Service user involvement

CRI is committed to involving service users in all aspects of service planning and delivery.

We have well-developed mechanisms for gathering service users’ views and opinions and ensuring that these are used to inform the development of services.

We are always looking for suggestions, views and critical feedback from all those affected by our work. We welcome our beneficiaries input and encourage them to think of what could be better and to let us know.

The benefits of service user involvement are numerous, ranging from ensuring that individuals feel valued and respected to promoting engagement in services, as well as enabling us to improve and enhance the effectiveness of our treatment programmes.

Service user involvement is a key component in an open and transparent culture within our services. It facilitates an ongoing dialogue with the people who matter most and offers them a means to be heard and to hold us to account; it generates an understanding and respect of everyone’s role within a service and ensures that services are focused on outcomes rather than processes.

We are currently engaged in consulting with our service users about the impact of CRI’s growth and are committed to ensuring that service user involvement is, and remains central to, service delivery across all locations.

The service user involvement team is made up of:

• Service user reps who are service users who have shown a commitment and interest in representing the fellow service users’ views and opinions in their service or project
• Proposed regional service user reps who will attend a regional service user representatives’ forum
• Proposed national service users reps who will attend a national service user council
• Service user leads who are staff members (paid and unpaid), who support the service user rep role and act as a conduit between the service user reps and CRI matters at all levels
• Regional service user involvement coordinators in the South and North working to establish, support and coordinate all aspects of service user involvement.