Get involved and have your say on adult social care services
Find out how you can work with us to help design adult social care services for you and people you care about.
Using co-production to shape services
Our vision is to put people at the heart of what we do. We aim to work together to make a positive difference.
We need your help to plan, develop, and evaluate our adult social care services. We’re looking for input from:
- people who use adult social care services
- their families and carers
- the wider community
We value the insights of people with lived experience, and we recognise them as ‘experts by experience’. An expert by experience is someone who has personal experience using health and social care services, including family members and carers.
We want to partner with experts by experience to co-produce our services. Co-production means working together equally to design services and make decisions that work for everyone. It's based on the principle that people who use a service are best placed to help design it.
Watch a video about how co-production works
How to get involved
By telling us about your experiences, we can work together to make a positive difference to our services.
There are many ways to get involved, including networks, partnership boards, forums, surveys, focus groups and more.
You can contact any group you're interested in to learn more. We aim to make all our groups welcoming and accessible to help you participate and hear your feedback.
The voice of experts by experience is important. Your input will help others by enabling us to work together to develop adult social care so people in Kingston can live their best lives.
Find a group to get involved with
We offer different ways to get involved for people with different experiences. We host most of the groups listed here or run them in partnership with experts by experience or community partners Healthwatch Kingston and Kingston Carer’s Network. Everything below encourages and supports membership from experts by experience.
Disability
Involve
Get help to speak up from our Involve team. The Involve team are experts by experience. They use their lived experience to help people with learning disabilities and autism in Kingston. They meet regularly with residents to learn what is important to them.
All Age Learning Disability Partnership Board
The board is co-chaired by Healthwatch Kingston and people with a learning disability.
Together, we ensure that the Learning Disability Strategy is being implemented and work towards improving services.
Find out more about the All Age Learning Disability Partnership Board
Kingston Disability Network
Kingston Disability Network is an inclusive network bringing together individuals and organisations to create a collective stronger voice for those with disabilities to achieve positive outcomes.
Find out more about the Kingston Disability Network
Older people
Age-friendly Kingston
This aims to help Kingston residents enjoy an active and healthy life for longer by taking action to improve our social and physical environment.
You can get involved through:
- Older People’s Forum
- Age Friendly Ambassadors (agefriendly@kingston.gov.uk)
Find out more about Age-friendly Kingston
Neurodiversity
Autism and ADHD Partnership Board
The board aims to improve the lives of people with Autism and ADHD by co-producing the new All-Age Kingston Autism and ADHD Strategy and working together on the action plan.
The board is co-chaired by an expert by experience and Kingston Council. It champions a neurodiverse-friendly and welcoming approach to inclusive meetings.
Find out more about the Autism and ADHD Partnership Board
Carers
We work closely with Kingston Carer’s Network to organise the Kingston Carers Board. This board is helping to deliver the Carer Strategy, and bringing together organisations that offer information and support services to unpaid carers in the borough.
Find out more about the Kingston Carers Board
Mental health
Healthwatch Kingston facilitates the Mental Health and Wellbeing Group.
The group has supported the development and implementation of key strategies and programmes, including:
- Better Mental Health Joint Strategic Needs Assessment
- Suicide Prevention Strategy
Find out more about the Kingston Mental Health and Wellbeing Group
Young Voice Participation Sessions
The Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) Participation Team supports children and young people up to age 25 with special educational needs or a disability. The Participation Team helps shape the services they access and influence change. This is done through monthly focus groups, reviewing strategies and giving guidance on publications, surveys and documents.
Find out more about the Achieving for Children SEND Participation Group
Safeguarding
Kingston Safeguarding Voices is a group designed to put the voice of those with lived experience of safeguarding at the heart of Kingston Safeguarding provision. Healthwatch Kingston is supporting the group.
Find out more about Kingston Safeguarding Voices
Other ways to have your say
Healthwatch
Healthwatch is the independent champion for people who use health and social care services. They would like to hear about your experiences of NHS and social care services in Kingston. Giving feedback, both good and bad, can help improve services.
Find out more about Healthwatch Kingston
Community-led groups
Alongside the engagement groups that we help manage, we also work closely with other organisations in the community to ensure that we hear a diverse range of voices. You can find these groups on our partner site, Connected Kingston.
Find community-led groups on Connected Kingston
Kingston Let’s Talk
Find out about Kingston Council's latest consultations and engagement opportunities. Have your say on local issues that matter to you and help shape decision-making in Kingston.
Read more on Kingston Let’s Talk
User research panel for digital services
Join our user research panel to receive invites to activities and surveys to help shape future improvements to our digital services. This includes research into adult social care’s digital services.
Find out more about digital user research
Comment on a service
If you want to tell us something else without joining a group, you can leave a comment about one of our services. We use these as part of wider improvement work on our services and to support development.
Contact us
Email or call us to find out more about adult social care engagement opportunities in Kingston.
adultscommissioning@kingston.gov.uk
Phone
020 8547 5000