THIS year, as every year, we held our Annual Plan meetings in London, Luton and Bedford where we ask the public to tell us what we’re doing well, what we should do more of and where we need to improve.

The Trust must submit its Annual Plan to NHS Improvement in April each year. While the Board of Directors are responsible for setting the plan, the Council of Governors must be consulted and its views must be sought. The Governors in turn represent the people we serve and bring their views to the planning of the Trust.

About 80 members across the Trust came along and discuss with the Governors and staff what they want the Trust to take away, learn or change from their lived experiences.

The Annual Plan is a very specific document with measurable
and specific aspirations and outcomes – so concrete feedback like “sort out the rodent problem on X Ward” or “improve the tone of appointment letters” is more helpful in this context than “increase staff retention across the whole Trust” as the latter can’t really be achieved in a single year.

What does that mean in practice?

This year, we have once again been asking you to tell us what matters to you. Everything you say is noted down and written up. The Trust will present this to the Council of Governors at their next meeting who will check that what we have written as a summary reflects what they have heard from you, our members. Everyone who attends the Annual Plan Meetings will receive a copy of that summary following the meeting.

Once the document has been finalised, the Council will hand what “You Said” over to the Trust to build it into the Annual Plan – with a requirement for the Trust to report back to the Council what has happened over the year as a result of your feedback.

This usually arrives in January the following year and we share this “You Said, We Did” document with our members so that the cycle of feedback is closed and you know what actions have been taken – and that your feedback has changed things.

This is quite a formal process, but in many other, smaller ways the same happens all over the Trust – Governors hearing what matters to our members, from small issues like the unhelpful style of Appointment Letters to large ones like the need for inpatient Wards in Bedfordshire.

They ensure that what you said is heard at the highest level of the Trust. We would do a much poorer job without you – thank you for your time and your contributions.