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What are the Discover Recovery Services?

The Users’ explanation Discover recovery services are here for users - you. They are focused on recovery from

the word go, and will support you to move through the service towards goals and aspirations of your choice.

Discover Recovery services offer you

• wellbeing focused interventions that are evidence-based and high quality • enablement towards independent living • building of creative outlooks and lifestyles • Supportive of the development of self-care and health management strategies • Empowering of you the user – no decision about your care without consultation, lots

of ways built in to enable you to give regular feedback, ask questions, make suggestions, discuss your care and the services involved

• Enabling socially inclusive opportunities • Using the rotation model established and proven at Start • Moving-on focused – helping you become and remain more independent of care

services, working your way through services in the most efficient and effective way possible for you

• Structured approaches to keep your care focused • Consistent methods and standards to ensure you receive good quality care • Personalised approaches – tailored to you, your own Discover Recovery Personal

Plan • Transparent – we explain the care package we offer to you, and help you track your

own progress • Measurable – we will help you use easy measures to see how your wellbeing is

benefiting • Affordable – you can access our services without an IB initially but then you will

need an IB if you remain with us for more than ? weeks

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What support can you experience?

What you experience with us depends on your needs. We will start by meeting you and finding out about you, and telling you about our services. We will help you to become more aware of your own skills and knowledge as well as acquire new skills and knowledge. We aim to make our services empower you, so that you can go on to achieve the future you would like.

• Occupational therapy – one to one and group support, using proven clinical methods to support your recovery and enable you to get the most out of your time in our services.

• Connecting with wellbeing - healthy lifestyles groups to help you connect with what’s on offer in your local community

• Creative wellbeing – giving you rewarding skills to enjoy beyond your time with us, helping you think creatively and use creative approaches to improve ways you care for yourself

• Green wellbeing – getting you out in the allotments of Manchester to learn about growing fruit, veg, flowers and more, helping with fitness.

• Discover food- helping you eat healthily, get confident with food, and learn catering skills

• Discover DIY – helping you get independent with basic DIY tasks around the house and learn more about what a hands-on trade might offer you for the future

• Discover employment – specialist employment officers to assist you in seeking paid work – help when you need it, personalised to you

• Support and connect workers to help you connect with your local communities and move on to futures of your choice

Where can you find these services?

They will happen all over the city, in different venues, some venues being sheltered and some being socially inclusive. Though some services will be based in certain locations and may involve travel to get to them, we aim to offer a good choice of services within easy reach of all prospective users.

“I’ll take a sense of wellbeing from this

course, and a sense of endless possibilities”

“I feel enlightened and I

made progress in my journey of recovery”

“The way goals and support are tailored to the individual is really

good”

“I have a better understanding of what it means to be well.”

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More about the services

• Occupational Therapy o Specialist Occupational therapists who understand how to help you make

the most of your time in our services o Help to overcome barriers to engagement o Support with developing confidence, problem-solving, decision making and

much more, if you need it o Support and advice to help you think about options for healthy and

rewarding futures beyond our services o Recovery groups that help you understand how to get the most from

services, and support your focus on keeping well

• Connecting with wellbeing healthy lifestyles groups

o Part of your Discovery Recovery Personal Plan, negotiated with you o Group activities and one to one support to access mainstream opportunities

that will enable you to develop healthy living skills and knowledge in approachable and evidence-based ways

o Support to find out about what’s on offer in your local community, and help to get you engaged in what you’d like to try

o The chance to train in leading groups and mentoring others, with support o Activity groups provided in a variety of settings, some sheltered, and some

in mainstream venues o Choose from these activities: Active wellbeing (walking, gym, dance,

swimming), Discover culture (cultural venues), Discover places (visits to parks and local places of interest by public transport), Solutions for living (problem solving techniques, positive thinking activities, discussions on topics, mindfulness and relaxation techniques.)

o Join and get to know about the peer supported ‘Café Culture’ groups, where like-minded people meet and chat in various venues across the city, all led by people who have used our services and share an interest in wellbeing lifestyles and activities. Groups vary in their particular interests, and you can help to shape the groups yourself by being a member

