What We Do - Strategic Aim 4

To promote best practice in patient and public participation in the planning, delivery, monitoring of health care in Scotland.

• VHS promotes effective participation by patients, carers and the public in health policy and services.

• We work with the voluntary and community sector, in particular with CVSs, to secure public engagement in CHPs through their Public Partnership Fora (PPFs).

• We work in partnership with national bodies such as the Scottish Government Health & Wellbeing Directorate's Patient Focus Public Involvement Unit and NHS bodies - Quality Improvement Scotland (QIS), the Scottish Medicines Consortium, The Scottish Health Council, NHS 24 - to secure public engagement through the VHS membership, including patient interest groups.

• We keep watch on NHS performance on partnership with patients, the public and the voluntary and community health sector through the NHS accountability review process - in particular the PAF5 returns.

• In all our work on patient and public involvement we place key emphasis on the requirements of the NHS Equality and Diversity agenda, encouraging participation by marginalised and hard-to-reach groups through the voluntary and community sector.