Participation and Co-production Facilitator

Participation and Co-production Facilitator

The post holder will act as a Participation and Co-production Facilitator assigned specifically to the EPR Programme, working in partnership with programme leadership and clinical services to ensure that the voices of people with lived experience are embedded across all aspects of programme design, planning, delivery and implementation.

They will support the programme to develop and facilitate meaningful involvement activities so that service users, carers, families and communities can influence decisions that affect the development of the new EPR system and the wider transformation it enables. While all facilitators hold shared responsibility for promoting and supporting participation, this post will lead thematically on participation within the EPR Programme, ensuring co-production principles, inclusive engagement practices and lived‑experience insights shape programme outcomes.

The role exists to ensure meaningful and impactful participation in line with NHS England's Working in Partnership with People and Communities guidance and will bring strong leadership around co‑production to improve service user and carer experience throughout the programme lifecycle.

The post holder will work strategically from within the Participation Team alongside being assigned as a partner to a Locality Directorate. The post holder will need to develop relationships with a wide range of stakeholders. They will have an important role in the local delivery of the Trust's Service User and Carer Involvement Strategy and related Strategic Plans and Action Plans, including encouraging Trust membership and volunteering.

Participation Facilitators support the development of a culture that is socially inclusive and that values participation and diversity. This includes supporting and maintaining effective communication and contributing to improving staff understanding of the importance of participation and co‑production, including staff and service user training. Each Facilitator will lead on one or more thematic areas, which may include:

• Co-production (including Trust-wide transformation programmes)
• Volunteering
• Peer Support
• Children, Families and Young People

The Participation Facilitator will have responsibility for providing support and encouragement to people getting involved in ways to suit the situation; this could be by supporting services to host and facilitate working together groups and forums and by providing support where required to amplify voices into the correct spaces, whilst acting as an advocate for participation and co‑production within the Trust and with other external agencies, etc.

The Participation and Co‑production Team is dedicated to making participation and involvement central to NSFT, ensuring appropriate links are made with the people and communities who benefit from services impacted by our care.

We support teams to work closely with the people who access NSFT services, or those who support them, so we can make things better for everyone. Our work is linked with the statutory guidance from NHS England 'Working in Partnership with People and Communities.' This links with the 10 principles for working with people and communities followed by our team. The team support staff across NSFT to undertake a variety of approaches to work with people and communities, depending on context and objectives.

We support the development of existing insight about the needs and experiences of our communities, including working with partners that already have links to them. We support community‑centric approaches that recognise the strengths within communities and that build on existing assets that support peoples health. We use participation as a comprehensive expression for involving everyone, encompassing various concepts such as:
Collaborative decision‑making, Engagement and involvement, Co‑design / Co‑production, In collaboration with, Incorporating first‑hand experiences, Joint production, in partnership with individuals and communities, Uniting service users, carers, families, staff, and our broader communities as co‑equal…