About the User Panel

Purpose of the User Panel

The User Panel will:
Inform service users’ involvement work within National Voices and its member organisations.
Provide service user perspective on health and social care issues and policy.
Contribute to particular policy projects through service users taking part in involvement activities. These purposes will be achieved by National Voices by ensuring that the organisation’s methods, systems and mechanisms for involvement are coordinated and that best use is made of resources.

Objectives of the User Panel

The objectives of the User Panel are to:
a.    Enable members to engage in influencing policy directives
b.    Enable National Voices to learn from service users
c.    Ensure that service users have a voice in the decisions that affect their lives
d.    Support “seldom heard” groups or communities at risk of being disadvantaged to participate and enable their voices to be heard
e.    Continuously improve the ways service users are involved through engaging and leading debates about involvement within the voluntary sector, sharing learning from and with other organisations, sharing best practice and conducting research

Meaningful Involvement

National Voices will adhere strictly to the principles of “meaningful involvement” in its work with the User Panel. It should be recognised that achieving meaningful service user involvement will require time to build trust, relationships and develop effective working partnership.
National Voices therefore commits itself to the following Principles: