the development of scripts for EOC, and the need for improvement in email communication throughout the Trust. The group also wish to emphasise the need to move forward with approval of the governance required to enable young people to join the CEG.