All Shaping Our Lives publications are developed by service users and are available in different formats on request.
Click here for a page where you can download previous newsletters.
A comprehensive set of local and national actions to significantly increase MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine coverage among those most at risk.
Read more about the MMR action plan
The new health and care system becomes fully operational from 1 April to deliver the ambitions set out in the Health and Social Care Act.
Read more about the health and care system explained ( word doc.)
This page provides a brief introduction to the statutory bodies making up the new health and care system, explaining how they will work together in the interests of patients and communities.
Read more of the health and care system ( word doc.)
Launch of Local Grant and Capacity Building Scheme 2013. Information about the Health and Social Care Volunteering Fund. The Department of Health’s Health and Social Care Volunteering Fund’s (HSCVF) is an innovative capacity and grant funding programme which helps to build capable communities.
Read more about the Health and Social Care Volunteering Fund
Read more as a text only document
For their Annual Appraisal, every doctor collects a ‘folder of evidence’ to show how they are meeting the GMC’s medical standards. The information includes feedback from patients and colleagues, and proof of continuing medical training.
Read a word document on What to expect from your Doctor
Paper given at ARVAC Annual Lecture, London, 6th June 2013 by Peter Beresford
Read a PDF format of the lecture
The Heatwave Plan for England 2013 is a public health plan to protect health and reduce harm from severe heat and heatwaves. The Plan has been published every year since 2004, following the devastating pan-European heatwave of 2003.
Access the Heatwave Plan 2013 website PDF only
This report details background, methods, findings and outputs from a service user controlled research study, funded by Folk.us. It developed from an earlier, larger study in the urban area of Bristol and Avon, funded by Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Trust.
Evaluation of a new pilot apprenticeship at Hertfordshire PASS in being an employer of personal assistants/ care staff: a unique approach to delivering apprenticeships to enable disabled people to live independently
A charity consortium has kicked off an independent user-led organisation for disabled people. Within Community Interest Company (CIC) ‘Peer Support North East’ 20 peer mentors have gone on to support about 350 of their peers per month.
Social care and NHS may be slow in passing on choice & control but can even proper business cases not win them over?
The focus of this report is making it possible for everyone who wants to, to be more involved in and have more say over their lives and the services they use to live them. This aspiration has come to be framed in terms of ‘user involvement’. The report draws on findings from a national research and development project supported by the Department of Health, which aimed to find out how this could be achieved.
PDF Formats
Beyond the Usual Suspects, Towards Inclusive User Involvement - Research Report
Beyond the Usual Suspects, Towards Inclusive User Involvement - Findings
Beyond the Usual Suspects, Towards Inclusive User Involvement - Practical Guide
Resources PDF formats:
Guide 1 Some key questions for Inclusive Involvement
Guide 2 Making activities accessible
Guide 3 Positive meetings and get togethers
WORD documents
Beyond the Usual Suspects, Towards Inclusive User Involvement - Research Report
Beyond the Usual Suspects, Towards Inclusive User Involvement - Findings
Beyond the Usual Suspects, Towards Inclusive User Involvement - Practical Guide
This report sets out the background to and learning from an informal national programme on user-driven commissioning which culminated in a roundtable event in London in December 2011 and has been further developed since. The aim of this event was to bring together the key stakeholders involved in six pioneering local initiatives that have been taking forward this approach since at least March 2011.
PDF format Word Document format
This project report although commissioned by NIHR was not published by them when completed. However, with the increasing interest in user controlled research since then, it has seemed worthwhile to Shaping Our Lives to make its findings available. While they have been superseded by other research and reports that have been produced since, they may still be of use and interest because they offer an additional snapshot of the history of user controlled research.
Click Here to read the report ( PDF)
This paper presents the views of service users on current adult social care and their fears for the future of the service:discusses proposed changes, including funding, to the social care system and makes recommendations on the future of adult social care, based on the experiences of service users.
Click Here to read the report ( PDF) written in 2012
Several reports have been published from the Standards We Expect project, which Shaping Our Lives worked on with De Montfort University, Brunel University and Values Into Action.
Person Centred Support- a guide for service users
(Full Report click here or Summary Report click here)
Person-Centred Support: a guide to person-centred working for practitioners ( click here )
The Standards We Expect- Choices for End of Life Care (click here )
Making a Change: A guide to running successful and accessible workshops and training (click here)
Working Towards Person-Centred Support: a local case study(click here)
Supporting People: a summary in easy words and pictures (click here)
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In 2003 – 2004 the training for people who wanted to become social workers changed. For the first time people who use health and social care services were to be involved. For a long time service users have been saying ‘Nothing about us without us’ and now these important changes made it a requirement that service users should be involved in the education and training of social workers.
To download the full report click here (PDF)
To download the full report click here (Word)
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Service users have not been adequately involved in discussions about the future funding of social care, yet they are the people most affected by these decisions. This Viewpoint reports the views of a diverse range of adult social care service users brought together to explore current proposals for funding social care.
