Be honest and keep people informed

This page has information for people leading and taking part in engagement activities.

• Find out how this guide was developed.
• Watch video: consumers, carers, community and staff explore honesty.
• Check you've covered the essentials.

On this page

1. What we mean
2. Without honesty and keeping people informed
3. What to expect: consumers, carers and communities
4. What facilitators and meeting Chairs can do
5. What isn't okay
6. Resources to support you
7. References

What we mean

We say what can be changed and how decisions will be made. We share progress so we can all improve our health system ^[1][2]. We show consumers, carers and communities how their contributions make a difference ^[3].

Without honesty and keeping people informed

Without honesty, we lose trust and risk relationships. Telling people to do 'blue sky thinking' when decisions have been made is dishonest and wasteful. When we're honest, we can be creative together.

What to expect: consumers, carers and communities

As consumers, carers and communities, you can expect to:

• hear what's already been decided
• know what decisions you can and can't influence
• know how a project or committee is going – not just when it's done
• know how you'll be recognised so you can decide if you want to take part
• know if you're being invited to consultation, co-design or something else ^[3]
• know when something changes and what that means for the project – and for your involvement
• be able to raise concerns without being kicked out of a group or project
• ask for and get information about how decisions are made
• get different kinds of updates, including words and pictures (sometimes video or audio too).

What facilitators or meeting Chairs can do

Here are some actions you can take across the engagement process. We share a few resources below.

When planning:

• use the Plan questions and Essentials checklist
• think about who's making the decisions and what's been decided
• think about how much time and budget you have
• think about what level of influence consumers, carers and communities will have (influence on decoration, service delivery, policy, strategy or something else)
• know if you're consulting, co-designing[4] or something else ^[4]
• if you're consulting, co-designing, involve consumers, carers and communities in making things and making decisions
• don't say you're co-designing if you're not
• be honest about what you're doing.

When inviting and supporting people to be included:

• let consumers, carers and communities know:
• what you're asking them to contribute to
• the time commitment
• how they'll be recognised for their help
• the rules that will impact ideas (such as law, branding or budget)
• what decisions have already been made
• what carers and communities can influence
• what you've put in place to support them
• don't assume people don't want to take part because some of the solution has already been decided
• add another way of communicating that isn't only writing and documents (using images, a rough video to share information or something else).

• ask if people want to be kept in touch with
• ask people about their communication preferences
• be honest when decisions can't be made by consumers, carers and communities
• support people to catch up if they missed an update or session
• give the same level of visibility to consumers, carers and communities that you would to staff and other stakeholders
• keep in touch when things get quiet (such as waiting on a decision). You might organise a catch-up, a social event or something else.
• share when things have changed in the project. Say how it impacts people's role(s)
• be honest when new rules come up.

• plan to share the outputs (for example, a report or product) and the outcomes (what changed as a result)
• if the work didn't go well, do a 'fail report' ^[5] or something similar
• ask for feedback. How honest were you? Did consumers, carers and communities feel kept in the loop?
• use what you hear to build your practice and improve next time
• for co-design, review if you met your goal for higher participation^[4]
• know that while you might think you did co-design, the people involved might not.

What's not okay

What's not okay is:

• only communicating with consumers, carers and communities when you need something
• assuming what consumers, carers and communities need to know without asking
• being dishonest about the project and its limits (such as time, funding, standards and law)
• being dishonest or exaggerating the influence that consumers, carers and communities can have
• only sharing information on intranets, which consumers, carers and communities can't access
• only communicating in writing with no other options (pictures, a rough video, a chat, something else)
• only sharing the good bits and hiding what didn't work.

Resources to support you

• All of Us: Essentials checklist
  Use the checklist to think about planning and communication. Not as a replacement for talking with consumers, carers and communities. ^[9]
• Andi Mirviss and Josh Sorin. How to fail (forward): a framework for fostering innovation in the public sector.

References

1. New South Wales Health. (2022). Future Health: Guiding the next decade of care in NSW 2022-2032.
2. Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care. The NSQHS Standards: Partnering with Consumers Standard.
3. Consumer Leaders in Health Collective. (2022). Statement of Aims. Unpublished.
4. Agency for Clinical Innovation NSW. (n.d.). Partnership Foundations [online]
5. Fail Forward. (n.d.). Failure reports and postmortems.

*We: Any reference to 'we' includes consumers, carers, staff, volunteers and anyone else working in local health districts (LHDs) and specialty health networks (SHNs), at the Ministry of Health, across the NSW pillar agencies and other NSW Health organisations. The use of this language is deliberate to show the collective effort required by all of us.