Patient and public involvement in integrated care: Adding value to research

Background: The regulatory bodies for health, mental health and social care services in Ireland, (The Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) and the Mental Health Commission (MHC)), jointly developed a paper on key policy considerations, to share learning from our development of national children’s standards, to inform the new Irish national policy framework for children and young people 2023-2028. Methods: To promote greater integration between health and social care services and support better outcomes for children using services, HIQA and the MHC developed a set of national standards for health and social care services working with children. To inform the standards, we undertook an evidence review and engaged with a wide range of stakeholders. Focus groups were held with 217 children, young people and families with experience of services, advocates, staff, inspectors, and policy-makers. Two public consultations were conducted, with 130 responses. Additionally, an Advisory Group representing key stakeholders and a Children’s Reference Group comprised of young people and parents informed the standards. The evidence review and stakeholder consultation identified a range of systemic challenges which impact the quality, safety and coordination of care and support for children using health and social care services. While many of the challenges identified were outside the scope of the standards, it was clear that these challenges would significantly impact the ability of services to implement the standards in practice, and stakeholders called for these issues to be highlighted to policy-makers responsible for health and social care services. Initiative: The development of the new national policy framework for children and young people provided an opportunity for HIQA and the MHC to use the learnings gathered from evidence and stakeholder feedback to inform this system-wide policy framework. The policy considerations paper shares our learnings regarding challenges to quality improvement in the children’s health and social care sector and the national policy considerations needed to address these challenges, in order to improve the care and support provided to children. It sets out three key areas that important advances can be made in: •improving interagency working; •supporting effective transitions from child to adult services; and •supporting services to deliver timely and appropriate care and support. Policy considerations suggested included the introduction of legislation to support integrated working, shared health and social care budgets, and a national approach to workforce planning. Impact: The policy considerations paper brings together HIQA and the MHC’s review of evidence and experiential learning for policy-makers to consider at a critical time in the development of the children’s policy framework. It sets out valuable, system-wide insights to inform progress towards greater integration of care and support for children using health and social care services. The paper has been published on the organisations website and submitted to relevant policy-makers. The findings are reflected in the final national policy framework ‘Young Ireland: 2023-2028’ published November 2023, demonstrating active people involvement in the effective translation of evidence to policy and practice.