1. Name

The name of the group shall be The East Staffordshire District Patient Engagement Group.

2. Mission Statement

The objective of the group is to enable patient representatives, from each of the PPG’s within the East Staffordshire area, to come together and discuss areas of good practice and those of concern so that meaningful discussion can be held across the whole spectrum of East Staffordshire GP surgeries. This expectantly will lead to the provision of consistent high quality medical care and services for all patients within East Staffordshire.

3. Aims

The main aims of the group are:

• To be a forum for discussion on both good practice and that of concern that may exist within the different surgeries within East Staffordshire.
• To provide assistance to those PPG’s who are just starting up and wish to learn / have input from those already established groups.
• To promote PPG’s to meet with other like-minded patients of their surgery, the doctors and practice staff, to encourage the wellbeing of patients’ and support the practice to provide a high quality of care and service
• A forum where policies and decisions issued by the ESCCG and other outside bodies can be discussed with concerns or otherwise being sent up to the ESCCG Patient Board who, after discussion, can add their comments and feed through to the ESCCG Board. The opposite can also happen with the ESCCG passing down information that they would welcome the patient perspective / views.

4. Membership

• Membership of the group shall be open to those patients’ that have been elected by each individual PPG to represent that PPG at the District Patient Engagement Group meetings.
• Each PPG can send more than one member, but no more than three, to the meetings.
• In the event of the meeting requiring a members’ vote on a particular course of action then each PPG present shall have only one vote from its members present.
• The membership of any individual PPG representative may be terminated for good reason that is agreed by all the other members present, (for instance abusive behavior, constant disruption of the meeting). In this case the PPG will be informed in writing who the person was and the reasons for exclusion. Naturally that PPG will be allowed to send another representative to future meetings.
• Membership shall also include a representative(s) from Health-Related Support Group(s). The Group(s) / Representative(s) will require the consent from the majority of the members and will be allowed to be on the District Group on a twelve-month rolling basis. They will have no voting rights and may at times be asked to leave a meeting if any confidential / sensitive matters are to be discussed by the membership. During the twelve- month tenure their attendance at the District Group meetings can be revoked if the membership so wishes. After the twelve months the Support Group / Representative(s) can reapply to continue for a further twelve months.

5. Conflicts of Interest

• Members of the District Group must declare any conflicts of interest to the Chair and in their absence the Vice Chair in an open meeting. This proviso includes the Chair and Vice Chair
• If both the Chair and Vice Chair are conflicted for part or all of a meeting, an alternative Chair will be nominated from within the membership.
• The same applies to the representatives from the Health-Related Support Groups.

6. Meetings

• Meetings will be held at least 4 times a year and notice of meetings will be given at least 7 days beforehand. Meetings may be held on a more frequent basis on agreement of the group. Dates of the main meetings will be sent to all PPG representatives at the start of each calendar year.
• A draft copy of the group’s minutes and action plan will be made available to the group members within 14 working days of the meeting. The members will then have 5 working days to read the minutes and raise any anomalies with the Secretary so they can be rectified. If the minutes had to be rectified within the 5 days, then the revised minutes will be discussed with the Chair before issue to the rest of the membership indicating why they have been revised.
• After this time the draft minutes / revised draft minutes will be forwarded to the East Staffordshire Practice Managers. It will be stressed that these are DRAFT papers and should be kept between themselves, their Practice and their PPG members until they are ratified by the members at the next District meeting.
• As regards the Health-Related Support Group(s) / Representatives they will also receive copies, under the same circumstances, of the draft minutes and any revised drafts of such. However, they are not allowed to distribute these until they have been fully ratified by the membership at the next meeting.

7. Meetings

• The group will be chaired by a PPG representative, known as the Chair. There also will be an elected Vice Chair and Secretary.
• The above officers will be appointed annually by the group. This normally will take place at the first meeting of the year.
• If an elected officer, for whatever reason, resigns during the year then the Group can elect an interim person for that position who can then put themselves up for election at the next annual election.
• Existing elected officers are allowed to reapply for election but can only serve a maximum 3years continuous tenure in any one elected position.
• If after the 3 years’ continuous tenure, in an elected position, there is no other PPG representative wishing to stand for that position the members can re-elect the current incumbent, if that person is willing to stay in that position.
• Meetings will be held at an agreed venue and will be held to suit the convenience of most of the members.
• The Secretary will attend meetings to take the minutes and after consultation with the Chair organise the agendas and paperwork.
• All members will be invited to raise items for the agenda by contacting the Secretary prior to the meeting. If the Secretary is unable to attend the meeting, then one of the group members’ present will be nominated to take minutes of the proceedings.
• All members, including representatives from health-related support groups, will be expected to respect rules of confidentiality and not discuss personal or sensitive information outside a meeting.

8. Quorum and decision-making at meetings

A quorum will consist of at least 5 members, one of which must be one of the elected officers. The Group will aim wherever possible to reach a decision by consensus. Where this is not possible the view held by the majority of those present will be the view that is agreed and taken forward by the group. In the event of a draw the Chair shall have the casting vote.

9. Code of Conduct and Confidentiality

All members will abide by the Code of Conduct and adhere to the Confidentiality agreement. Both documents to be signed on an annual basis.

Revised Constitution July 2018 Agreed by the East Staffordshire District Patient Engagement Group on Thursday 27th September 2018