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Facilitator’s Guide for running engagement exercises

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Facilitator’s Guide: Resources available for running consultation and engagement exercises

This document outlines the resources available to run engagement events/exercises with people in your organisation, network, communities and beyond.

What is the sustainable development strategy?

It is the sustainable development plan for the health, public health and social care sector from 2014 - 2020. It builds on the NHS Carbon Reduction Strategy (2009)1, reinforcing and supplementing the key actions from the strategy and outlining practical steps that need to be taken to move the health and care system further on the journey towards sustainable care delivery. The purpose of this consultation and engagement process is to get your help in understanding how and where to focus health and care sector efforts to deliver more financially, socially and environmentally sustainable care. The consultation period runs from 29 January 2013 until the 31 May 2013.

What are we looking for out of the engagement process?

The objectives of the engagement process are:

To provide a genuine opportunity for all health and care organisations/staff to shape the sustainable development strategy through to 2020 so actions from all parts and all levels of the health and care system are aligned and mutually reinforcing.

To strengthen the strategy content through input from across the health, public health and social care system.

To promote engagement with patients and the public on the issue of sustainability and how the health and care sector should deal with it.

Therefore we would encourage you to take every opportunity to involve as broad a range of people as possible in developing your organisational, network or sector responses. You are also encouraged to submit individual responses as well.

Overview of Resources available to you:

Consultation Document – This document outlines the seven consultation questions and provides some additional detail for each question area to help you answer the questions. It also includes an update on progress to date and the proposals for the next sustainable development strategy for the health, public health and social care system.

Context Setting Presentation – This is the presentation delivered at the launch event for the sustainable development strategy consultation. It includes the speaker

1 NHS Sustainable Development Unit, 2009. NHS Carbon Reduction Strategy for England:

Saving Carbon, Improving Health [Online] Available at: www.sdu.nhs.uk/corporate-requirements/nhs-carbon-reduction-strategy.aspx [Accessed 04 January 2013]

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notes to allow you to select slides that will help you set the context and purpose of the consultation and engagement approach with your organisation. It also covers the key points contained in the consultation document.

Two resources to allow you to run sessions: o Consultation Question Exercise – This includes a slide set with facilitator’s

notes underneath the slides to allow you to run a session using the 7 questions. It is accompanied by a printable version of the online questionnaire that participants can complete.

o Deep Dive Exercise – This includes a slide set with facilitator’s notes underneath the slides to allow you to run a more in depth session on what areas of sustainable development should be prioritised in the next strategy and how we can make progress. It is accompanied by a printable template that will help the Sustainable Development Unit produce the content for the full strategy being launched in 2014.

The full consultation document

The full consultation document can be downloaded from the Sustainable Development Unit Website – www.sdu.nhs.uk/sds. It provides all the information you need to respond to the seven consultation questions posed in the document. Responses to the consultation are being collected using an online questionnaire. The questionnaire can also be accessed from the Sustainable Development Unit website – www.sdu.nhs.uk/sds. The full consultation document is not necessary to fill out the online questionnaire but it does provide useful context on the proposals for the next strategy. Responses are encouraged from organisations, groups/networks and individuals. It is proposed that you could run the ‘Consultation Question Exercise’ (see below) with a wide group of people in your organisation to ensure a broad input into your organisational response.

Responding on behalf of your organisation

The consultation for the previous strategy (the NHS Carbon Reduction Strategy launched in 2009) received responses from 66% of NHS organisations. This gave the NHS a strong mandate for action on reducing carbon. The proposal for the next strategy is to expand the remit beyond the NHS to embrace the wider health and care system. Therefore, a high response rate from organisations across the entire health, public health and social care system is needed. An individual (e.g. the Sustainable Development lead, the Energy Manager, the Board level Sustainability lead) can submit a response on behalf of your organisation. However, you could use this opportunity to run an event to engage others in your organisation and beyond in the sustainability debate – the exercises below can help you involve others in developing your organisational response.

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The context setting presentation

The consultation was launched on the 29th January 2013 by NHS Commissioning Board Chief Executive Sir David Nicholson and Public Health England Chief Executive Duncan Selbie. At the event Sonia Roschnik (Operational Director – NHS Sustainable Development Unit) delivered a presentation on the four month engagement process. Sonia’s slides and notes can be downloaded from the Sustainable Development Unit website – www.sdu.nhs.uk/sds so you can select any that would be useful in running your own engagement events with your organisation or networks.

Consultation Question Exercise

This slide set is designed to help you run a face to face session with people in your organisation to get some discussion going around the seven questions and energise the sustainability debate. There are numerous options for running the session depending on the time available for the exercise. A couple of examples of how you could run the session are listed below:

1. Provide each participant with a copy of the full consultation document (either printed on the day or electronically before hand) and a printed copy of the consultation questionnaire. Ask the participants to complete the printed questionnaire individually and then run through the questions as a group using the slides. Get the group to debate the responses they put down individually and arrive at a shared answer for each question that the facilitator notes down. The facilitator could go online after the session and submit the group’s response on behalf of the organisation.

2. Provide each group/table with a printed copy of the consultation questionnaire. Run through each of the questions giving each table five minutes to agree on a response. At the end have a plenary discussion of the different answers provided by the various groups. Ask for a volunteer from each group to take the hard copy away and submit it online on behalf of their group.

The slide set and printable consultation questionnaire are available from the Sustainable Development Unit website – www.sdu.nhs.uk/sds

Deep Dive Exercise

This slide set is designed for running a face to face exercise to explore an area/s of priority for the next Sustainable Development Strategy. There are seven consultation questions to be considered in the consultation and engagement period. However, this ‘deep dive’ exercise focuses on Question FIVE.

Consultation Question FIVE: What areas of sustainable development need to be prioritised in the next strategy?

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By focussing on this question you can go into a greater level of detail on specific areas that the group identify as key to be included in the next strategy. The exercise involves the group/s completing the printable Deep Dive template. The Deep Dive activity involves:

The participants selecting the areas of sustainable development they feel should be included in the sustainable development strategy through to 2020.

The participants (using the printable Deep Dive template) outlining a proposed vision for the selected area/s, what needs to happen by 2020 and practical actions that will help achieve this.

Typing up the templates and sending them through to info@sdu.nhs.uk so the Sustainable Development Unit can use them to help develop content for the sustainable development strategy to be launched in 2014.

Your support in collecting the templates, typing them up and sending them to info@sdu.nhs.uk would be gratefully received. It is really important that expertise across the entire health, public health and social care system is used to help shape the content for the full strategy to be published in 2014.

The slide set and printable Deep Dive template are available from the Sustainable Development Unit website – www.sdu.nhs.uk/sds The information that you send through to the Sustainable Development Unit will help ensure the final strategy outlines practical actions that will really make a difference. If you have any queries or require any advice please do not hesitate to contact the Sustainable Development Unit. The contact details can be found at: www.sdu.nhs.uk/about-sdu/contact-us.aspx.

Opportunities to Engage

Two events fall within the Jan – May 2013 consultation period that provide an ideal opportunity to run events to gather people’s views on the consultation questions and inspire engagement with the sustainability debate:

4th – 10th March 2013 - Climate Week is Britain’s biggest climate change campaign, inspiring a new wave of action to create a sustainable future. Culminating in a week of activities, it showcases practical solutions from every sector of society. For further information visit: www.climateweek.com.

28th March 2013 - NHS Sustainability Day is an international event for the NHS and also healthcare facilities outside the UK. It is aimed at raising awareness of the health implications of climate change, encouraging changes in behaviour and is supported by action on the day itself. For further info please visit the website www.nhssustainabilityday.co.uk.