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Patient Experience

The Patient Experience Team are responsible for facilitating patient, carer and stakeholder groups to ensure that we are offering the very best experience.

Contact us

Email:
[email protected]

Discover the Patient Experience Portfolio: Your Voice, Our Priority

At the heart of our Trust is YOU — our patients, carers, and community. The Patient Experience Portfolio offers a range of services that listen, support, and amplify your voice. Whether you’re giving feedback, seeking advice, or getting involved directly, your experiences help shape better care for everyone.

What’s included?

  • Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) — Friendly support whenever you need it.
  • Complaints Handling — We’re here to listen and improve.
  • Lived Experience Ambassadors — Real people shaping real change.
  • Volunteers — Passionate community members making a difference.
  • iWantGreatCare Feedback — Your opinions, heard loud and clear.
  • Chaplaincy — Spiritual and emotional support for all.
  • Inpatient Peer Support Workers — Support from those who truly understand.
  • PLACE Assessments — Ensuring safe, clean, and welcoming environments.
  • Patient Carer Race Equality Framework (PCREF) — Championing fairness and inclusion.

Together, these services build stronger connections with the people we serve — transforming care by learning directly from you.

We believe in true partnership. That’s why patients and carers are now at the heart of every decision we make — from policy to practice.

We’ve reimagined patient information with our SUM (Simple, Understandable, and Meaningful) initiative, making healthcare communication clearer and more inclusive for everyone.

Our Lived Experience Ambassadors help co-create policies, lead meetings, and drive improvements on vital issues like end-of-life care and tackling health inequalities.

Thanks to the success of our pilot program, over 50 Peer Support Workers who’ve walked in your shoes are now full-time members of our team.

We celebrate and recognise the incredible impact of those with lived experience through our dedicated Reward and Recognition Policy.

Your voice is shaping the future of healthcare technology — our People Participation Group ensures patient input is central to the new electronic patient record system.

Thanks to your voices through iWantGreatCare, we’re uncovering what works best and tackling concerns faster than ever. Your insights don’t just help us listen—they inspire action.

Our lived experience team plays a vital role in recruitment, helping us bring on board staff who truly understand and value patient partnership.

PLACE assessments results, powered by your feedback, are now featured in national reports, directly influencing improvements across our facilities.

At the top of our Trust, leadership is listening closely to lived experience voices:

Our brand-new lived experience leadership group ensures every project and team includes someone with first-hand experience, making sure patient perspectives drive real decisions.

The experience executive oversight group, led by our Executive Director of Strategy, brings together senior leaders and people with lived experience to chart a better future for care.

We’re proud of how far we’ve come—but our journey continues. Here’s what we’re committed to next:

Building a culture where every staff member values your voice as a vital part of care

Growing diverse representation across all our services

Deepening true co-production with patients and carers

Our volunteer team reflects the beautiful diversity of Essex’s communities — and it’s only growing stronger.

  • In 2021, Essex was home to 19 different ethnic groups.
  • By March 2023, our Lived Experience Ambassadors represented 2 ethnicities.
  • By March 2024, that number jumped to 12.
  • And by March 2025, our volunteers proudly represent 20 different ethnic backgrounds!

This incredible growth shows our commitment to building a truly inclusive team — because diverse voices lead to better care for everyone.

How we engage, listen, and act – with you at the centre

Our Lived Experience Leadership Committee makes sure patients and carers can share their ideas to help improve our services. It brings together people from important projects like Time to Care, PCREF, and SUM.

The group now focuses on making real changes based on feedback. They share what they hear directly with our leaders to help make care better for everyone.

In 2024, we hosted our Co-production Conference, bringing together over 120 patients, carers, staff, volunteers, and leaders from across Essex. Guest speakers Lady Julie Jay Charles CBE and Jan Hutchinson shared powerful insights on building stronger, more inclusive partnerships in healthcare.

Building on last year’s success, our iWantGreatCare (IWGC) volunteers are now actively supporting patients, families, and carers across inpatient units.

They help people in our hospitals share how they feel about their care. These volunteers are health and social care students from nearby universities.

They help by:

  • Filling in forms and surveys with patients
  • Making sure everyone understands the questions
  • Using simple words when needed
  • Being friendly and easy to talk to on the wards

Because of their help, more patients are sharing their thoughts, and they feel happier doing so.