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• Creative wellbeing o Part of your Discovery Recovery Personal Plan, negotiated with you o Group workshops by expert tutors/ artists in textiles, ceramics, animation,

photography, drawing and painting, mixed media and mosaic, creative writing

o Activities that are proven to enable the development of life skills such as problem-solving, concentration, creative thinking, opinion-forming, confidence and much more

o Opportunities to train in leading groups, mentoring others and assisting in workshops with the tutors

o Opportunities to exhibit work o Opportunities to visit galleries and museums in the local community and

gain confidence to visit yourself with friends and family o Support to find further training in these skills if you’d like to o Join and get to know about the peer supported ‘Knit and Natter’, ‘Snap and

Chat’ and ‘Art for the Terrified’ groups, where like-minded people meet and chat in various venues across the city, all led by people who have used our services and share an interest in wellbeing lifestyles and activities. Groups vary in their particular interests, and you can help to shape the groups yourself by being a member

• “The way goals and support are tailored to the individual is really good”

• Discover DIY o Part of your Discovery Recovery Personal Plan, negotiated with you o A range of activities provided by an expert tutor to develop skills in DIY and

improve confidence and wellbeing o Learn to do all those small tasks around the home, get confident, feel

empowered o Activities that are proven to enable the development of life skills such as

problem-solving, concentration, creative thinking, opinion-forming, confidence and much more

o Opportunities to train in leading groups, mentoring others and assisting in workshops with the tutor

o Support to find further training in these skills if you’d like to

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• Green wellbeing o Part of your Discovery Recovery Personal Plan, negotiated with you o Group workshops by expert tutors/ gardeners in gardening skills, enabling

you to learn how to care for your garden, plant up a simple pot, grow herbs, vegetables and fruit, work an allotment and much more

o Activities that are proven to enable the development of life skills such as problem-solving, concentration, creative thinking, opinion-forming, confidence and much more

o Opportunities to train in leading groups, mentoring others and assisting in workshops with the tutors

o Support to find further training in these skills if you’d like to o Opportunities to visit parks and gardens and learn more about where to go

to get your ‘shot’ of green living o Join and get to know about the peer supported ‘Green and Dirty’ groups,

where like-minded people meet and work their own allotment in various venues across the city, all led by people who have used our services and share an interest in wellbeing lifestyles and activities. Groups vary in their particular interests, and you can help to shape the groups yourself by being a member

• Discover food

o Part of your Discovery Recovery Personal Plan, negotiated with you o Training, skills development and volunteering opportunities across the city

with our expert trainer with whom you can gain an NVQ qualification o Part of a vocational pathway to help you get back to work o Join our café teams to learn confidence in catering o Support to find further training in these skills if you’d like to

• Discover employment o Part of your Discovery Recovery Personal Plan, negotiated with you o Specialist employment workers support you to look for and stay in work

• Support and connect

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o Part of your Discovery Recovery Personal Plan, negotiated with you o Personalised help to support you to join groups, engage with services

effectively, get to grips with public transport, visit new places to research opportunities for your future

o All workers directed by Occupational Therapists or Connect to Wellbeing managers

o Support fully negotiated with you

Your voice matters The Trust are committed to listening to users, and to user involvement in service design and development, and full and representative feedback from users.

In the Discover Recovery services you will find that all staff are engaged with users, and that we have built in user involvement and feedback processes right across the services. Every staff member will be keen to listen to you, record your feedback and ideas, suggestions and criticisms, and offer you chances to be involved in all sorts of ways.

Ways you can be involved include:

• Feeding back to us every time you attend a session – what did you learn, what could be better, what did you like best, and so on.

• Discussing service ideas in groups and workshops, and in a Focus on Feedback group where staff and users can together reflect on comments from users about their services.

• Being a mentor for others in the service • Training alongside staff to run groups and help with departmental work in a number

of areas • Opting to help to run peer supported groups as part of your plans for staying

engaged with wellbeing activities after moving on

“I am invited to give feedback to staff after each

session I attend. At first I thought this was intimidating, but they helped me, and bit by

bit I feel like I’ve found my voice.”

