As part of the work set out in Patient Focus and Public Involvement, published in December 2001, the Scottish Executive undertook to publish a "toolkit" of public involvement methodologies.

The Building Strong Foundations toolkit was launched at the Building Strong Foundations event on May 3rd 2002 by the Minister for Health and Community Care, Malcolm Chisholm MSP.

You can download the toolkit in PDF format by clicking on the links below:

Part 1 - Opening Up
Part 2 - Some Practical Guidance on Approaches
Part 3 - User and Public Involvement in Health Services: A Literature Review

What is the "toolkit"?
The "toolkit" is a guide to some of the approaches available to facilitate the involvement of people. The approaches are not only health related but generic in their use although they are becoming more widely used within the Health Service with a view to engaging the public in decision-making for the future of the Health Service.

What is the "toolkit" not?
The "toolkit" is not the be-all and end-all of approaches and guidance - it does offer information and guidance on more than 30 approaches which are widely used but there are many more out there and people have to find what is applicable for them based on their circumstances and situation.

Nor is the "toolkit" an instruction manual with step by step details on how each method is prepared, organised, run or evaluated. If it was then people would not learn how the approach itself works but rather how to read it and follow a programme. We do not want this!

The next generation of approaches will come from people working with the public here and now, through means of trial and error. If something does not work, we try something else and involving people is a similar process.

How can the toolkit be used?
The Building Strong Foundations toolkit was designed to be used in two different ways:

• It is a guidance book which can be read from cover to cover for those who may be new to this area of work and are looking for as broad a range of approaches as possible, however;
  
  
• It is also a reference manual for people looking for information on a specific methodology so they can read about it in isolation.

There are three main elements to the toolkit which we will shortly have available on this site:

APPROACHES DATABASE
We are currently developing a database of the 30 plus approaches highlighted in the toolkit. This database will comprise a short questionnaire to find out the answer to, for example, the following questions:

• How many people will be attending?
• What do you want the group to do?
• The status of their decision? Is it final?

Based on this information the database will then provide information on the approach or approaches that most closely match your criteria.
Click here to go to a small selection of what will be available.

READING LIST
The Building Strong Foundations toolkit contains some notes on suggested reading materials on each of the approaches, wehere available, as well as some additional general reading. This material will be available on this site soon allowing us to extend it's availability and accessibility. This will include User and Public Involvement in Health Services: a Literature Review prepared by Dr Julie Ridley and Mr Lyn Jones of Scottish Health Feedback for Partners in Change.
Click here to go to a list of the reading materials.

WEBSITE LINKS
As more and more people use the Internet to gain access to a wider base of information, maintaining an up-to-date list of websites of use is vital to facilitating this work.
Click here to go to a list of the websites from the toolkit.

This toolkit will be available in a variety of formats. Click here to to request a copy of the Building Strong Foundations toolkit.

For further information please contact Lucy White on 0131 244 2454 or email Lucy White.