Who are Care Opinion? Introduction to yourself and why you are giving this presentation

Care Opinion is an independent social enterprise that is independent of the NHS and care providers, but which works closely with them so that people can talk about their experience of health and social care in a safe place, and help staff providing health and care services learn what it is like to be treated by them. Care Opinion is a website where you can tell your story in your own time, wherever you are, and whenever you feel ready.

This is what the form looks like where you tell your story This is what the form looks like where you tell your story. You can tell a story on behalf of someone else, such as a relative or a friend, or sometimes staff will post stories on behalf of the people they care for. There are some other bits you need to fill out after you write your story, and these help Care Opinion make sure that your story is sent to the right staff to respond to it.

Tell your story on Care Opinion Staff are sent your story Staff can respond You can reply to the staff Once you have told your story, and Care Opinion have read it and made sure that you can’t be identified, your story is published on the website where everyone can read it. The staff in the story are automatically emailed to let them know they have a story told about them, and they can log onto Care Opinion and reply to you. You can also reply to their response, and like that have a chat with them about what happened, all the time remaining anonymous and safe. You can discontinue the conversation whenever you like. This is a really great way to give feedback without getting into a formal complaints process, and without losing the nuance of a story where some things may be good, but others may be bad. This is also a great way to make sure that doctors and nurses are hearing what you have to say and your experience is not heard only by the Complaints Department. This is especially important when your story is a nice one!

Care Opinion is not part of the health service, and takes pains to keep you anonymous. This means that you can talk about what it is like to be treated in a hospital or care setting, safe in the knowledge that you can go back to be treated by the same staff without them knowing that it was you that told your story. Care Opinion is not only for complaints or negative stories. Staff want to be the best they can be and they use your stories to learn what they can do better, as well as what they are already doing well. In fact, over two thirds of stories on Care Opinion are overwhelmingly positive! Care Opinion also protects the identities of staff, if the story is about how they can do better. Care Opinion believes that if there is a problem with health or social care it is more likely to be down to the way things are done than to the individual person providing the care. Care Opinion also believes that everyone should want feedback, and that when it is anonymised people are more likely to want to learn from stories where they fell short, whereas they are more likely to be defensive when it is personal. That said, if someone has been great and is named in the story then Care Opinion will leave their name in, since if you have done a great job then you deserve to be recognised. This is all part of the way that Care Opinion strives to be a friend to health and social care services, and uses the fact that it is independent to give some tough love where necessary.

This is an example of what a response from a staff member can look like. As you can see it is informal, and addresses both the positive and negative elements of the author’s story. You can also see that the staff member only knows the username of the author that she used when she told her story so that their anonymity is not compromised. Where a complaints process might only focus on the negative bits of the story, and not get further than the Complaints Department, you can see that this is a response from a nurse who now knows that their staff are doing a great job but that there is an issue they need to sort out with their showers. Care Opinion is a great way to give feedback about little things, as well as major things, because sometimes things don’t feel important enough to make a complaint about, and sometimes you don’t want all the good things about the staff to get lost in a little complaint.

Care Opinion is a really important resource for everyone Care Opinion is a really important resource for everyone. It helps people to tell others about the care they and their loved ones experience. Not only that, it shares people’s views with the national regulator, helping us make sure people enjoy good quality care. Karen Reid, Chief Executive, Care Inspectorate When you raise awareness of Care Opinion in your community you are not only helping those individuals speak about their care and resolve their issues, but you are also helping make a difference to the way that care is delivered across the nation. Care Opinion is valued as an excellent source of information for governing bodies and the Scottish Government on how people are experiencing health and care services, and this helps them understand how to help services deliver the best care possible.

So what can you do to help So what can you do to help? It sounds obvious but Care Opinion relies upon people telling their stories in order to continue to provide those stories to health and social care services. As a social enterprise and a non-profit Care Opinion does not spend money on large advertising campaigns, instead focusing on being as affordable as possible for the service providers that they work with. This means they rely on hospitals and care facilities, especially the frontline staff, to tell people about Care Opinion as a place to give feedback. If you want to help to give a voice to more people in the community, letting them share their stories in a safe, anonymous, and easy way, then working with Care Opinion to raise awareness can really make a big difference. To get started make a note of the contact details on the final slide and get in touch, and together we can make the voices heard of everyone in the community, get people the help and support that they need, and help to guide improvement efforts in care-providing organisations.

If you would like to work with Care Opinion to raise awareness in your community, whether that is your local area, or with a group of people with similar care experiences or support needs, Care Opinion can set you up so that you automatically receive the stories that matter to you, as they are told. If you provide health or care services to people you can also work with Care Opinion to get feedback about those services. To do that please get in touch via the details on the next slide.

Thank you from everyone at Care Opinion www.careopinion.org.uk info@careopinion.org.uk Thank everyone for their time, and take questions if you have time and feel comfortable doing so.