London Sexual Health Programme

Commissioners' page

As outlined on 'why do I need to do PPE', PPE is vital in all healthcare services. It is therefore important that you ensure all services you commission have structures in place to engage patients and the public, including an action plan , a PPE champion , an audit cycle for PPE , appropriate methods of PPE being used, and evidence of the results of PPE i.e. changes made, as well as feedback of these results to service users. As commissioners you can elevate the importance of PPE by including it as a statutory requirement in contracts.

As well as recognising PPE in services, commissioning itself should include patient feedback throughout the whole commissioning cycle - procurement, strategic planning, and performance management. PPE can save you money, by focussing resources where they are needed and reducing spending on services which are not needed. Patients can even be consulted on how they feel money should be spent, as described in the article by Hitchings et al 2009

The Specialised Commissioning Group have written a comprehensive PPE Strategy which includes guidance on methods of engagement, remuneration, resources for PPE and particularly detailed guidance on appointing a patient rep.

The toolkit contains a number of tools suitable for use in commissioning

For further information see the following documents:

• DH ‘Real accountability’

• DH guide ‘Working together for change’

• World class commissioning guide to PPE

• INVOLVE guidance on public involvement on commissioning boards

• Picker series of factsheets looking at cost effective ways of engaging the public in commissioning: Best buys