Looking Out from the Middle: User Involvement in Health and Social Care in Northern Ireland

A report examining the state of User Involvement in health and social care services for both adults and children in Northern Ireland. It makes particular recommendations at a strategic level about how approaches to involvement can be improved at an organisational level, focusing in particular on collaborative arrangements between the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE), the Regulation and Quality Improvement Agency (RQIA) and the Northern Ireland Social Care Council (NISCC) and how these organisations could strengthen user involvement by working more closely together in this area . The research had the following four aims:

1.To provide a short summary of the history and principles of user involvement.
2. To describe the current situation in Northern Ireland.
3. To discuss a range of options for the further inclusion and participation of users in the work of NISCC, RQIA and SCIE.
4. To make recommendations to inform the development of a future strategy for user involvement at a strategic level in Northern Ireland.