“Making Families Count training is the most powerful training session I have attended. It has left a lasting impact on me and made me think differently about working with families.”
Samantha Allen, Chief Executive, Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust
After 5 years of running our face-to-face training very successfully around the country, we have also moved into online training.
We are bringing the same uniquely informed, hard-hitting and impactful training, but the online format allows us to focus on particular issues. We have created a series of excellent new training films to use as part of our online training.
Upcoming Webinars
11 May 2021 – Using positive family engagement to transform NHS serious incident investigations – FULLY BOOKED
22 June 2021 – Duty of Candour – why does it matter to families?
30 June 2021 – Family Liaison Officers – the future of family support after NHS incidents?
13 July 2021 – Using positive family engagement to transform NHS serious incident investigations
For more details, see below.
“Duty of Candour – why does it matter to families?“
Date: Tuesday 22 June 2021
Time: 12.30pm – 2.00pm
Price: £25
Since 2014, Duty of Candour has been a statutory duty and should be used with patients and families when something has gone wrong which has caused or could lead to significant harm, but many staff are still unsure how and when to use it after a serious incident.
Led by Jan Sunman (Chair of Directors, Making Families Count), this webinar focuses on the importance of using Duty of Candour correctly, understanding its uses and the difference it can make to patients and families.
- Presenters: Peter Walsh (Chief Executive, AvMA) and Lucien Champion (Head of Investigations, NHS England South)
- All participants will receive supporting information, resources and a tool kit after the webinar.
Learning Outcomes
- You will have improved learning and greater confidence around the delivery of the Duty of Candour.
- You will have a greater understanding of how correct use of Duty of Candour can greatly affect patients and their families, following a serious incident or investigation.
- You will have a greater understanding of where patient confidentiality, legal frameworks and Duty of Candour sit in your organisation and how to meet the necessary criteria.
- You will have greater confidence in knowing when, why and how you are using Duty of Candour, leading to improved learning and identification of issues in incident management.
- You will have improved learning around the importance of a collaborative incident investigation process that is thoughtful, compassionate and supportive to families and staff.
- This learning reinforces the conclusions in the CQC (2016) report “Learning, Candour and Accountability” and the guidelines of NHS “Learning from Deaths” guidance 2018.
“Family Liaison Officers – the future of family support after NHS incidents?“
Date: Wednesday 30 June 2021
Time: 12.30pm – 2.00pm
Price: £25
There are over 10,000 serious incidents in healthcare each year. Patients and families frequently feel that the NHS does not liaise with them in a supportive and helpful manner after these incidents.
Led by Jan Sunman (Chair of Directors, Making Families Count), this webinar focusses on the role of meaningful family liaison in the NHS and the growing role of Family Liaison Officers within NHS Trusts.
- Presenters: Michelle Covarrubias Barber (Patient and Family Liaison Officer for Cambridge and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust) and Louise Pye (Head of Family Engagement for HSIB).
- All participants will receive supporting information, resources and a tool kit after the webinar.
Learning Outcomes
- You will have a more developed understanding of the role of Family Liaison work within an NHS setting.
- You will have improved learning around the different models of FLO work in healthcare which will assist you in knowing if Family Liaison work is right for you and right for your organisation.
- You will have more understanding of how to work well with harmed patients and families when things go wrong and in serious incident investigations.
- You will have more insight and understanding of what family liaison can entail, not only in healthcare, but also in the more established police FLO model.
- You will have a greater understanding of why many people currently working in healthcare see the establishment of Family Liaison Departments as essential for better patient care.
- This learning reinforces the guidelines of NHS “Learning from Deaths” guidance 2018.
“Using positive family engagement to transform NHS serious incident investigations“
Date: Tuesday 13 July 2021
Time: 12.30pm – 2.00pm
Price: £25
In NHS Patient Safety Investigation, “families are often ‘managed’ rather than treated as central to the process, despite holding key evidence and information.” (NHSi 2018)
Led by Jan Sunman (Chair of Directors, Making Families Count), this webinar focusses on understanding the transformative difference positive family engagement can make to patients, their families and staff, when used correctly by healthcare providers, both from first contact and during investigations if a serious incident occurs.
- Presenters: Stephen Habgood (Director, Making Families Count and Papyrus, Prevention of Young Suicide) and Frank Mullane (CEO of AAFDA and member of Making Families Count).
- All participants will receive supporting information, resources and a tool kit after the webinar.
