NSUN 4PI

The 4Pi National Involvement Standards have been developed by the National Involvement Partnership (NIP) project, a partnership of organisations hosted by the National Survivor User Network (NSUN).

The idea behind the project is to ‘hard wire’ the service user and carer voice and experience into the planning, delivery and evaluation of health and social care services. The project aims to share good practice, centralise resources, strengthen existing networks and build an infrastructure that connects and coordinates the involvement of service users and carers throughout and beyond services.

The 4Pi framework has been developed by mental health service user and carers. The involvement of people with lived experience of mental distress and their carers and family members has formed the basis of the work. However, the framework has universal relevance: it is simply to enable services, organisations and individuals think about how to make involvement work well.’ (4Pi National Involvement Standards, Executive Summary, 2015)

The 4Pis are:

• Principle – Involvement benefits from the commitment to shared principles and values
• Purpose – Meaningful involvement needs to have a clear purpose against which it can be monitored
• Presence – ‘We can all be involved at all levels’
• Process – Involvement process must be carefully planned and thought through so that service users and carers can make the best possible contribution
• Impact – Involvement should lead to the improvement of services and the mental health and wellbeing of individual service users and carers