By placing lived experience at the centre of design, delivery, and improvement, SUE helps us create services that are both respectful and impactful.
SUE grew both in size and influence this year, with subcommittees forming across program areas to strengthen representation and bring targeted perspectives to service design.
SUE is now part of everyday practice at WCS. This year, service users and their support persons:
co-designed documents, policies, strategies, evaluations, resources, web pages, and programme reviews
• codesigned the development of the WCS Service User Engagement Commitment Statement
• participated in staff recruitment and selection processes
• partnered with staff through the Service User Advisory Committee to shape programmes directly.
Together, these initiatives strengthened the voice of people with lived experience at every level of WCS, ensuring our services are designed with, not just for, the community.
New SUE resources
To support consistent and meaningful engagement, we developed new SUE resources grounded in evidence and co-design principles. These include:
Introductory SUE training and induction for staff and service users
Practical co-design tools and evaluation methods
Resources to guide collaboration between service users, support persons, and staff.
Representing SUE across community
Our SUE Project Officer, Rachael, took on an expanded role within the broader community. She joined the ACT Government’s Lived Experience Leadership Working Group and other communities of practice, while also presenting at the MHS Conference on WCS’s approach to engaging service users in service design and delivery.