Learning Outcomes
- After the webinar, you will have an improved understanding of how to engage with patients and families in a positive way following a serious incident.
- You will have improved learning and identification of the issues around working with patients and families in incident management.
- You will have a more developed understanding of how and why a collaborative incident investigation, involving patients and families better, achieves a better investigation.
- You will be more confident in engaging in a process that is more thoughtful, compassionate and supportive towards families and other staff members.
- You will have a better understanding and more confidence having difficult conversations with families.
- This webinar enables healthcare organisations to develop a more time-efficient and cost-effective investigation process.
Refund policy
You can find our refund policy here.
About Making Families Count
Making Families Count are one of the leading training organisations in positive family engagement for healthcare providers. We believe engaging with families well in serious investigations can be transformative for both the families, the investigation process and the outcomes.
Making Families Count was created as an NHS England South pilot project in 2015 and as an independent, not-for-profit Community Interest Company at the start of 2019. We are a unique training company as the trainers and healthcare professionals who make up MFC have direct lived experience and professional expertise in serious incident investigations, acute mental health services, social care services, suicide, mental health homicide, the premature deaths of people with learning disabilities, deaths in acute care and fatal domestic abuse.
Our trainers are recognised experts in their respective fields, also working as advisors for organisations as varied as HSIB, NICE, NHSE, LeDeR, the Nursing Midwifery Council, National Institute of Health Research, NHS Independent Investigations Governance Committee and the Ministry of Justice.
Making Families Count’s combined experience gives us a uniquely powerful understanding of the importance of positive family engagement in health and social care, from first contact and during serious incident investigations.
Guest Presenters
Peter Walsh
Chief Executive, Action against Medical Accidents
Peter is Chief Executive of Action against Medical Accidents (AvMA – the charity for patient safety and justice). One of the earliest changes Peter brought about was a change of name from “Action for Victims of Medical Accidents” to “Action against Medical Accidents” and rebranding, including the strapline “for patient safety & justice”. He regularly writes, speaks and advises government departments and NHS and private healthcare organisations on patient safety and justice issues. Peter led AvMA’s work as a core participant in the Mid Staffordshire Public Inquiry, and one of his best-known achievements has been leading the charity’s successful campaign for a legal “Duty of Candour”. Previously, Peter held leading positions in the voluntary sector and Community Health Councils. Other positions currently held:
- World Health Organisation “Patients for Patient Safety Champion”
- Editorial Advisory Board of the Journal of Patient Safety & Risk Management
Michelle Covarrubias Barber
Patient and Family Liaison Officer, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust
Michelle began her career in America, where she studied medicine after gaining a scholarship. After discovering that her studies were not valid in this country, she gained a Paramedic Degree as well as a Biomedical Sciences Degree specializing in Microbiology. She has worked in NHS acute Trusts for most of her working life, and after working in a laboratory for a few years, she gained a qualification and worked in Service Redesign/ Improvement until 2017. She has been able to remove unnecessary activities and change processes to reduce the time it takes for patients to be treated or test results to be available in many Trusts across the Country. Her greatest achievement in this field was to reduce the time it took for people referred to Trusts as potential breast cancer patients to get the results of their investigations and get treatment from 28 weeks to less than 6 weeks.
Michelle then began another chapter of her career gaining employment as one of the first Patient and Family Liaison Officers in a Mental health Trust. It was immediately apparent that no guidance or training existed for this role. She decided to do some research and talk to representatives of other Trusts which had either just advertised or just appointed individuals to similar roles and decided to form the Family Liaison Forum. Here, attendees can inform best practice and share knowledge, experiences information, documentation and seek peer support. The forum also suggests training packages to ensure all FLOs provide the highest level of support.
Louise Pye
Head of Family Engagement, Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch (HSIB)
HSIB’s purpose is to conduct independent investigations of patient safety concerns in NHS funded care across England. Central to this is the effective support of patients and families to engage with investigations to share their insights.
Lou is the Head of Family Engagement for HSIB where her work involves developing, implementing, maintaining and reviewing the family engagement processes for HSIB investigations across both the national and maternity programmes.
Before she joined HSIB, Lou served as an officer in the police force for 30 years, where she specialised for 20 years in the field of family liaison. This involved working with many families during complex investigations and also being responsible for training, advising and supporting a team of officers.
Lou also managed a team of these specially trained officers who worked with families following mass fatality incidents.
Lou was recognised for her work in the Queens New Year Honours (2017).