Public engagement

Public engagement

All those who commission and provide health services need to ensure that they do so in a way which is responsive to users, and accountable to citizens.

When investing in the interventions described in other sections of the guide, this section should be used for reference – it is about how to make those investments most effectively.

As in the other sections, we review the available evidence about effective interventions to build accountability.

However, processes to involve patients and the public in choosing priorities and designing services have been far less well studied than other interventions in this site, so the evidence base is not as strong.

Useful approaches

It is therefore equally important here to set out the approaches, and the resources, that may help to ensure that, when investing in the 'best buys' featured elsewhere in this guide, the NHS gets the greatest dividends for itself and for patients.

These can be found in the policy and sources of help pages in particular.

Best Buys

Best buys include involving the public in deliberative processes (such as citizens' juries) as well as consultations.

Involving patients in service design and in the design of information materials may improve quality.

Using lay health workers, and adopting community development approaches, can be effective in increasing engagement.

Download Best Buys public engagement

References

References to the original research studies are given throughout the text in this section.

Roll your cursor over the reference to see a pop-up of the study title and authors. Click the pop-up to go to the full reference on the References page.