Guide to User-Led Reviews
3. Recruiting a review team
The process and the team must have a leader. This can be someone from within the organisation or an external person brought in for the purpose.
The role of the team will be to plan, organise, carry out and conclude the review process. Not all team members need be involved in all those stages, but it is important that it is a collective process.
The team should be mainly disabled service users and staff. In addition there may be others who could be invited to join, such as a director or management committee member, someone from another relevant agency and certainly someone from a local disability forum or similar organisation – perhaps to represent potential service users.
Ensure that the team includes:
- disabled service users,
- if appropriate, a representative of disabled people who potentially could use the service.
Don’t exclude people who may need to be accompanied or represented by a support worker, personal assistant, family member or advocate – for example someone with a significant communication impairment.
The team should include disabled people whom the service specifically targets, or if the service provides general information and advice then the team should include disabled people with a range of physical, sensory and learning impairments. Ensure the group reflects your users and potential users and includes young and older people and people from a black and minority ethnic background.
If possible, recruit a group which includes people who:
- have used your service in different ways or have a range of experiences of your service,
- are available to make a contribution, with support and guidance if appropriate.
Devise a process which offers people the opportunity to learn new skills and gain new experiences.
It is also important to consider skills required, such as:
- being able to work as part of a team,
- considering the views of others as well as your own,
- being aware of the need for discretion and confidentiality.
We suggest an initial planning meeting is held, to which all appropriate service users, or at least a group who could potentially join the review team, are invited.
At the meeting:
- establish the aims and objectives of the exercise,
- establish that the process is designed to encourage disabled people to make demands upon the service and participate in ongoing improvements,
- outline the process and work required,
seek the agreement of some of those present to join a review team.
Membership of seven or eight is probably the maximum for a review team, three or four perhaps the minimum. It is the range and quality of the membership which matters and its suitability for meeting the needs of your agency and your service users. Some team members may be very involved in planning and carrying out the work, others may have a more consultative function. People need to be able to contribute what they can.
Page updated 08.10.2007