“I go to the Focus on Feedback group whenever I feel like hearing more about

what’s going on in the services. This group is interesting – staff get together with the

Service Manager to talk about all the comments from users in their area of

service, and users are invited to go and pitch in too, add comments, or just listen. It

makes me feel connected.”

“I really like the fact that I can volunteer to help others. In a way, this is the best aspect for me of the Discover Recovery services, as my aim is to run a group myself one day,

maybe to train as a teacher. As a mentor, I can share what I have learned, and am asked to specifically help the staff to reflect on the session or group that I have helped in. My

opinion seems to be really listened to.”

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Rachelle is 29, with a diagnosis of psychosis and she also has a chaotic lifestyle. Rachelle has found it difficult to engage with conventional services but in Discover Recovery, she found

something different.

Referred to the Creative Wellbeing service in South, because she is artistic, Rachelle was given an initial interview which allowed her to describe all the reasons why she finds engaging

with service so hard. The Occupational Therapist agreed some basic goals with her, and Rachelle began attending the Photography group as her first rotation. She had some problems getting started, and missed some groups, but with the help of a Support and Connect worker,

she engaged and completed this and three more 12 weeks rotations. She described aspirations to go back to college, but identified severe problems with using

public transport and with confidence in new places.

The Creative Wellbeing team referred her across for an Occupational Therapy assessment, which led to a programme of support for bus usage, and one to one visits to college settings.

Rachelle continued at Creative Wellbeing with a 24 week rotation, and also began using Independent Access facilities for textiles. She joined the Knit and Natter group to make new friends, and planned to join an Adult Education textiles class. She began discharge planning

with the OT.

Her plan was to engage with college whilst still at Discover Recovery, and to access support from her tutor and the OT/ Support and Connect worker as needed.

She is now successfully attending college and discharged from the services.

Rachelle’s Story

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Sandeep, 45, has been ill for some years with acute agoraphobia, anxiety and depression. At the time of referral to the Discover Recovery service he had not left the house for 6 years.

At initial referral Sandeep said that his dream was to have the skills to look after his own

garden and eventually to get a job as a gardener.

Initial support from the Support and Connect workers allowed Sandeep to engage with the service, where he joined the Connect to Wellbeing groups running at Harpurhey. He found the relaxation and mindfulness course a great help, and with support was able to even try one of

the visits to a local park. This got him used to being with others, and coming to a familiar place as well as trying something new. A Support and Connect worker then helped him to join the Green wellbeing Harpurhey allotment group. Sandeep liked the group and said he wanted help to join the Green wellbeing Heaton Park group. After an OT assessment, Sandeep was

allocated OT interventions to help with his agoraphobia, and he learned anxiety management techniques which he found effective.

At present he is working with the Heaton Park group and with the Digital Development

project manager to help write and produce resources about gardening for the public.

Sandeep expects to begin discharge planning after he has engaged with the Employment Specialist in a few months. His discharge plan will be spread over several months and will give

him clear pointers to help him keep well.

Sandeep’s Story

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Additional information for staff

What will change?

Services will be modernised so that they meet the newer principles of health and social care.

The modernised services are based on

• what the Trust has found works best in its former service portfolio, evidenced by measurable outcomes

• existing skills and knowledge across its multi-disciplinary staff teams • feedback from users • what the Government and NHS wants health and social care services to look and feel

like, and what outcomes they want services to achieve

All services will be evidence-based, recovery focused, structured towards moving on outlooks, socially inclusive, and will enable change-management through the rotational and review structure of users experiencing reviewed ‘modules’ of care within their Discover Recovery Personal Plan.

The review structure and rotation structure involve the running of courses that are a set length with an overall curriculum plan but that can be personalised. They are recovery focused with wellbeing themes, and use diary sheets, aspiration sheets, WEMWBS and review documentation to assist users to log their own progress.

Services will be organised into what is essentially one large team working across North, South and Central areas. The team will be managed by two managers, and will be split into services in Central, and services in North and South.

Due to the skills-mix within the teams, the services will be titled

• Discover Recovery: Wellbeing and Independent Living • Discover Recovery: Wellbeing and Culture

This management structure aims to help services to feel part of a whole team, for the whole team to talk to one another, but made up of specialist sections that provide the expert, evidence-based, recovery-focused, varied recovery interventions.

One team working together, rather than lots of teams under different managers, aims to enable pathways for users, and to help users gain the best experience of recovery-focused care. The team will use the same structures, processes, principles and paperwork throughout its services. This gives consistency to all interventions, and helps staff to be clear and focused on service objectives.

Specialist services will be important in the Discover Recovery service, and staff skills and knowledge will be vital to run these. Some staff will have the chance to also work in more generic ways alongside their specialist roles, to enable the best pathways for users throughout the services, and to allow for skills-sharing across professional groups. An example of this is that some of the newly created roles ask for a mix of skills and specialisms.

The service will offer an excellent, varied and stepped supported recovery experience for all users.

An important new aspect of the Discover Recovery Services will be to develop online Discover Recovery services, advice, support and activities, to allow us to

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• reach more people • promote public health and wellbeing • contribute to the prevention and promotion agendas of central Government • support users’ moving on process by giving them easy access to recovery resources

24/7 • enable user/peer-led groups to have resources to use

The online services will be developed by one of the newly created posts, that of Digital Media tutor and Website Worker who will work closely with the Occupational Therapists and Team Managers to ensure a range of appropriate information in developed, as well as providing workshops to users in Digital Media skills, thus involving users in the development of these resources too.

Working in the Discover Recovery group of services will be rewarding, developmental, and challenging. The services will use your skills, and enable you to develop more.

If you are in a position of finding yourself , as many will unfortunately do, in a post rebanded downwards, it is very much hoped that the way the service is organised will go some way to mitigate the disappointment of that by offering clearly structured, well-supported, satisfying working experiences, and opportunities for fulfilling different remits.

What locations will be used? The following locations will remain as Trust buildings for user interventions

• Harpurhey Day Centre • Studio 1 (extended office space) • High Elms

Limited office space at: Victoria Park and Hall Lane

Other activities will take place in community spaces across the city.

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The Team Managers x2 Band 7 The postholders will oversee all project development and service delivery. They will support and manage all staff to deliver service-wide excellence, overseeing the rotations, referrals, discharges, partnerships, outcomes, administrative processes.T hey will supervise all Band 6 and some Band 5 workers, and will upskill and train/ source training where needed. They will ensure the quality and standards are consistent across the service group. They will build outlooks and abilities within their teams to deliver innovative and effective services. Postholders will evaluate /ensure evaluation of services to gather evidence-bases for future planning, and will continuously evolve improving services consistent with outcomes desired by the Trust. They will ensure users are engaged with service design and developments through a variety of approaches, and that user engagement is something that every staff member is engaged with throughout the services. The postholders will work with their teams to design mechanisms across the teams that build joined up services that talk to eachother, that provide smooth pathways for users from service to service, and that trigger support, for users as needed.

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The Occupational Therapists x 3 Band 6 Occupational Therapy will be integral to all parts of the service. The OTs will be working in an embedded way, across the whole team in which they are situated, sharing good practice with their colleagues. By working closely with their colleagues, two-way skills sharing will occur, with OTs learning more about what can be offered through the services in which they work, and colleagues learning about how OT outlooks and skills can be used to enhance what their services offer.

The postholders will provide clinical interventions, triage referrals coming into the service, manage initial interviews, manage rotations and DNAs, facilitate staff to flag up users ready for discharge planning, support review processes, and engage especially with the actual range of services in their management group. This means that the Occupational Therapists will ideally have some specialist skill and knowledge regarding the services in their location grouping, or have an interest that they are willing to develop.

Occupational Therapists will meet with their location-based teams within the services and their Team Manager on a fortnightly basis, to manage the above processes.

The group meeting, referral processes, and rotations processes will be administered by the Administrative Assistants to support the large caseload of the Occupational Therapists.

Occupational Therapists will support non-clinical team members with clinical issues, and will take part in innovative service development by inputting their skills to service planning and team development processes.

Occupational Therapists will have their own small team of Connect and Support workers to support their case load.

