Berkshire Healthcare NHS Trust – membership development
Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust – a mental health trust – wanted to increase its membership levels among members of the public. It is reasonably easy to recruit service users and carers as trust members, but people's suspicions and misconceptions around mental health problems, combined with the fact that mental health trusts tend to have a lower profile than acute hospitals, means that recruiting public members can prove more difficult.
TCC worked closely with acute trusts in the local area, arranging for our staff to talk to patients, their friends and their families in hospital outpatient areas. We also worked with MPs in the trust's area to talk to their constituents. Building on the success of recent campaign in Berkshire to get businesses to think about the importance of their employees' mental health, we worked through local business associations to encourage their staff to sign up as members.
We recruited over 3000 public members for the trust, spread over its six constituencies. This contributed to its approval as an accredited foundation trust, and more importantly means that the organisation now has access to a large and representative group of members who can respond to consultations, participate in focus groups, and elect governors to represent the public's point of view at trust events.
Our client's view
One of the main reasons for using TCC was their understanding of the needs of our organisation. The relationship between ourselves and TCC was very good and strong. We were very happy with the service and would use TC again, so I cannot think of anything that needs to be different. I have already recommended TCC to several other aspirant FTs.
Last Updated on Tuesday, 23 June 2009 08:54