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
National Involvement Network
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
National Involvement Network
Charter for Involvement • Evaluation Report: June 20124
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.
National Involvement Network
Charter for Involvement • Evaluation Report: June 2012 5
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)
National Involvement Network
Charter for Involvement • Evaluation Report: June 20126
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
National Involvement Network
Charter for Involvement • Evaluation Report: June 2012 7
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
Num
be
r o
f p
eo
ple
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
A little A lot Some
Answers given
People who use services
None / Not sure
Num
be
r o
f p
eo
ple
15
14
13
12
11
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
A little A lot Some
Answers given
Chief executives
National Involvement Network
Charter for Involvement • Evaluation Report: June 20128
“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
National Involvement Network
Charter for Involvement • Evaluation Report: June 2012 9
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
National Involvement Network
Charter for Involvement • Evaluation Report: June 201210
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
Num
be
r o
f p
eo
ple
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
A little A lot Some
Answers given
People who use services
None / Not sure
Num
be
r o
f p
eo
ple
15
14
13
12
11
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
A little A lot Some
Answers given
Chief executives
National Involvement Network
Charter for Involvement • Evaluation Report: June 2012 11
“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.
National Involvement Network
Charter for Involvement • Evaluation Report: June 201212
None / Not sure
Num
be
r o
f p
eo
ple
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
A little A lot Some
Answers given
People who use services
None / Not sure
Num
be
r o
f p
eo
ple
15
14
13
12
11
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
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.
National Involvement Network
Charter for Involvement • Evaluation Report: June 2012 13
“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
National Involvement Network
Charter for Involvement • Evaluation Report: June 201214
(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
Num
be
r o
f p
eo
ple
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
A little A lot Some
People who use services
Num
be
r o
f p
eo
ple
15
14
13
12
11
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
Yes
No
Chief executives
National Involvement Network
Charter for Involvement • Evaluation Report: June 2012 15
“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
National Involvement Network
Charter for Involvement • Evaluation Report: June 201216
None / Not sure
Num
be
r o
f p
eo
ple
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
A little A lot Some
Answers given
People who use services
None / Not sure
Num
be
r o
f p
eo
ple
15
14
13
12
11
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
A little A lot Some
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.
National Involvement Network
Charter for Involvement • Evaluation Report: June 2012 17
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
National Involvement Network
Charter for Involvement • Evaluation Report: June 201218
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”
National Involvement Network
Charter for Involvement • Evaluation Report: June 2012 19
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