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The Connect to Wellbeing/ patch model Coordinators x2 posts Band 6 The two postholders will focus on developing wellbeing activities and life skills, some of which will be delivered in partnership with mainstream and voluntary sector services, that enable users to engage with what is on offer in their local areas, and move away from supported mental health and social care services.

The postholders will, within the two teams, plan, deliver, and coordinate a range of activities that enable users to develop wellbeing skills and be introduced to wellbeing lifestyles.

The workers will have a small team of Connect and Support workers to support their work.

They will deliver groups, facilitate/ supervise others to deliver the groups, and train users to deliver groups. They will seek to engage users with existing appropriate groups/ wellbeing opportunities in their local area, supporting users one to one to engage.

The activities will be developed across a range of venues, and will as far as possible avoid Trust venues in favour of community venues, to enable moving-on processes, and to develop the patch model – that is, helping users to access support in their own neighbourhoods. However, some Trust (sheltered) venues will be used to support users who may require this extra safety net. The post holders will be in charge of finding and booking venues and ensuring health and safety requirements are met. They will manage Harpurhey venue and such office space at Victoria Park/ Hall Lane that is in use.

All group work in this team will be goal focused, with SMART goals, and will involve the review process and course diaries. Activities may include active wellbeing, discover places, solutions for living, discover culture. Users may attend these groups alongside other sessions in other parts of the service.

The postholders will have charge of developing a range of user-led or peer supported groups that lead on from the activity services Green Wellbeing and Wellbeing Arts. For this reason, some expertise in one of these areas is desirable. Postholders will work with staff from Occupational Therapy, Wellbeing Arts and Green Wellbeing teams to develop the user-led or peer supported groups.

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The Prevention, Promotion and Inclusion Coordinator Band 6 The post holder will develop socially inclusive partnerships with the cultural and educational sector citywide, to enable the delivery of cultural and learning activities for service users in socially inclusive settings. The postholder will enable projects, that allow users opportunities to engage with the cultural sector as a moving on route from services.

The postholder will manage the development of the Green wellbeing service which will work in partnership with voluntary and statutory sector organizations to deliver socially inclusive services to users.

The postholder will have responsibility for working with others on the citywide teams to build special projects and partnerships, develop and manage exhibition opportunities and health promotional opportunities. Any exhibitions opportunities must have a wellbeing focus and deliver public health information about creative living and wellbeing themes. The postholder will maximize opportunities for the user voice of experience and expertise to be heard and seen through the creation of public health resources.

The postholder will have skills and experience of health promotion, of working in partnership, and delivering culturally-based, educative or creative wellbeing interventions. He/she will deliver creative activity workshops direct to users as part of the rotation system within Wellbeing Arts, ideally in socially inclusive settings and with partners from education or culture.

The postholder will work closely with the Digital Development project manager, feeding in partnership contacts and resources.

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The Digital Development project manager citywide Band 6 The post holder will develop online Discover Recovery services, advice, support and activities, to allow the capacity of the service to increase, to promote public health and wellbeing, to support users’ moving on process by giving them easy access to recovery resources, and to enable user/peer-led groups to have resources to use.

The Worker will work closely with the Occupational Therapists and Team Managers to ensure a range of appropriate information is developed, as well as providing workshops to users in Digital Media skills, thus involving users in the development of these resources too. All studio work will be goal focused, with SMART goals, and will involve the review process. The work will have clear wellbeing themes.

The worker will have responsibility to archive visual art and Horticulture work for the purposes of the website, and will also record a representative range of photos showing service activity and outcomes across all Discover Recovery teams.

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The Senior Creative wellbeing tutors x2 Band 6 These postholders will provide creative wellbeing studio activities and supervise Band 5 Creative wellbeing tutors to do the same. The activities will follow the rotations model, and some activities may be socially inclusive, or be held in socially inclusive settings, or be run in partnership with cultural and educational sector workers. The Senior Creative Wellbeing Tutors will work closely with the Prevention, Promotion and Inclusion Coordinator to maximise opportunities for users to take part in exhibition projects and partnership projects.

The postholders will have especial responsibility for developing and maintaining excellence in studio work, ensuring that it is wellbeing focussed with clear themes that are made transparent to users. All studio work will be goal focused, with SMART goals, and will involve the review process.

