Charter for Involvement Evaluation Report June 2012

Supported by

The National Involvement Network

Charter for Involvement

Evaluation ReportJune 2012

Charter for Involvement

I would like to sit at the top table and speak about

how my life is changing

“ “ The Charter is

a brilliant template for organisations on the inclusion

journey

“ “

National Involvement Network

Charter for Involvement • Evaluation Report: June 20122

The Charter for Involvement was written by a group

of people who use services in Scotland called the

National Involvement Network. There are 13

statements in the Charter that say how we want to

be involved in how the organisations that support us

are planned and run. It was published in 2009.

People who are in charge of 22 support organisations

have since committed their organisation to putting

the Charter statements and principles into action.

For more information about the Charter for Involvement and the

National Involvement Network please visit the ARC Scotland website

www.arcuk.org.uk/scotland or phone us on 0131 663 4444

About the Charter for Involvement

Talking about this Evaluation Report: National Involvement Network Meeting June 2012


Charter for Involvement • Evaluation Report: June 2012 3

4 members of the National Involvement Network carried out this evaluation.

We wanted to find out what difference the Charter for Involvement has made to

people’s lives. It has taken us over a year to do this evaluation. Here are some

of our comments:

“I used to panic in a room with lots of people. Now I can sit in a room and listen to what people say”

“Things don’t need to be difficult to get your point across. It will let folk see that people with learning disabilities are not stupid and can say what they want very clearly”

“I feel more confident, being able to sit and talk to people without having help. I would never have been able to do that before”

The main differences we hope that the Charter is making to peoples lives are (these are called ‘outcomes’):

3 We are more active in making the organisations that support us better

3 We are more able to make decisions about our lives

3 We are more skilled and confident in speaking up for ourselves and others

About the Evaluation



We sent questionnaires to the chief executives of the organisations that have

‘signed up’ to the Charter to find out if these things are happening. Chief

executives are the people who run organisations. We got 14 responses to this

and wrote an ‘interim report’.

We then met 46 people who get support from 7 different voluntary

organisations to find out what they think. All of the organisations supported

people with learning disabilities.

We made it clear to everyone that we were evaluating the Charter not the

organisation.

The Charter Evaluation group are:

Heather Davidson Magnus McIvor Lynnette Linton Caroline Gray

We would like to thank the following for their help, advice and support in the

writing of this report. Geeta Patel (Garvald Edinburgh), Gillian Barclay (Hansel

Alliance), James Fletcher (ARC Scotland). Thanks also to Graeme Reekie from

Evaluation Support Scotland who advised us as to how the report should look,

Lindsay Graham who attended the interviews with us and FAIR for the pictures.

All of your support was very much appreciated.



The Charter has helped people who get support to be more involved.

The differences we hoped for have happened for at least 1,750 people.

People who get support and chief executives are positive about the difference

that the Charter has made. People who get support are usually more positive

than the chief executives. They give similar examples about how the Charter

has helped. But there are differences too. People who get support are less

sure about how much the Charter has helped them to be involved in choosing

their staff than chief executives. People who get support often spoke about

feeling more listened to and respected because of the Charter.

We learned which statements in the Charter are helping to make a big

difference (for example We want to be at the HEART of any plans about

OUR lives). We also learned there are statements we need to be clearer about

(for example We want to be involved with our Boards and Management

Committees).

We got lots of good comments about the Charter, and ideas for how we can

improve it. These are at the end of this report.

What we learned (our conclusions)



All of the Charter statements shown in this report are marked with a...

We have written two separate reports that give more detail about what

chief executives and people who get support told us. You can see these at

www.arcuk.org.uk/scotland or call 0131 663 4444 and we will send you a

copy.

What people told us

CharterStatement



Outcome: We are more active in making the organisations that support us better

How much difference has the Charter made to how your organisation is run?

Q1.

None / Not sure

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A little A lot Some

Answers given

People who use services

None / Not sure

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A little A lot Some

Answers given

Chief executives



“We already had a level of involvement and aspiration to improve this. The Charter has acted as a catalyst for this”

“The Charter has helped because our involvement is in writing and to see it on paper makes us proud”

Chief executives and people who get support agree the Charter has made

a difference. Most people who get support think that the Charter has made

more difference than chief executives do. Some people in charge told us that:

• They are only just starting to improve involvement (3 organisations)

• They already had good levels of involvement (4 organisations).

Even so, both groups used the same examples of what differences have

happened:

We want to be involved with our Boards and Management Committees:

People who use services and chief executives agree that there

are better links between people who use services and Management

Boards. More people who get support are taking part in Board

meetings, but not many organisations are doing this.

We want to be involved in writing policies that affect us:

People who use services and chief executives agree that there

is improved involvement of people in writing policies. These

include; Safeguarding, Involvement, Volunteers, Holidays,

Recruitment, Support Plans and Complaints Procedures.

CharterStatement

CharterStatement



We want to be involved in making policies that affect us easier to understand:

More policies are written using easy read or put on a DVD.

We want to be involved in choosing our support workers and other staff:

People who use services and chief executives agree that

people are more involved in choosing staff. There is more

information about this later in this report (see question 4).

