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Adult social care and support

Your voice matters to Adult Social Care

Find out how you can get involved in helping to shape local services

Your lived experience can help us design services that meet people’s needs.

Co-production means ‘a relationship where professionals and citizens share power to plan and deliver support together, recognising that both have vital contributions to make in order to improve quality of life for people and communities’ (Social Care Institute for Excellence).

Co-production is also:

  • ethos: the values that guide what we believe in and how we act
  • approach: how we do things and work with others, based on our ethos

Co-production can include:

  • being part of a group that helps guide decisions
  • helping with training, supporting others, or helping new staff
  • sharing your ideas on written work or helping to create new services

One of the main ideas of co-production is “reciprocity”. This means we value the work you do.

Depending on the activity, we may offer:

  • payments like money or a gift vouchers
  • a non-financial thank you like:
    • a card
    • or written reference to help with job applications

Our Guide to co-production for lived experience experts shows:

how people with real-life experience can help us plan and improve services

The guide is also available in alternative formats.

Surrey Coalition of Disabled People groups

They work with us to make sure disabled residents have a voice. They run groups that talk about local social care and health matters. Groups include:

Groups are open to adults with disabilities and their carers. To find out more contact Surrey Coalition of Disabled People on:

Independent Mental Health Network

They work together with NHS services to improve care. You can join this group if you:

  • are over 18 years old with lived experience of mental ill health
  • care for someone with mental ill health

To find out more and join:

FoCUS (Forum of Carers and People Who Use our Services)

Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (SABP) have 4 FoCUS groups. These are for people who use the Trust's services and people who care for them:

  • mental health
  • learning disability
  • drug and alcohol

Groups meet quarterly to:

  • get the latest news from the Trust
  • give feedback or share concerns about services

Surrey Coalition of Disabled People run these independent groups.

To join contact:

Surrey People's Group

A Surrey-wide network for people with learning disabilities.

At the group people can:

  • share their views and experiences
  • talk about what matters to them
  • work together to make things better

To join contact:

Autism Reference Group

A group for autistic adults. They meet 4 times a year to talk about things like:

  • employment
  • housing
  • health and social care services

To find out more or to join the group:

Surrey Minority Ethnic Forum (SMEF)

Share the views of people from different ethnic groups and organisations:

  • Surrey County Council
  • district and borough councils
  • Surrey Police
  • business and local charities

As a member you can help make local services better. To take part:

Giving Carers a Voice

Luminus work with carers of any age to get your experience of being a carer.

To get involved contact:

Young Carers Forums

A group for young carers aged 18 or under to share what they think about the support they get. To get involved contact:

Healthwatch Surrey

They want to hear from you if you have used health or care services. You can share your experience using their online form.

For more information contact:

Feedback on NHS services

Our local NHS partners are looking for people to help improve health services in their area. Find out how to get involved with:

Website: Get involved ICB - Surrey and Sussex

Another way to take part is in consultations. You can find current ones at:

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