SPIRESLIVEDEXPERIENCE

Lived experience transformation: 12-month plan

Early ideas, to be shaped with stakeholders

The approach

Trust strategy alignment: co-produce care and make things simple

Strand one

Creating and promoting opportunities

Promote existing routes in. Build the missing ones.

Strand two

Minimising friction

Remove the barriers, big and small, that filter out the voices we most need.

How
Through relationshipsThrough policies and procedures
Lessons from Peer Support

Champions who believed in lived experience gave it momentum.

Policies and procedures made it work, and made it last.

A rough 12-month timeline

Months 1–3

Listen and map

  • Connect existing champions
  • Identify new champions
  • Get up to date across all services
  • Map policies, set baselines
  • Agree who owns what after month 12

Lesson from my recent QI project: thoroughly understand the problem first.

Months 3–6

Co-produce

  • Co-write a Lived Experience Offer
  • Test 4Pi standards with the co-production ladder
  • Co-hosted launch event
Months 6–10

Test and embed

  • Small fixes, tested in short cycles
  • Revise priority policies
  • Spread what works
  • Draft the sustainability plan

Lesson from my recent QI project: the power of iteration.

Months 9–12

Measure and sustain

  • Compare with baselines
  • "You said, we did"
  • Sustainability plan agreed with senior leaders

Ideas to explore

Strand oneOpportunities

Progression routes

Visible paths into senior lived experience roles.

Carrot, not the stick

An awards ceremony and rewards, funded centrally or through the Trust's charity (sometimes a little bit of stick).

Ask at discharge

One question: would you like to get involved?

University partnerships

Accredited lived experience courses, and university patient film archives to start co-design.

Voluntary sector partners

Stronger links with local mental health charities.

My voluntary sector experience can be leveraged here.

Share the stories

Case studies for the Trust's strategy work, plus photos, films and a podcast.

Strand twoFriction

Who knows what?

A clear protocol for when someone's care and involvement role overlap.

Tiered involvement

Quick one-off input without full registration. Full process only for ongoing roles.

Close the loop

Tell people what their input changed.

Accessible sign-up

Plain language, neurodiversity-friendly forms, short videos.

Faster payment

Paid on the day, for example by gift card, not weeks later.

Informed by my research into the CQC's Experts by Experience approach.

Both strands · a big one

Your notes in one click

Patient access to clinical records in an app, like the NHS App for GP records. Encourages recovery-focused notes and collaborative care.

Some of these build on work the Trust has already started. Some would need checking against existing policies.

Impact measurement

ChampionsTeams with an active champion, in every directoratee.g. growth in each, including community and dental
Time to get involvedDays from first interest to first involvemente.g. halved by month 12
InfluencePolicies and service changes with recorded lived experience inpute.g. every priority policy
Feeling heardPartners who say their input changed somethingquarterly survey

Examples only. SMART targets to follow.

Beyond 12 months

Decided together, based on the year's evidence.