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HSJ are delighted to invite Rosi Reed of Making Families Count to join the HSJ Patient Safety Congress 2024 Advisory Board.  The core focus of the Advisory Board is to work with the organisers to recommend content and speakers for the congress and ensure that the event provides the best possible platform to support improvements in patient safety in the UK. We have valued Rosi’s insights, guidance, support, and on-site chairing of sessions at the Congress and very much look forward to working with her in her new capacity.

Making Families Count invites Expressions of Interest from NHS Trusts to pilot eLearning modules and group-based resources in Jan/Feb 2024.  Trusts taking part in the pilot will be expected to work with the external evaluator for the project, to assist in the collection of monitoring data and also to demonstrate how the pilot fits with the Trusts’ Quality Improvement work. There is no charge to take part.   The Life Beyond the Cubicle learning resources have been developed by Making Families Count, in partnership with Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust, funded by NHS England.  The resources aim to educate and update staff on the importance of …

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Making Families Count is delighted to announce that David Smith has joined us as a Director. David is a family member with lived experience who has taken part in several MFC webinars as a speaker. He is insightful, knowledgeable, and highly experienced, and we know he will be a fantastic addition to our team of Directors. David says: “I am delighted to have been invited to join the Board of MFC. I hope the knowledge I have gained through my involvement with NHS services in working with families and carers, together with a lifetime working in the field of governance, …

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Making Families Count have delivered a range of webinars in partnership with Autism Oxford to Surrey County Council. The webinars have been focused on suicide prevention and autism, delivering training to a range of health and education staff in the County. We have provided the focus on families with lived experience of both autism and suicide prevention, and members of Making Families Count have delivered presentations in those webinars. Autism Oxford provided information about autism and the impact this might have on those who are diagnosed or not and may be considered neurodivergent. We know that around 700,000 people may …

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To mark World Patient Safety Day, Making Families Count and several NHS trusts have published a new handbook entitled “Compassionate communication, meaningful engagement” for all NHS staff. The handbook aims to improve collaboration with patients, their families and carers following a patient safety event. You can get more information and download the handbook here.

On Monday 18 and Tuesday 19 September 2023, the 16th HSJ Patient Safety Congress is being held in Manchester. With over 1,000 people attending, including 143 NHS Trusts and 19 ICS, it’s looking as if this year’s congress is going to have the largest attendance to date.  For the first time, Making Families Count is an official charity partner and we will be running a stand in the exhibitor’s hall. If you’re going to be coming to the congress, please come by and see us – we’d be delighted to meet new and old friends! On Monday 18 September MFC will be …

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MFC is working on a new project, filming family members talking about their experiences. We are calling this “Filming Family Voices” and so far we’ve recorded 6 short films. All the films are simply family members speaking about an aspect of their experience which they found profoundly traumatic, questions they have which have never been answered, or statements around what they’ve learned from their experiences. We’ll be using these films in various ways in our training and presentations. We’ll be continuing to make more films over the next few months until we’ve built up a unique and powerful library of films.  If …

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Making Families Count’s Rosi Reed will be speaking at The Royal College of Psychiatrists in London on 13 September 2023 at their SIRAN (Serious Incident Review Accreditation Network) event which is titled “Putting Safety at the Centre of Quality”.  Rosi will be speaking about the work of MFC; not only our training work but also the projects and the co-production work in her presentation “Poorly Managed Investigations and their Effect on Families”. For more information, visit the SIRAN event page.