What We Do
I enjoyed supporting a charity like Rainer. I really felt I was playing a big part in their work, and making a real contribution.
Lucy, fundraiser.
Service User Involvement
Introduction
At Rainer we understand that providing high-quality support services to young people means listening effectively and responding flexibly to the needs of our service users. We want to ensure that the voices of young people contribute to the continuing development of individual services and our organisation as a whole.
In order to achieve this, Rainer has a dedicated policy officer specifically to focus on promoting and embedding Service User Involvement (SUI) across the organisation. We are making steady progress on this through the provision of good practice guidance, staff development opportunities and a strategic approach.
At Rainer, we know that SUI good practice isn't as simple as it sounds. Making the involvement of young people in our organisation meaningful and sustainable means embedding the philosophy and practice into the way we work. Our internal performance improvement and performance related pay systems require both individual staff and services to demonstrate the effectiveness of their service user involvement work. Additionally, each of our services has been required to develop their own service user involvement 'action plan' for the current financial year.
SUI work
Latest News
Click here to read the lastest news
Good practice guidance
In 2006 we developed good practice guidance to assist staff in the planning and delivery of SUI activities, and a policy with practice guidance regarding the involvement of service users in the interviewing of potential new staff. Click here to read about one service user's experience of staff recruitment in Leicester.
Rainer young people's brand
As the result of working with professional designers and a group of Rainer service users, we have developed a specific Rainer young people's 'brand'. The brand templates allow service staff and users to develop information that is attractive and dynamic, targeted specifically at young people. To view examples of the young people's materials click here.
Utilising the new look brand, Rainer recently produced a leaflet introducing our organisation to new and prospective service users. The leaflet, called ‘It's your life , has a strong focus on the Rainer values and the importance of young people developing their own voice.
Involvement in Rainer Appropriate Adult services
During 2006 we also began to develop service user involvement in our Appropriate Adult services. This is a challenging task given the short contact time with service users (up to 2 hours in a police station) and the prescribed nature of the support we offer (which must be in accordance with the Police and Criminal Evidence Act). Our Appropriate Adult coordinators attended a development day and we are now piloting a feedback form across all five services.
Helen Boxall, AA service manager at Rainer West Essex, writes about the challenge of gaining feedback from service users here.
Contact the Service User Involvemnt Policy Officer
The Service User Involvement policy officer, Beck Dabscheck, can be contacted via email beck.dabscheck@raineronline.org
Lastest News
Rainer adopts Hear by Right
Rainer has become the first national voluntary organisation to sign up to implementing Hear by Right across the organisation.
Hear by Right is a comprehensive set of standards for the active involvement of young people.
Developed by the National Youth Agency, the standards are nationally recognised, tried and tested and being implemented across the country. Click here to read the briefing about Hear by Right that was recently sent out to all service staff.
More information about Hear by Right is available from the National Youth Agency website.