Your feedback matters, and our volunteers make it easier than ever to share it. Whether it’s through digital or paper forms, our volunteers offer friendly, personalised help by:

  • Assisting with filling out surveys or feedback forms
  • Overcoming barriers like language, literacy, or physical challenges
  • Rephrasing questions to make them simple and clear
  • Providing a warm, relatable presence on the wards

Thanks to their support, feedback rates have soared by 76% in wards with IWGC volunteers. Patients tell us they feel more confident and comfortable sharing their experiences, knowing someone is there to help every step of the way.

Our volunteers don’t just support patients—they make sure every voice can be heard. By being present on the wards, they raise awareness about how important patient feedback is, creating a welcoming and accessible environment where sharing your experience feels natural and supported.

And this is just the beginning. We’re excited to expand this volunteer model to new roles and areas, deepening our partnerships with local universities and communities to bring even more support directly to you.

Time to Care helps staff spend more time looking after patients. A dedicated lived experience co-production lead helps shape this programme by strengthening teams with the right skills and support.

Trauma Buddy
Trauma Buddy is a pocket-sized booklet co-created with patients, carers, and staff. Patients and their family/carer, fill in the booklet together. This information helps staff understand what upsets the patient and how they like to be cared for.

There’s also a handy Trauma Buddy Guide for staff, with tips to make care safer and more understanding.

We’re driving real change to make sure everyone receives fair, respectful care—no matter their background. The PCREF is central to this mission, focusing on reducing disparities faced by racialized communities.

Our dedicated Lived Experience Leaders, Tola Gisanrin and Julie Jay Charles CBE, co-chair our “Reducing Health Inequalities” group. Their leadership ensures that issues like spiritual, cultural, and mental health needs are front and centre.

Julie Jay Charles CBE, founder of Startchange, champion’s social justice and intersectionality, bringing innovative mental health support programs like “Men Moving Forward” to better serve Black men.

Tola has worked closely with patients to develop a unique faith and spirituality care assessment tool that helps tailor care in partnership with chaplaincy teams.

Building Inclusive Care Through Training and Partnerships

Together with partners like the Suffolk and North East Essex Integrated Care Board and the University of East Anglia, we’re creating cultural awareness training to help our staff meet the needs of diverse communities with sensitivity and skill. This training will be available online from April 2025 and will keep evolving thanks to input from lived experience leaders like Tola.

We’re also connecting with local communities in practical ways—like teaching diabetes care at soup kitchens—to ensure our services reach everyone who needs them.

Working Across the System for Better Care

In November 2024, we proudly presented at the Pan Essex meeting, helping launch an Across the System PCREF Working Group. This team brings together leaders from multiple health boards to share insights, coordinate efforts, and make sure our services reflect the rich diversity of the people we serve.

Empowering voices: Meet the EPUT lived experience team

At EPUT, we know that the best mental health and community services are built with the people who use them. That’s why our lived experience team is at the heart of everything we do. Since launching in 2021, this vibrant community has grown to nearly 190 members — made up of patients, supporters, carers, and parents — all sharing their unique experiences to help shape better care for everyone.

In 2023, we took a big step forward by appointing a dedicated lived experience lead for co-production and participation. This role is key to building a strong network of co-production champions who make sure collaboration is embedded in every service we deliver. We also hosted our first-ever EPUT co-production conference, bringing together lived experience leaders, staff, and partners to share ideas and spark real change.

Our commitment to listening and learning from lived experience goes right to the top. Since 2021, our Director of Patient Experience has been driving forward public involvement and ensuring that your voice is heard loud and clear. Thanks to this leadership, our patient experience team is stronger than ever — constantly evolving to better serve you.

Testimonials

‘I have not felt this good since I had to give up working, 18 years ago’ (LEA)

‘I had genuine say there in who the panel chose as the successful candidate, I actually felt valued’ (LEA)

‘The Patient Experience Team have empowered me just as much, if not more than those I see when I go for therapy. The opportunity to be involved in this way, is therapy’ (LEA)

‘It is refreshing to see a NHS team continue to challenge the norm and remain positive and hopeful for change ‘(LEA)

‘Doing this helps my recovery’ (LEA)