Talking Points: A Personal Outcomes Approach

Improving outcomes for people who use services and their unpaid carers is the over-arching focus of JIT's work. Outcomes are understood as the impact of services on people's lives, and defining user and carer outcomes is increasingly recognised as necessary in order to deliver effective, responsive public services. Involving users and cares in shaping services is also critical to achieving partnership objectives. A key JIT priority has been to combine user and carer involvement with an outcomes approach to planning, delivery, evaluating and improving services.

Work has been underway since 2006 on developing an approach based on user and carer outcomes. An outcomes approach to assessment, planning & review aims to shift engagement with people who use services away from service-led approaches. This involves everyone working together to achieve the best possible impact on the individual's life. The philosophy of this approach is one that emphasises the strengths, capacity and resilience of individuals, builds upon natural support systems and includes consideration of wider community based resources. Although in some ways building on good practice, it also requires a significant 'cultural shift'. Practitioners have identified that a focus on outcomes supports practice lost by previous assessment and planning processes. The approach reflects policy priorities to engage people using services, personalisation and the patient experience programme.

The development of the approach has involved developing a range of tools, guidance and resources to:

  • Support a focus on outcomes at assessment, care planning and review.
  • Place the person at the centre of a more personalised approach.
  • Enable information on service user and carer outcomes to be systematically gathered during assessment and review processes.
  • Support organisations to use this information to improve outcomes at individual service and organisational levels.

Additionally, work is progressing on use of Talking Points information for service planning, commissioning, performance management and self assessment.

Full information on Talking Points (previously UDSET) including all materials is available from this section of the JIT website. Follow the links below to access the following information resources.

If you would like more information about our user and carer involvement project please Contact Us.

You can also join our Community of Practice to keep up to date on developments and events etc. See here for further information.