Click here to go to the 'Funding social care:what service users say' page
The aim of this consultation event was to explore with people who have mental health issues, including alcohol and other substance users, their views, perceptions and ideas on a draft policy prepared by the Crown Prosecution Service on prosecuting criminal cases involving people with mental health issues.
Click here to download the Shaping Our Lives consultation report
Click on the links below to download the published CPS Policy Statements:
CPS Policy supporting victims and witnesses with a learning disability (click here)
CPS Policy supporting victims and witnesses with mental health issues (click here)
This report was commissoned by Cumbria County Council and Primary Care Trust to inform their joint strategic needs assessment ‘Anticipating future accommodation needs for older and older disabled people in Cumbria’
To download the full report click here (Word)
To download the report summary click here (Word)
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In autumn 2008 Shaping Our Lives supported five service user and/ or disabled people's organisations to hold networking events for service user led organisations in their own regions. The groups came together at the events and talked about their work and activities, and shared ideas with each other. This report highlights how important service users, both as individuals and in groups, see networking as being, if they are to be involved as active citizens in their communities and society.
To download the full report click here (Word)
To download the Report Summary click here (PDF)
To download the Report Summary click here (text only - Word)
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A new study for the first time reports what service users want for future social care and how they think it can be achieved. Findings are presented from a national consultation event jointly organised by Brunel University and the Commission for Social Care Inspection. Shaping Our Lives supported the involvement of service users and the event was also supported by 18 major social care organisations, bringing together key policymakers and a wide range of service users.
One year in, the government’s three year plan for the radical transformation of social care to personalisation, is overshadowed by inadequate funding and recession. How is the momentum for change to be maintained and what do service users want that change to look like?
Service users identify a radical and coherent programme for reform that goes far beyond the expansion of personal budgets.
To download a PDF version please click here
To download a Word version please click here
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In late 2007 Shaping Our Lives was commissioned by Cumbria County Council to undertake a consultation with service users at six residential care homes in the county. The six homes are the first of the 33 Council run homes to be included in the Council's modernization plan. The consultation was carried out between February and April 2008.
To download the PDF version click here
To download the Word version click here
Published: November 2007
This knowledge review looks at current literature and practice around service user involvement, the extent to which service user involvement has brought improvements to social work and social care and where the change has become established practice.
To download the full report (PDF) click here
To download the summary report (PDF) click here
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This unique book is about the experiences of people with learning difficulties, how they are treated and what needs to change. It is based on research controlled by people with learning difficulties. It tells us how they did the research, what they found out and what needs to be done. Copies are available for £6.50 plus £1.50 p&p from the Shaping Our Lives office.
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or click here to download a free PDF copy of ‘We are not stupid’. If you can afford to buy a copy we do appreciate it as we do not have project funding to cover the costs of this publication. |
This report outlines the key themes from a seminar organised by the Commission for Social Care Inspection, The General Social Care Council, Shaping Our Lives, Skills for Care and the Social Care Institute for Excellence. The term ‘benefit barriers to involvement’ is used to describe the ways in which the current benefit system discourages or prevents people in receipt of benefits from getting involved.
You can order a free, printed copy from the Shaping Our Lives office.
Report of regional consultations with service users to develop a strategy to support the participation of service users in social work education.
You can order a printed copy from the Shaping Our Lives office or
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This paper outlines a project commissioned by the Department of Health which focused on participation in the undergraduate and postgraduate social work degree. Focusing on how service user and care organisations can develop their involvement in the undergraduate and post graduate social work degree and drawing on successes of the first two years, the paper then goes on to identify existing barriers to successful partnership and possible ways forward.
This project was a joint venture between Shaping Our Lives, Department of Health and SCIE.
You can order a copy from SCIE (www.scie.org.uk) or
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Shaping Our Lives, in association with other service user organisations, are putting together a report which is based on what many service users have said and written about social work over the years. We hope that this will also influence the current review in a helpful way and ensure that more service user voices are heard.
You can order a copy from the Shaping Our Lives office or
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Full Report: Number of pages 137; file size 1209K. Commissioned by INVOLVE.
Click here for a copy of the full User Controlled Research report. (PDF file)
Click here for a copy of the summary User Controlled Research report. (PDF file)
Click here for a copy of the summary User Controlled Research report in large print. (20pt) (PDF file)
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Click here for a copy of the Contributing on Equal Terms report. (PDF file)
Click here to see an article in Society Guardian by Peter Beresford on the report.
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Click here for the report that was put together by Shaping Our Lives after we had talked to more than 60 service users to find out what they thought of this government Green Paper on adult social care.
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(Published March 2004 by the Social Care Institute for Excellence)
Author: Enid Levin
This guide focuses on how service users, carers
and providers of social work education and
training can work together on the degree
programmes. It covers the principles,
practicalities and range of approaches to
building and sustaining these partnerships.
The key messages of the guide apply also to
developing service users’ and carers’ involvement in all types of training for social
work and social care staff and in the design
and delivery of services.
For full report click here (PDF)
To download the full report click here (PDF)
Currently not available in Word format but we hope to have it available soon
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