Membership strategy

This membership strategy sets out how we will support our public governors to recruit and engage with our NHS foundation trust membership, to make sure our members have genuine involvement in the development of our plans and services. It builds on the work of our previous strategy.

Why membership matters

The NHS touches everyone’s lives. While everyone’s motivation for joining might be different, the core benefit of becoming a member is to have a regular voice to shape the way services are provided, contribute to the future of the organisation and make sure Kent Community Health NHS Foundation Trust (KCHFT) responds to the needs of its communities.

An active membership will be vital in supporting us to achieve the four ambitions set out in our We Care strategy 2023 to 2028 – in particular, putting our communities first, providing a better patient experience and delivering sustainable care.

Having an engaged membership can:

• support the development of our services
• help us to improve access and tackle health inequalities, particularly if our membership represents the diversity of the people we serve
• support our ambition to recruit and retain people who hold our KCHFT values.

During the next three years, we want to make changes to how we engage and involve our members and the public, by developing an actively engaged and vibrant membership.

Foundation trusts must establish, develop and maintain an active membership. Foundation trust members and governors are a vital part of the governance of the trust, and by providing them with opportunities to engage, they can influence the way the trust’s services are provided.

Public members elect representatives to a Council of Governors which voices the views of the members they represent and holds the non-executive directors to account. Governors assist the trust to engage with members about the future strategy of the organisation.

Our Council of Governors

KCHFT's Council of Governors consists of:

• six staff governors
• 13 public governors, 12 representing the council boundaries within Kent and one for the rest of England
• five appointed governors, one representing each of the following: Kent universities, public health, Kent Dementia Action Alliance, Age UK and the Kent Association of Head Teachers.

Being a member

Our members are our staff, patients, carers, volunteers and people from across the diverse communities we serve in Kent, East Sussex and parts of London. We aim to recruit and develop a membership which represents people living in the communities we serve.

Public members

As one of the largest providers of community and health care services covering 3.6 million people, those who receive care, have an interest in or have another connection to the trust, are encouraged to become a member.

Membership is open to anyone aged 14-years-old and over. Members aged 16-years-old and over may vote in governor elections or stand for election as a governor.

Sustaining a meaningful membership involves a significant commitment of time and resource, with effective engagement with members involving people throughout the trust.

There are no obligations as a member of the trust, but there are lots of ways of getting involved, from voting for candidates to be on our Council of Governors to taking part in events.

This is a voluntary role; members are offered no preferential treatment and have no special rights to access services or premises.

Staff members

Our 5,300 staff are also members of the trust. Any member of staff employed by the trust on a permanent contract or fixed term contract of 12 months or longer automatically becomes a member.

Colleagues who work through the staff bank are encouraged to join. How we engage our staff members is part of our internal communications and engagement plan.

Where we are now

KCHFT has about 8,300 public members, but regularly communicates with around 3,400 due to their communication preferences. Appendix one contains more detail of our membership breakdown by area, age, gender and ethnicity.

Analysis of the membership and our communication and engagement methods shows:

• 76 per cent of our members identify as White British.
• 8 per cent of our members identify as either Black, Asian or having a minority ethnic (BAME) background. The 2021 census figures state Kent and Medway has an 11.4 per cent BAME population. To achieve equity, we need to increase membership in this area by 3.4 per cent.
• 16 per cent of our members (1,354 people) have either not stated their ethnicity, declared it is not applicable or selected, ‘not sure’. Encouraging people to share their ethnicity would help us to understand if our membership is representative.
• there are 3,261 more female members than male, with 189 members preferring not to say.
• the average age of our membership is between 40 and 70-years-old
• the diversity of our Council of Governors is more representative of our communities than previously and we have seen improvements in recent election campaigns that have resulted in more candidates standing and higher voter turnout rates
• a monthly newsletter is sent to all members who have agreed to receive digital communications from the trust, with read rates ranging between 25 and 35 per cent
• ad hoc mailings sent to specific constituencies and personalised from that constituency’s governor have readership rates of between 32 and 52 per cent. These are sent to distribution lists of between 135 and 300 people, depending on the size of the membership for that constituency and who has agreed to receiving digital communications from the trust
• features added to the trust’s Community Health magazine, including a round up of governor activity across the year and a freepost membership sign up form, result in around 10 new member applications
• three Winter Well membership events, in partnership with East Kent Health and Care Partnership, have been successful during the past two years engaging more than 730 people. These events are supported by some of our public governors and were heavily promoted to the trust’s membership, with a focus on the constituencies where the events were taking place.