The postholders will ensure that Creative Wellbeing teams contribute to Recovery resources for users, to the resources for the Creative Wellbeing website, and that the team enable Independent Access and training opportunities for users in running groups as appropriate.

The postholders will also work with the Patchmodel/ Connect to Wellbeing coordinators to support the follow on peer support groups based on the arts activities – Knit and Natter (social knitting and sewing), Art for the Terrified (drawing, painting and visiting art galleries), and Snap and Chat (Photography).

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The Senior Administrator Band 6 The postholder will have charge of developing all administrative systems and administrative support that will enable the Discover Recovery service to work effectively, efficiently, and with consistent approaches. The postholder will supervise a team of 2.5 Band 3 workers to undertake this role. He/ she will deliver administrative support for referrals, discharges, DNAs, reviews. He/she will ensure service data and demographics are gathered to reflect performance within the team, ensure input to ESR, record attendance / absence/ sickness. He/she will support the team managers to manage budgets effectively and accurately. The postholder will support special projects, service publicity, special events, conferences as required, and will have charge of altering/updating information on the Trust website. This Senior role is key to the smooth functioning of the service, and will involve travel across sites.

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The Creative wellbeing tutors x5 Band 5 These postholders will provide creative wellbeing studio activities which will follow the rotations model, and some activities may be socially inclusive, or be held in socially inclusive settings, or be run in partnership with cultural and educational sector workers.

The postholders will work with their supervisor to ensure that the provision is wellbeing focussed with clear themes that are made transparent to users. All studio work will be goal focused, with SMART goals, and will involve the review process.

The postholders will ensure that users can contribute to Creative wellbeing resources for the Creative Wellbeing website, and that users can access Independent Access and training opportunities in running groups as appropriate.

The postholders may also work, under supervision, with the Patchmodel/ Connect to Wellbeing coordinators to support the follow on peer support groups based on the arts activities – Knit and Natter (social knitting and sewing), Art for the Terrified (drawing, painting and visiting art galleries), and Snap and Chat (Photography).

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The Discover DIY worker x1 Band 5 THis postholder will provide tutoring to users in DIY tasks to increase independence and confidence in the home, and provide work ready skills.

Activities will be wellbeing focussed with clear themes that are made transparent to users. All studio work will be goal focused, with SMART goals, and will involve the review process.

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The Green wellbeing tutor x1 Band 5? This postholder will provide horticultural activities and supervise the Band 4 Green wellbeing support worker to do the same. The activities will follow the rotations model, and some activities may be socially inclusive, or be held in socially inclusive settings, or be run in partnership with voluntary or statutory sector workers.

The post will be supervised by the Prevention, Promotion and Inclusion Coordinator to maximise opportunities for users to take part in partnership projects.

The postholder will ensure that users can contribute to Creative wellbeing resources for the Creative Wellbeing website, and that users can access Independent Access and training opportunities in running groups as appropriate.

The postholder may also work, under supervision, with the Patchmodel/ Connect to Wellbeing coordinators to support the follow on peer support group Green and Dirty.

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The Green wellbeing support worker x1 Band 4 This postholder will support the work of the Green wellbeing tutor to provide horticultural activities that follow the rotations model. Some activities may be socially inclusive, or be held in socially inclusive settings, or be run in partnership with voluntary or statutory sector workers.

The post will be supervised by the Green wellbeing tutor.

The postholder will support the work of the Green wellbeing tutor in ensuring that users can contribute to Creative wellbeing resources for the Creative Wellbeing website, and that users can access Independent Access and training opportunities in running groups as appropriate.

The postholder may also work, under supervision, with the Patchmodel/ Connect to Wellbeing coordinators to support the follow on peer support group Green and Dirty.

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Support and Connect workers x15 Band 4? The postholders will support the work of their supervisors – Occupational Therapists, Connect to Wellbeing/ Patchmodel coordinators in delivering a recovery focused service. They will run small wellbeing groups under supervision, and will work one to one with users delivering personalized recovery plans as directed by their supervisors. All activities will follow the rotations model, be wellbeing focused with clear recovery themes, and with the review processes built in.

