Working collaboratively and witnessing democracy in action

Jacqui Dyer is an independent health and social care consultant with lived experience. She is also president of the Mental Health Foundation (UK), an elected local councillor, chair of Lambeth's Black Thrive Partnership, director of Black Thrive Global, and a mental health equalities advisor for NHS England and Health Education England. 

As vice-chair of England's Mental Health Taskforce, she helped develop the Five Year Forward View for Mental Health for NHS England and its transformation of mental health service policy and provision. In 2023, she helped develop and roll out the Patient and Carer Race Equality Framework, NHS England's first-ever anti-racism framework. She is a member of Sciana's fourth cohort.

Ahead of her appearance at Salzburg Global Weekend in 2023, Jacqui reflected on her experience as a Sciana Fellow and Salzburg Global Fellow.

What Sciana and the Salzburg Global Fellowship did for me was provide a space where I could think outside of those collaborative relationships I have in England in doing this work. In a way, the Fellowship has run parallel to me leading this work. 

It's built my confidence as a leader in this work, really strengthening some of the lenses that I use in terms of working in partnerships and collaboratively, much more confidently. It helped me develop languages to explain what it is that we do in a way that I would never have been able to do, really helping me to actually explain the Patient and Carer Race Equality Framework from a participatory approach perspective. 

When we were talking about social contracts and reimagining social contracts in Sciana, that's exactly what it is that I'm doing, and I have a language to explain it conceptually and practically, other than what it is that I had before. I would not have been so equipped to be able to explain it in a multitude of ways, at many different levels, with a range of audiences. That's one of the things that's been really, really helpful for me. 

The range of participants in the programmes has added great value and dimension to how I've been thinking about the potentiality of this framework to reach into other areas. For example, I submitted a draft report to the London Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime after I led a consultation and spoke with Black communities on how to improve police accountability, scrutiny, and accountability. Developing our recommendations from this consultation is getting into democracy as I imagine democracy is supposed to be.  

I'm not the font of all knowledge. What I am helping to do is facilitate processes and lead processes where the value of those voices is taken as essential in helping to shape what the problem is and actually articulate what some of the solutions would be. Those people then have an equitable relationship with system stakeholders in negotiating what needs to emerge. 

We pulled together a series of recommendations to develop a race equity accountability framework and anti-racism framework. I've been able to use the Patient and Carer Race Equality Framework as a similar framework to put in the recommendations for scrutiny and accountability of the police. 

That framework and the recommendations have informally been agreed upon. It's something that can be replicated, but, for me, it's about getting out there these first few versions, and then we go from there because we want them to work. The appetite of communities involved in actually doing this work is the first sign of hope they've ever had. It's democracy at the front line. It's democracy in action. 

I think it's actually through my own lived experience why I'm so furious that the system's been so lazy in addressing these issues. For me, it's not impossible. It cannot be impossible with all that we're capable of as humanity when we're on top of our game that we cannot resolve and address the situation. It's about operating in the realm of the possible. What we can do collectively to act on racism is really what the nub of this issue is about, and that is democracy in action. 

The difficulty is the resistance to understanding that racism really is embedded in the policies, procedures, habits, behaviours, and the culture. Every element of what makes up a society, racism is embedded in that, and unless you name it and unless you look at how it's in operation, how are you going to develop strategies and actions to counter that and remove it so that we've got a just society that is really dealing with equity and good outcomes, where people can flourish and thrive? 

I'm really coming from a very hopeful place because I know that this is not a solo journey. This is about a collective effort. So, I'm looking for who else can come on board to help me because quite frankly, the only way that I've managed to achieve the scale of this work is by working collaboratively with others. 

I can't bear for my neighbours, my family, my community, and society to operate in a way which is so dehumanising. I can't bear it. I can't live with it. So, for me, I've got to be active in how I can help to make it different and how I can work with others to do that. It's only in collaboration that that takes place. 

I get motivated every meeting that I have with how we're progressing it, and the most wonderful meetings that I have are actually with service users, carers, and communities who now feel valued, empowered, involved, and influential in reimagining and shaping what services they need in order to respond to them when they're at their most vulnerable. 

You're giving populations an opportunity to flourish and thrive because they're getting what they actually need. We value the professions, but the professions need to learn from the populations that they serve, and the populations that are being served need to learn from the professions. All of that creates an alchemy of infinite possibilities. 

This article was authored by Sciana Fellow Jacqui Dyer. The views and opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily represent the views of their organisation(s), Sciana: The Health Leaders Network, nor those of the Sciana Network's three funding foundations.