The development of service user initiatives in an inner london borough

This paper describes the journey of a social services manager taking on the development of an over-arching user involvement strategy within an integrated mental health service. It highlights the introduction of a framework for user involvement which has proved able to adapt to successive policy initiatives including the Health and Social Care Act, Changing the Balance of Care, Patient and Public Involvement, and most recently Personalisation. It discusses some of the challenges, but also the real benefits of meaningful service user involvement. It also suggests that managers with a social care background are uniquely positioned to take on such a development