The people we support are vital in shaping our organisation.

We encourage the people we support to get involved in the planning, design, deliver and review of our services. We believe this is the best way of ensuring that our services continue to evolve over time to meet the needs of the people who use them.

There are many ways in which people we support can have their say and help to develop our services:

Annual satisfaction survey

They are encouraged to complete this survey to tell us what we are doing well and what we can improve on. The results, good practice examples and learning opportunities are shared across the organisation.

Staff appraisals

We seek feedback from the people we support when carrying out staff appraisals, helping them contribute to the development of staff that support them.

Staff recruitment

They can also get involved in the different stages of the staff recruitment process, from the time the vacancy arises, through to short-listing and interview.

Team meetings

These are an opportunity for people we support to get involved in the everyday running and development of our local services.

Service planning

Involvement in formal and informal service planning, looking at how the service is operating and can improve, is another way for supported people to participate.

Service evaluation

We continually evaluate our services through the National Evaluation Tool. People we support can take part in the evaluation process by discussing their experience of the service and assessing whether they think the service meets our standards.

Validation visits

They can also talk about their experience with Quality and Evaluation staff from our head office, who visit services to validate the results of the National Evaluation Tool.

Care Inspectorate

People we support can get involved in this process through pre-inspection questionnaires, providing feedback for inclusion in the service’s self-assessment and an informal discussion with the inspector.

Our organisational improvement around participation is led by the National Participation Group.

In February 2018, The Richmond Fellowship Scotland signed up to the Charter for Involvement, a document written by the National Involvement network.