Get involved and help to influence how our local health services develop and change.
We actively encourage patients, residents, and community organisations to take part in and contribute to our work. Taking part in consultations and public engagement exercises are an important way to have your say. These can be on issues that could affect you, your family, or your loved ones. It is important we hear from as many people, across as many different communities as possible. This ensures we have a more representative view of the population of Leeds and what they think.
View our current and previous engagements and consultations
Equality Monitoring and Protected Characteristics
In our engagements and consultations, we will always ask you to provide us with ‘equality monitoring’ information. This section is optional but provides us with important data about the characteristics of the people we hear from. These can include sex, age, ethnicity, carer status, sexuality, disabilities etc. for example. By doing this, we are able to identify any gaps in our responses; we can then make efforts to include those communities we have yet to hear from. We would appreciate your time and effort in completing that section if you are happy to do so.
Patient Assurance
We need to make sure that we are talking to the right people and communities in the right ways. As a result of this, we get a broader representation of the people using our services. To make sure we are engaging in the right ways, we seek assurance on our plans to do this. In Leeds, we use a Patient Assurance Group (PAG) as part of our governance process.
After we have begun preparing for an engagement or consultation, we take our engagement plan to the PAG, which is made up of members from our CCG Volunteer programme, Healthwatch Leeds and our Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) lay-person, Angela Collins.
People working on the proposed changes present a plan of how they will engage with the public. The PAG considers and challenges the plan if the group feels there are noticeable gaps. For example, any gaps in engaging with particular demographics.
The engagement cannot take place unless the PAG are assured. This means the engagement plan is robust and well-thought-out.