To ask the Minister of Health how his Department actively incorporates the views of (i) patients; and (ii) patients’ families into the decisions of the South Eastern Health and Social Care Trust.

The South Eastern Health and Social Care Trust is committed to its statutory duty with regards to Involvement and Consultation as set out in the Health and Social Care Reform Act (NI) 2009. The involvement of service users, carers and other key stakeholders is ‘at the heart’ of effective planning, delivery and evaluation of our health and social care services.

The Trust receives feedback from service users and carers through a range of methods, including:

- Online User Feedback System (Care Opinion)

- 10,000 More Voices

- Patient & Client Experience Standards Programme

- Bespoke Survey Programmes

- Compliments

- Complaints

- Public Consultations

Feedback is regularly reviewed by teams and changes are planned and evaluated based on service user and carer experience.

The Trust has established a Service User Network of service users and carers who are interested in supporting Trust services through involvement opportunities. The Network membership is continuing to grow with an expanding range of opportunities available.

The Trust has a central Involvement and Experience team, the role of which is to promote and support the embedding of service user and carer Involvement and Experience across the Trust at all levels.

The Trust has a clear leadership and governance structure in place to ensure service user and carer Involvement and Experience is embedded into policy and practice. The Trust Involvement and Experience Leadership Committee leads the strategic development of the service user and carer Involvement and Experience agenda across the Trust to ensure that Involvement and Experience principles, programmes and initiatives are embedded at service level. Committee membership consists of Trust staff, health and social care partners and service user and carer representatives. Assurances are given at Trust Board.