We want to be involved in evaluating the service we use:

More organisations are involving the people that they support in

evaluating what they do, such as setting up evaluation groups,

supporting people to use the Charter and getting involved with

staff appraisals.

We want to give information and training to staff at all levels:

People who use services and chief executives agree that more

people have been supported to get skills to train staff. More

people are involved in training staff, but not everyone who gets

support wants to do this.

CharterStatement

CharterStatement

CharterStatement

CharterStatement



How much do you think the people that get support should be involved in how the organisation is planned and run?

Q2.

None / Not sure

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A little A lot Some

Answers given


None / Not sure

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A little A lot Some

Answers given

Chief executives



“I want to be right in the middle of making decisions”

Nearly all chief executives and people who use services agree

that people should be involved a lot in how organisations are

planned and run.

We can’t be sure that people think this way because of the

Charter. But a big part of the Charter is that organisations

should work with the people they support to produce an action

plan for involvement, and 10 of the 14 organisations had done

this.

People in four of the groups that we met with want to be

more involved. Others were unsure about how much more

involvement they wanted.



None / Not sure

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Answers given


None / Not sure

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A little A lot Some

Answers given

Chief executives

Outcome: We are more able to make decisions about our lives

How much do you think the Charter has helped you to be at the HEART of any plans about your life?

Q3.



“The Charter has helped me do more on my own”

“We are rolling out person centred plans for everyone in the organisation who wants one”

We want to be at the HEART of any plans about OUR lives:

Chief executives seem less sure than people who use services

that the Charter has made a lot of difference, but most agree

that some difference has been made. Again, 3 organisations

said they were already doing this.

People who get support and chief executives agree that people

are more involved in their plans and more plans are made in

an accessible way, for example using DVDs and pictures. There

are also better easier to understand support plan policies.

We think it is interesting that lots of people who get support said

that they felt more listened to and respected because of the

Charter.

Some people gave examples of having more choice in

their lives. In some cases this has led to them having more

independence, for example moving home, getting support to

find work and being more involved in their local community.

CharterStatement



(How much) do you think the Charter has helped you to be more involved in choosing your support worker and other staff?

Q4.

Answers givenAnswers given

None / Not sure

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Yes

No

Chief executives



“It’s better since using the Charter, you can choose your own staff”

“It hasn’t changed very much – I don’t get to give input”

“We did this before the Charter so it has not helped a lot”

“The Charter has brought this to the fore and it has been prioritised”

We want to be involved in choosing our support workers and other staff:

People who use services and chief executives agree that more

people are involved in choosing staff.

But this time it is people who get support that are less sure about

the difference that the Charter has made.

We learned that most organisations only have a small number

of people who are involved in choosing staff, and they are not

always choosing their own staff. Lots of people told us that they

want to be involved in choosing staff but don’t get the chance.

Also, only two of the groups said that they had a say in who gets

the job, most people said that it was up to managers to decide.

Only one group said they were involved in writing job

descriptions.

CharterStatement



None / Not sure

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Answers given


None / Not sure

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Answers given

Chief executives

Outcome: We are more skilled and confident in speaking up for ourselves and others

How much do you think the Charter has helped you to get more involved in campaigning and speaking up groups?

Q5.



We want the chance and the choice to get involved in local and national campaigns:

This is the question with the biggest differences between the

chief executives and people who get support.

We heard lots of examples of people who get support getting

involved in campaigns and speaking up groups. It may be that

the people we spoke to were already the most involved people.

Still, we heard good examples of people campaigning out-with

the organisation they receive support from, like speaking to

councillors and local authorities about things that affect them.

Most people felt that the Charter has made some or a lot of

difference to this.

Most of the people who get support we spoke to knew about

the National Involvement Network (NIN) or went to NIN meetings.

Most chief executives knew about the NIN meetings too. But

they were less sure about what difference the Charter has made

to people getting involved in campaigns and speaking up

groups apart from this.

CharterStatement



What do you think about the Charter? Do you have any ideas to make it better?

Q6.

We got lots of good comments about the Charter from both groups:

“It’s good enough so it’s hard to think of new ideas”

“It’s important to tell others about the Charter”

“It is a good document model for good practice”

“The Charter is a brilliant template for organisations on the inclusion journey”



We also got ideas for how we can make the Charter better. They are:

Make the Charter clearer

3 Make the main message in the Charter more clear – that it is about being

listened to and respected

3 Have stories in the charter that show how people have got involved

3 Make it clearer about how people should be involved in choosing their staff

3 Make it clearer about how people should be involved in Management

Boards and Committees

Make the Charter easier to understand

3 Re-publish the Charter book with fewer words and more pictures

3 Make a DVD about the Charter

3 Have posters about the Charter

Get more people involved in the Charter

3 Have more people from rural areas involved in the Charter

3 Have more people with different support needs involved in the Charter

3 Help big national organisations to get the message about the Charter

across to everyone they support and all their staff

The members of the Charter evaluation group have spoken with the other

NIN members about these ideas. NIN members have agreed to work to

make these things happen. Would YOU like to get involved? Please contact

us at [email protected] or call 0131 663 444.

What we will do next

Education

Charter for Involvement Evaluation Report June 2012