Goals

We have identified three goals for the life of our strategy and supporting year one actions (see appendix two).

1. To build a membership that is representative of our communities and helps us to tackle health inequalities and put our communities first.

We will do this by:

• analysing our members on a regular basis
• developing campaigns to target any groups that are under representative
• working with our volunteers and partners organisation to explore new ways of promoting membership to those who may not have considered becoming a member.

2. To improve the quality of engagement and increase the opportunities to seek views on services to deliver a better patient experience and sustainable care.

We will do this by:

• improving our programme of events by building on the success of our winter well events and developing a series of online educational member events, collaborating across the system where appropriate
• developing new opportunities for members of the public to express their views and encouraging them to take up the offer of joining our people’s network and other engagement forums or groups
• fully involving the public in opportunities to support the develop services, for example, engaging them in our work to develop our model for rehabilitation and recovery across Kent and Medway to placed-based pieces of work, such as developing community hubs
• offering opportunities for our members to join us in ongoing quality improvement work with services
• promoting the different levels of involvement, recognising people have different constraints on their time.
  

3. To support governors to communicate and engage with their members.

We will do this by:

• continually reviewing our existing communication channels to provide information in an accessible way
• proving a toolkit to support governors and reviewing this annually
• supporting each governor, where possible, to communicate with their members at least twice a year through an e-newsletter
• supporting governors to attend local trust events and feedback outcomes to the Communications Team for newsletter content to members
• recognising governors are volunteers and will differ in the amount of time they can give.

Delivering and evaluating the impact of our goals

The Council of Governors is ultimately responsible for the delivery of this strategy. It will be supported by the Communications and Engagement Committee which will oversee the delivery and monitoring of the membership and engagement plan. Public governors, the governor support, communications and volunteer and patient engagement teams attend the quarterly meetings and together will review the membership objectives and actions annually.

While our goals are for the length of our We care strategy and aligned to our ambitions, we will refresh our action plan each year, which sets out the practical steps we will take to implement our strategy.

The ways in which we will analyse our success are:

Goal 1: A membership that is representative

We will conduct analysis twice a year and look in depth at the profile of the trust’s public membership and identify any underrepresented groups. This will help us to understand whether our targeted recruitment campaigns have been successful and whether we are succeeding in maintaining the size but improving the diversity of our membership. We will report these reports to the Council of Governors.

Goal 2: To increase the quality of engagement on services

We will carry out regular analysis of the trust’s newsletter online, monitor attendance at engagement events, analyse and monitor feedback and responses to issues raised by the public and members, and carry out a regular survey of all members to assess their views. We will also monitor voter turnout rates at the end of the election period.

We want to understand and evaluate the impact public and members’ feedback has had on trust's services. Regular surveys available to the public and members will assist with capturing feedback, alongside monitoring attendance at community events.

We are committed to compiling evidence to demonstrate what has changed within the trust as a result of public and members' views and activities, especially for projects that involve service change.

Goal 3: Improving the quality of engagement and increasing the opportunities to be involved

Our Council of Governors is invited to attend quarterly communications and engagement meetings as a way to share feedback and we will use that meeting to review progress against this plan.

We will monitor the frequency and read rates of newsletter and ask the governors for regular feedback, through the Communication and Engagement Committee, on the levels of support required and any gaps.

We will measure the effectiveness of the toolkit and the activity rate of the events schedule.

Risks and issues