A Companion Guide for Planning with People

Supporting engagement with people who access alcohol and drug services 

The Companion Guide provides support to Health and Social Care Partnerships alongside Alcohol and Drug Partnerships to create meaningful, trauma informed and safe engagement when planning, designing and delivering services with people who have experience of alcohol and/or drug use. 

The Companion Guide should be read alongside Planning with People: community engagement and participation guidance to: 

  • Promote a human rights approach which is person centred and considers the needs of people who have experience of alcohol and/or drug use, as well as their family members and loved ones. 
  • Provide guidance to embed in ADP and HSCP structures, the engagement of people to influence developments across alcohol and drug services. 

The Charter of Rights for People Affected by Substance Use underpins this guide and highlights the importance of a trauma informed and human rights-based approach to ensure people are safeguarded, before, during and after engagement activities which drive improvement.

What does it do?

Supports Health and Social Care Partnerships (HSCP) and those designing and delivering services improve the way they engage with people who access alcohol and drug services and embed a human rights and trauma informed approach.

This Companion Guide should be read alongside Planning with People (2024). With each section including helpful links to support the application of this guide in practice, it aims to support the implementation of Planning with People for Alcohol and Drug Partnerships (ADP) across Scotland. This guide promotes safe and trauma informed engagement with people who experience alcohol and/or drug use as well as family members, carers and loved ones.

How it was developed

The Companion Guide has been developed with people with lived and living experience (people who have previous and/or current experience of substance use), Alcohol and Drug Partnerships, Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) and other key partners.

Who is it for?

Health and Social Care Partnerships alongside Alcohol and Drug Partnerships and other duty bearers such as senior leaders and commissioners. To embed engagement of people in HSCP and ADP structures to create meaningful, trauma informed and safe engagement when planning, designing and delivering services with people who have experience of alcohol and/or drug use alongside family members, carers and loved ones.

1. Companion guide key areas for engagement

  • Open and honest communication.
  • Embedding lived and living experience in service improvement and development.
  • Co-production/collaboration with relevant third sector and alcohol and drug recovery organisations.
  • Trauma informed and safeguarding approach.
  • Realistic expectations for individuals and staff members, including senior leaders.

2. Open and honest communication

People who experience alcohol and/or drug use can experience stigma and judgement, and it can be hard to build relationships and trust.

Open and honest communication between people and services can:

  • Build trusting relationships enabling positive outcomes.
  • Close the feedback loop, to share in an open, transparent and honest way in what the service can/cannot take forward from the start.
  • Show how their influence has made a difference to services development, empowering the individual.

Consideration for accessibility and language, ensuring resources and information are clear, easy to read and meets the needs of the person.

HIS engage – understanding potential barriers can help communication and engagement be transparent and accessible provides information to apply this in practice.

3. Collaborative working and being trauma informed

Trust and understanding are supported when services apply a trauma informed approach: Iriss Alcohol and drug use and trauma-informed practice. It is also important that people are safeguarded before, during and after the engagement through collaborative working with third sector and recovery organisations: Planning with People: Engaging with People.

They are good practice principles that support relationship building between public services and community/voluntary groups, promoting equal partnerships in decision making processes.

  • Set out realistic outcomes and implement feedback.
  • Keeping people psychologically safe before, during and after the engagement is essential for ongoing recovery and wellbeing. This HIS facilitator toolkit provides practical support and guidance.

4. Charter of Rights

Alongside the importance of a trauma informed and human rights-based approach when engaging, the Charter of Rights for People Affected by Substance Use in Scotland  should be considered to overcome barriers and stigma people face when accessing alcohol and drug support, and other health and social care services. This should be acknowledged and actioned by commissioners and service providers.

The Charter of Rights has been developed by the National Collaborate and offers:

  • Practical guidance to duty bearers on how to implement the Charter to improve the delivery of services The Charter in practice.
  • Practical guidance for individuals to understand the support they are entitled to so they can participate in decisions Know your rights.

5. Involvement of family members and loved ones

It is important that family members, carers and loved ones are supported to feedback about their experiences. Family members can also feel they experience stigma, are not listened to and misunderstood by services providers.

Family members should feel understood and empowered to share their experience, and a trauma informed approach with collaborative engagement should be applied. Please see Scottish Families Affected by Alcohol and Drugs, My Family, My Rights for further information and support on the issues and barriers family member/ carers and loved ones face.

6. Feedback to drive improvement

It is important that services are person led to ensure they meet the needs of those accessing them. People’s

experience should be at the heart of service design and improvement and feed into reporting structures. People-led – Healthcare Improvement Scotland provides information and practical support for applying a person led approach to service improvement.

Involving people meaningfully can support the reduction of stigma, increase understanding, and empower people who access alcohol and drug services (as well as their family members/carers and loved ones).

When applying this guidance, organisations and services should evaluate how they involve and engage with people. Further support and information can be found here How to use Planning with People .

7. When should I use this companion guide

The guidance applies when decisions are being made about planning, designing and delivering health and social care services. This includes service change or redesign and involves staff who design services, those delivering services and those with a role in engagement.

It is important to consider the role of senior leadership and strategic implementation of engagement, ensuring that the principles within this guide and throughout Planning with People are taken forward to achieve meaningful engagement.

8. Good practice engagement tools and guidance

Information to support this guidance can be found in:

Further guidance and advice:

  • HIS offers advice to NHS boards and Integration Joint Boards to support their public engagement and will check if a board’s engagement on health service changes or redesign fairly meets the requirements set out in Planning with People guidance.
  • You can find out more about Planning with People and the HIS role here hisengage.scot/service-change/  or contact his.engageservicechange@nhs.scot
  • HIS Engagement Practice Learning and Improvement System (EPLIS)provides opportunities for networking, support, learning and advice for HSCP staff Improving Engagement Practice – Healthcare Improvement Scotland. Further engagement information and tools can be found on HIS Community Engagement and Transformational Change Website www.hisengage.scot.

9. Other helpful information

National support organisations include: