An interactive touch screen feedback system, designed by 1,000 Birmingham school pupils, has been unveiled at a key centre for children’s health services in the city.
Fifteen primary and secondary schools took part in the two-year project, which gave children aged between seven and 14 the opportunity to determine the content and design of an interactive, computer-based system enabling young people to give instant opinions and ratings about the quality of service they have received.
The first feedback system of its kind in healthcare, it was unveiled at Birmingham Community Healthcare NHS Trust’s Carnegie Centre in Hockley, where it will be used by ‘looked after children’ attending clinics to give feedback.
Through role play, design work and discussion, school pupils across the city drove the conception of the system by describing their experiences as healthcare service users and the type of features, such as touch screen inputting and special applications for pupils with learning difficulties, that would encourage them to give immediate feedback.
The project was delivered in partnership between BCHC and the non-profit social enterprise Reflective Learning-International, whose director Prof Tony Ghaye said: “The aim was to find a systematic and confidential way to encourage young people to tell us about their experience of healthcare services and then use the information to drive improvement.
“The core principal was that the design and content of the feedback system should be based upon what children and young people wanted to tell us, which could be quite different from what we think we want to know.
“As a result, the whole look, feel and content of the system reflect what young people want to tell adults. It’s the real voices of young people; it’s quick to use, fun to do and gives adults vital information. It is fully animated with an audio option and data can be fed back to healthcare staff in realtime”
