User Engagement Strategy

About this document

This is the NHS Business Services Authority’s (NHSBSA) policy and procedure on user engagement in relation to the production of the Medicines Used in Mental Health (MUMH) – England publications.

This document will be reviewed and updated once a year to ensure that it remains current and relevant. Updates will be made to the MUMH England statistics after major changes. This includes acting upon public feedback, updates to the NHS BSA company guidance, guidance from other organisations, or government regulations.

Section 1: Introduction

In line with the United Kingdom Statistics Authority (UKSA) Code of Practice for Statistics the NHSBSA strives to provide accurate, timely, relevant and easily accessible statistics to all our users. The statistical publications we release will be of high quality, worthy of trust, and of value to support understanding of the important issues.
We recognise the importance of feedback from our customers/users to make sure that our statistical publications meet their needs. Our customer service commitment and customer engagement procedures for all our Statistics publications are set out in the Statistics at NHSBSA Customer Service and User Engagement Policy.
This document details our engagement strategy for publication of the Medicines Used in Mental Health England (MUMH) Statistical publications. MUMH is an annual and quarterly summary publication. The annual release will usually be published in July each year, which will cover up to the preceding financial year. A quarterly release will also be published four times a year, approximately three months behind the data period it relates to, for example a release in March would cover up to the previous December.

Section 2: Our Customers

The NHSBSA Customer Service and User Engagement Policy identifies broad customer/user groups of our statistics. The MUMH England statistical publication specifically includes (but is not limited to) individuals in the following groups:

• Ministers and officials in Government departments including the Department for Health and Social Care, and NHS England & Improvement
• Policy advisors for Community Pharmacy and Primary Care
• Analysts in Government departments and Arm’s Length Bodies
• Primary Care and Community Pharmacy Commissioners
• Commissioning Support Units (CSUs)
• The media and external commentators
• Academics and Applied researchers in the fields of health and social care research including pharmacy and pharmaceuticals
• The pharmaceutical industry including business analysts and strategists in manufacturing and sales
• Businesses offering data analytics and business intelligence solutions for the healthcare and pharmaceutical sectors
• Non-profit organisations providing data analytics and business intelligence solutions for the healthcare sector and the public
• Members of the public

We recognise that there are potential users of the MUMH England statistics that have not been mentioned. As part of our customer engagement activities, we will continue to improve our understanding of who our customers/users and potential customers/users of the MUMH England Statistics are. We will also seek to build upon our understanding of how customers/users use the MUMH Statistics so that we can make sure the publication continues to meet their needs.

Given the diversity of our customer base, we recognise that it will include several unique customer types each with their own goals, behaviours and motivators.

We aim to build our statistics products to ensure they meet the needs of our range of customers. We also communicate and engage with our customers/users in a number of ways. This helps us to ensure that all our customers/users can receive updates from us and share their views. This helps us fulfil our promise to ensure a wide range of interactions with all of our customers. The following section of this publication outlines the precise processes and channels for communication.

Section 3: MUMH England Customer Engagement Plan

Engaging with our Existing Customers

We recognise that our customers/users will have different needs and we therefore use a range of methods to communicate and engage with them, as explained in our Customer Service and User Engagement policy. In line with this, we use the following methods specifically:

• Communicate with external customers/users via our website and social media channels
• Customers/users can contact us by email and mail
• Meet regularly with internal customers/users
• Hold regular engagement sessions for the public, think tanks, professional associations and charities in the pharmaceutical and prescribing sector, and the media and commentators

Details of these methods and what we do in response to communications from users are provided below. Regular communication with our external MUMH Statistics customers/users will be via the NHSBSA website and social media channels. These communications will inform customers/users of the latest MUMH England statistics releases, upcoming engagement events, public consultations and any other news. MUMH Statistics customers/users can contact the NHSBSA statistics team at any time with questions or queries, to request support or just to let us know who they are and how they use the MUMH England statistics. Contact can be made via:

• Email to the NHSBSA Statistics mailbox:
• Postal Mail: Statistical Publication Lead, NHS Business Services Authority, Stella House, Goldcrest Way, Newburn Riverside, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE15 8NY
• Social Media Channels including twitter

These contact details are available on the NHSBSA statistics webpage and are included in the Customer Service and User Engagement Policy document. Alternatively, customers/users can contact the responsible statistician for the MUMH publication, these contact details can be found on the MUMH Publication itself.
Communication channels (including email, mail, social media) will be checked regularly (at least every 48 hours) and where appropriate an NHSBSA statistician will respond to customers/users on an individual basis.

We recognise that many customers/users may not come directly to the NHSBSA to access MUMH England statistics but rather are presented with them via third parties such as the news media, charitable organisations, and other commentators. For this reason, we invest time in engaging with these groups that distribute statistics to wide audiences. We maintain a register of media contacts and commentators in the areas of statistics, prescribing, health and pharmaceuticals as well as key think tanks, professional associations, and charities with interests in pharmaceuticals and prescribing. All feedback, queries and requests received will be documented and recorded in a secure manner. All received records will be reviewed in a timely manner, at a minimum this will be done twice a year before the bi-annual user groups taking place.This is so that any newly discovered themes or issues which would benefit from further exploration can be discussed during the user groups.

“Individual records will be stored in line with internal data governance policies and General Data Protection Regulation”

Members of the NHSBSA statistics team will then meet to discuss the feedback received via both the user groups and other communication channels and use it to guide any planned amendments or improvements to the MUMH England statistics methodology, format of the publication and wider service provision. A summary of the feedback received, and resulting actions taken or planned will be published on the NHSBSA website.Feedback will be used to create, update, and maintain a customer map and our understanding of a number of user profiles.This includes understanding details about our customers/users demographics, the purposes for which they use the MUMH England statistics, and any user demands or pain points. These will be used as tools to help support and improve business understanding of our customers/users.

Engaging New and Potential Customers

The processes described above should ensure that existing customers/users are able to receive communication from, and reach out to, the NHSBSA Statistics team in a way and at a time that suits them. Additional activities will be conducted in order to continue to identify existing and potential customers/users of the MUMH England statistics. These include:

• Review of FOIs, data requests and data analytics initiatives
• Google alerts
• Meetings with NHSBSA colleagues
• Meetings with colleagues in NHS organisations and DHSC

We will regularly review Freedom of Information (FOI) requests, chargeable and non-chargeable Data Requests and Data Analytics Initiatives to look for common trends and individuals making repeat requests in order to identify individuals who may be interested in the MUMH England statistics. Where these individuals have provided consent for the NHSBSA to contact them we will then reach out to them to explore their needs and requirements and how these might be addressed by the MUMH England Publication or the wider NHSBSA statistics service.
To keep track of media coverage of the MUMH England statistics and prescribing data, Google alerts will be set up. Identifying commentators who use the MUMH England statistics and/or write about prescribing will be made possible by doing this. Where contact details are available, we will reach out to the individuals identified to explore their needs and requirements.
We will regularly work with colleagues in the NHSBSA Insight directorate and Prescriptions Services teams to identify new users who may become apparent because of their ongoing work in user research, customer insight, and stakeholder engagement. The knowledge gained from these activities will be used to update our customer/user map and personas.

Section 4: Contact Us

Feedback is important to us; we welcome any questions and comments relating to this document.
Please quote ‘Medicines Used in Mental Health User Engagement Policy’ in the subject title of any correspondence.

You can contact us by:

Email:

You can also write to us at:

NHSBSA - Statistics
NHS Business Services Authority
Stella House
Goldcrest Way
Newburn Riverside
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE15 8NY

END