It originates from a good practice working party convened by Shelter's Young Person's team and the intended readership is staff working in housing or housing-related services for young or vulnerable people, although it might equally serve as an introduction for service users with an interest in the subject.
The guide provides historical context for user involvement in services, concentrating on the impact of Supporting People funding and in particular the Quality Assurance Framework for prioritising the issue. It briefly makes the point that if user involvement is driven by external pressures, are we sure that service users want to be involved? The guide broadly defines different levels of user involvement, from basic information-giving, to passing over management decisions. Unsurprisingly, most organisations aim to arrive somewhere between these extremes, giving their service users a voice but not a veto in the decision-making process.
The authors cover some of the challenges that projects and organisations face in attempting to increase user involvement. Perhaps more could be said about the need for skilful management of this change, as the traditional approach of staff - particularly managers - may be called into question by genuine user involvement. As the guide mentions, staff as well as clients will need training in all the implications of genuine user involvement and the former will need support not to feel undermined.
Practical advice is offered in the best section of the guide, concentrating on implementing aspects of user involvement. There are many useful tips and case studies from the contributing projects, especially concerning the importance of welcome packs and the process of service-user meetings.
Experience shows that the latter is an area where contradictions in involvement come to the fore, and clients may become apathetic towards the issue if they sense their participation in forums is in any way tokenistic. The guide offers examples of ways to avoid some of the common pitfalls. It would have been useful to have had a section on the legalities of involving residents in staff recruitment and at governance level, which are occasionally encountered by organisations.
A brief glossary and a series of templates that can be photocopied or adapted by projects conclude the guide, the most useful of which are the client questionnaires. There are not enough publications in this area and at 7.50 this is an affordable guide that will help any project.
- Reviewed by Kev Smith, quality review assessor, The Foyer Federation
Involving users in supported housing Published by: Shelter Price pounds: 7.50 ISBN 1 903595 42 8
