Both service users & staff feel the community signposting service makes a difference to themselves & others in the community & they are enthusiastic about it.
Community signposting services collect engagement feedback, but have difficulty showing long-term impacts.
Providers demonstrate passion & commitment to delivering their service for service users.
Providers review involvement with service users (before & after) to understand if the service has met their needs & also collect their feedback.
All services have challenges demonstrating long-term impacts for service users.
Providers report job satisfaction & feel confident about their service’s aim. Service users indicate positive service experiences & are thankful for the quality of service they were provided with.
“It’s all that anecdotal feedback and the case studies, & the seeing somebody after, […]. They definitely don’t transform their life suddenly, but it makes a little difference & that’s all we can hope to do. […] all I have to do is sit in with the clinic, or with the client, or talk to a social prescriber to remind me that this is the power of it, really. Because the statistics, the reports & the data, they don’t really say anything.“ – Signposter
What to consider
Collecting feedback is important in understanding how community signposting services can impact service users during & after their engagement. Some funding should be allocated to support collecting feedback.
This can also support better practice within the service by staff, volunteers & linked providers. Based on our research, you might want to consider the following strategies to help make use of opportunities & avoid similar problems in sustaining your service:
Share data between providers to fully support people during service engagement (+)
What to do
When commissioning services, explore subscribing to the same systems as linked providers. This makes data-sharing possible to track service users’ engagement.
How to do it
Providers use shared reports to monitor service user engagement/delivery.
What changes
Service meets people’s needs.
Can be delivered in practice.
Service user-focused.
Improve service based on people’s feedback after service engagement & share between providers (+)
What to do
Create opportunities for service users to give feedback. Share service user data between providers to improve services & review impacts on service users.
How to do it
Survey & provide supportive conversations to encourage service user feedback. Track referral volumes & review impacts on service users to share findings with providers.
What changes
Shorter waits for service.
Service meets people’s needs.
Delivered as intended.
Service can be kept going.
Service user-focused.