Sir Norman met our Expert by Experience Lead, Raf Hamaizia at the NAPICU (National Association of Psychiatric Intensive Care Units) conference last year and after explaining how Cygnet embraces the concept of co-production across our services, Sir Norman agreed to visit Cygnet Churchill and learn more about how we work with service users and those with lived experience. During the visit Sir Norman was given a tour of Cygnet Churchill’s new social hub.
Cygnet is one of the UK’s leaders in true service user involvement and it is something we champion and feel passionate about. We are committed to truly having people at the centre of their care and treatment.
Raf spent time with Sir Norman at the 39-bed mental health hospital for men, explaining about how we utilise expertise of people who use our services and how they are involved in care planning, making collaborative decisions, staff recruitment and training and planning and improving service quality.
Raf explained: “We had very productive discussions on authentic lived experience, co-production and had a look at our new social hub which staff and service users alike are loving at Cygnet Churchill.
“Norman is very experienced and an extremely passionate person when it comes to mental health. He gets it and asks the right questions. We are looking forward to working closer together.
“He was impressed with the Social Hub at Churchill and also the authentic nature of our Experts by Experience (EbyE) programme.
“We are already looking forward to having him back again once the refurbishments have taken place at Churchill.”
South London and Maudsley (SLaM) NHS Foundation Trust provides the widest range of NHS mental health services in the UK and serves a local population of 1.3 million people in south London.
Raf added: “It is important to have dialogue with Norman as a senior and experienced advocate within the sector who has influence on decision making and policy.
“I am keen to build closer working relationships between the NHS and independent sector. Regardless of where staff work they still have the same passions, qualifications and professional bodies so raising the work within the independent sector is key in ensuring we can be part of the wider NHS community, work together and ensure staff feel valued.
“It is positive to be able to share the work we are doing to inform Norman and others about our contributions to the sector when creating policy or giving opinion on the independent sector.”