As a Trust we encourage service users and carers to join the Service User and Carer Council (SUCC) who can use their lived experience to help shape our services across Lancashire and South Cumbria.

Service users and their families are experts in understanding what is needed thanks to their own experience of mental distress or physical ill health. It's vital that members of SUCC to feel empowered to help develop services by inviting volunteers to give their views and be an active member of the council.

Meetings may be held face-to-face or virtually.

Find out more about our Service User and Carer Council and how to join. 

Network Service User and Carer Councils

We have SUCCs in your area. You can find out more about what each area provides below.

Service users and carers are experts by experience; equally, their judgments may be informed by the care they witness others receiving. Their experiences empower them to be meaningfully involved in discussions about quality, experience, and service improvement. 

The Central and West Lancashire Service User and Carers Council Forum welcomes and values all our current and new members. Our members are experts by experience, representatives of LSCFT services, Healthwatch, Community Roots and our Patient Experience Team. 

Our purpose:  

  • Learn from experts by experience and feedback to improve services. 

  • Engage and co-produce service processes and policies for a continuously improving experience of care.  

  • Promote and share engagement activity. 

  • Spread 'You Said We Did' across community services. 

  • Build on the carer ‘triangle of care’ accreditation in our wards and community services. 

  • Encourage service users and carers to join our council and help us improve. 

Chairs: Lorna Pink and Vicky Smith  

Get involved: If you would like to find out more, come along to our next meeting which takes place via Microsoft Teams and/or venues in Central Lancashire. Please get in touch via the Patient Experience Team and/or the Council Chairs: lorna.pink@lscft.nhs.uk, Vicky.Smith@lscft.nhs.uk. 

The SUCC forum is on the first Wednesday of every alternate month.  

Venue details: Community Roots, Lowthorpe Road, Deepdale, Preston, PR1 6SB. The entrance is between the South Executive Entrance of the football stadium and the Minerva Health Centre. There is the option to join via Teams.  

2026 dates

Wednesday 04 March 2026, 10:00 - 11:30 

Wednesday 06 May 2026, 10:00 - 11:30 

Wednesday 01 July 2026, 10:00 - 11:30 

Wednesday 02 Sept 2026, 10:00 - 11:30 

Wednesday 04 Nov 2026, 10:00 - 11:30 

Mission statement: Service users and carers are experts by experience; equally their judgments may be informed by the care they witness others receiving. Their experiences empower them to be meaningfully involved in discussions around quality, experience and service improvement.

What is the role of the forum?

  • Promote service user and carer involvement across the Fylde Coast.
  • Work on dedicated projects.
  • Support with training opportunities.
  • Involvement in the planning and development of new services.
  • Seek and represent the views of service users and carers.

Get involved: If you would like to find out more, come along to our next meeting which takes place between at 1pm to 3pm on the last Friday of every month at the Tesco Community Room, Clifton Retail Park, Sandhams Way, Blackpool, FY4 4UJ. 

Upcoming dates:

  • 31 October 2025
  • 28 November 2025
  • 19 December* 2025
  • 30 January 2026
  • 27 February 2026
  • 27 March 2026
  • 24 April 2026
  • 29 May 2026
  • 26 June 2026
  • 31 July 2026
  • 28 August 2026
  • 25 September 2026

*Meeting re-scheduled from 26 December (Boxing Day) to 19 December

Please contact the council for more information.

Meet Rob Frowen, Chair of the Fylde Coast Service User and Carer Council 

Why did you join the Service User and Carer Council?

  • The Trust can only operate with us being here
  • Empowerment
  • Being heard
  • My experience is its compassionate and understanding
  • To be a part of a positive system change
  • Meaningful involvement
  • To share my own lived experience
  • Carer involvement
  • Service users and carers of their own health and health for all is vital
  • We are all VIPs
  • To gain a larger underpinning knowledge as a service user and someone who has seen services improve over time
  • To make a difference
  • To improve our mental health service and ultimately improve lives
  • I found out about the service user group to share my own life experience
  • To influence change within the service
  • To improve services and highlight issues

The Bay network join together monthly with families and carers across Lancaster Morecambe Barrow and South Cumbria. The group is represented by families and carers, mental health services, county councils, local carers groups and patient experience teams. Guest speakers are also organised to keep everyone up to date with quality improvement work across the network.

Our aims are to:

  1. Encourage families and carers to work collaboratively with us to influence change and promote improvement
  2. Listen to feedback and learn from what we are hearing.
  3. Share good news and developments in the network
  4. Feedback on the ‘You said we did’ for community and inpatient services
  5. Support the embedding of the Triangle of Care into the Community
  6. Help to shape any future training needs

Please email Sam Bennet or Julie McLardy-Smith for more information and how to get involved.

Pennines Service User and Carer Council (SUCC) meets nine times a year and meetings are held on a Wednesday. We alternate morning to afternoon to try and offer some flexibility and also alternate venues to include our inpatient sites including Royal Blackburn Hospital and Woodview along with community sites which include Balladen House, Chai Centre, Globe Centre. We aim to locate at various venues in Pennine to support members to attend in person. We also offer this on teams in case people can’t attend.

Meeting dates

2025

  • 29 January, 2pm to 4pm - Seminar meeting room, Pendleview, Royal Blackburn Hospital, BB2 3HH - chaired by Gill McKie, with guest speaker Terri Hudson discussing culture of care
  • 5 March, 10am to 12pm – Lancashire Carers Link, 54/56 Blackburn Road, Accrington, BB5 1LE - chaired by James Briggs
  • 23 April, 2pm to 4pm - Community Roots, Chai Centre, Hurtley Street, Burnley, BB10 1BY - chaired by Gill McKie
  • 4 June, 10am to 12pm - Seminar meeting room, Pendleview, Royal Blackburn Hospital, BB2 3HH - chaired by Gill McKie
  • 9 July, 2pm to 4pm - Lancashire Carers Link, 54/56 Blackburn Road, Accrington, BB5 1LE - chaired by James Briggs
  • 20 August, 10am to 12pm - Conference room, Balladen House, Union Road, Rawtenstall, BB4 6SL - chaired by James Briggs
  • 1 October, 2am to 4pm - Community Roots, Chai Centre, Hurtley Street, Burnley, BB10 1BY - chaired by James Briggs
  • 12 November, 10am to 12pm - Meeting room, Whalley Inpatient Unit (Woodview), Mitton Road, Whalley, Clitheroe, BB7 9PE - chaired by James Briggs
  • 17 December, 2pm to 4pm - Lancashire Carers Link, 54/56 Blackburn Road, Accrington, BB5 1LE - chaired by Gill McKie

2026

  • 28 January, 10am - 12pm - Chai Centre, Hurtley Street, Burnley, BB10 1BY
  • 18 March, 2pm - 4pm - Chai Centre, Hurtley Street, Burnley, BB10 1BY

We have agenda at the meetings to try to cover the areas that our current members would like to discuss, we discuss membership and how to improve, we discuss service changes to support understanding, we talk about any new posters, policies, flyers that the Trust would like SUCC opinions about, we look at how we can improve our populations voice and what activities may be of interest to our members.

If anyone is interested to please email Gill McKie or James Briggs for more information and how to get involved.