McPin facilitated the service user and carer reference group for the project, set up to improve psychosis services in England and Wales.
The National Clinical Audit of Psychosis (NCAP) service user & carer reference group (SUCRG), and its role in the production of the State of the Nation report 2024, was the joint winner of the Clinical Audit Hero Award in the Patient & Public Involvement category.
The report was the culmination of two years of working with the NCAP team, their clinical advisors and wider stakeholder network. It highlights the findings from the nationwide NCAP audit, which benchmarks standards of treatment and care for people with their first episode of psychosis in England & Wales.
Importantly, the content of this 10-page report was shaped by the SUCRG. They reviewed large data sets from the audits in 2022/23 and 2023/24 to pick out what was most important to highlight at this point in time. They then co-produced the recommendations in the report, alongside the stakeholder network.
The findings of the report will be used to help improve the quality of care in the services.
NCAP is coordinated by the Royal College of Psychiatrists, and the audit was commissioned by the Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership.
McPin research director Vanessa Pinfold facilitated the service user and carer reference group alongside service user advisor Dr Veenu Gupta.
Our nomination talked about the challenges of doing public involvement within an audit, and how we worked together with clinical advisors to co-deliver a report with service users and carer decision-making prominent throughout.
Patient & Public Involvement (PPI) in the NCAP audit
PPI within the audit took two forms in the last two years, building upon an audit process that has been running for many more.
The SUCRG, facilitated by McPin, has experts by experience of Early Intervention in Psychosis (EIP) services (both service users and carers) and aimed to add additional lived experience perspectives to the project, including greater representation of diverse views.
The group also provided support to the service user advisor, who also has experience of psychosis and EIP services.
The service user advisor attended implementation meetings with the project team, representing their views and those of the SUCRG.
This included sharing perspectives on how the audit could measure what’s important to service users and carers, as well as logistical considerations such as how to drive quality data collection and ethical issues.
‘Team work at its best’
Vanessa Pinfold, who nominated the group for the award, said:
“Our nomination talked about the challenges of doing public involvement within an audit, and how we worked together with clinical advisors to co-deliver a report with service users and carer decision-making prominent throughout.
“Huge shout out to the artist and designer who shaped our vision into a report. This was team work at its best.”
Find out more and read the State of the Nation report on the NCAP project page.