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Frequently asked questions

There seems to be a lot of emphasis on creative activity? Why is this? Creativity is inherent to all of us, and research shows that keeping creative outlooks alive and well in our lives supports wellbeing. By creative outlooks, it is not meant to imply only the arts, but something much wider. Creative outlooks are those that enable people to engage with the world with excitement, to have a sense of discovery and interest, to want to try new things and see new places, to connect to feelings, to have ideas, to notice surroundings and experience a sense of personal worth and value. Creative outlooks are essential to us to be healthy, and to build recovery. Creative outlooks are what get eroded and damaged when emotional distress affects us, and so rebuilding those skills lies at the heart of the Discover Recovery Service.

Why do you want to close the Day Centres? We don’t want to close all the Day Centres, just those that are in the same patches as other centres. We want three ‘feel safe’ venues, across the city. The decision to keep High Elms and St Andrews venues are because these house services that have specialist needs and would be hard to place in other settings. Research says that working with people in more socially inclusive settings is what most helps to tackle stigma and lead people back into involvement with communities. This is the aim of getting more activities out into the community.

Why are there two posts that build partnerships with other sectors? One of the posts will be focused on generic wellbeing activities and voluntary sector partnerships, whilst the other post will be focused on cultural and educational partnerships to create moving on routes into college, voluntary work and other avenues. This second post also focuses on ways in which to reach out from our services to the public, enabling the user voice of experience and expertise to be heard and seen, through health promotional resources and exhibitions. So you can see that the posts are different, providing different opportunities to users and the service alike.

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Why isn’t there a user representation/ user involvement post specifically set up? User representation should be what it says on the tin – that is, it should enable all users to have a voice, and represent their viewpoints to the Trust’s services, not just a few. How to engage all users? The answer we have proposed is to make it easy and safe to give views in all sorts of ways, and to embed the user voice into services right across their full span. One post dedicated to user representation means that it becomes one person’s responsibility rather than being everyone’s responsibility. Make it embedded into the service and into everyone’s working life, through mechanisms and groups and opportunities of varying sorts, ensures it becomes everyone’s responsibility.

How can we justify a new post of Digital Development project manager when other posts are being cut or downgraded? In a modernized service which is required to meet more people’s needs in more and better ways, the presence of an online service is vital to offer 24/7 support where it is needed, as well as to tackle the health and wellbeing of the people of Manchester. This one new post will radically change the potential reach and versatility of the service, as well as providing exciting options for users to get involved in health promotion materials made for people with problems like theirs.

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Appendix: The Principles of Recovery

1. Recovery is about building a meaningful and satisfying life, as defined by the person themselves, whether or not there are ongoing or recurring symptoms or problems.

2. Recovery represents a movement away from pathology, illness and symptoms to health, strengths and wellness.

3. Hope is central to recovery and can be enhanced by each person seeing how they can have more active control over their lives (‘agency’) and by seeing how others have found a way forward.

4. Self-management is encouraged and facilitated. The processes of self-management are similar, but what works may be very different for each individual. No ‘one size fits all’.

5. The helping relationship between clinicians and patients moves away from being expert / patient to being ‘coaches’ or ‘partners’ on a journey of discovery. Clinicians are there to be “on tap, not on top”.

6. People do not recover in isolation. Recovery is closely associated with social inclusion and being able to take on meaningful and satisfying social roles within local communities, rather than in segregated services.

7. Recovery is about discovering – or re-discovering – a sense of personal identity, separate from illness or disability.

8. The language used and the stories and meanings that are constructed have great significance as mediators of the recovery process. These shared meanings either support a sense of hope and possibility, or invite pessimism and chronicity.

9. The development of recovery-based services emphasises the personal qualities of staff as much as their formal qualifications. It seeks to cultivate their capacity for hope, creativity, care, compassion, realism and resilience.

10. Family and other supporters are often crucial to recovery and they should be included as partners wherever possible. However, peer support is central for many people in their recovery. Sources: Shepherd, G., Boardman, J., & Slade, M. (2008) Making Recovery a Reality. London:

SainsburyCentre for Mental Health. (Adapted from Recovery – Concepts and Application by Laurie Davidson, the Devon Recovery Group).