Patient and Public Involvement
Involving users in service redesign is seen as key to developing modern health care services as research that reflects the needs and views of the public is more likely to produce results that can be used to improve practice in health and social care.
Who are service users?
The SDO programme has adopted and adapted INVOLVE's definition of service users. We define 'the public' and 'service users' as patients; unpaid carers; parents/guardians; users of health services; disabled people; members of the public who are the potential recipients of health promotion/public health programmes; groups asking for research because they believe they have been exposed to potentially harmful circumstances, products or services; groups asking for research because they believe they have been denied products or services from which they believe they could have benefited; organisations that represent service users and carers (adapted from a definition in Hanley B.et al, 2004, Involving the public in NHS, public health, and social care research: Briefing Notes for Researchers).
More specifically, in order to maximise service user input into the SDO programme, they should be linked to service user/carer networks i.e. they should be able to draw on a wide body of opinion and be able to provide a broad perspective to help at the stage requested in the SDO process. To avoid conflicts of interest when supporting the SDO programme, a service user should not normally be a health practitioner, manager or researcher.
