For 20 years, we have worked closely with the community to understand their needs so we can improve health outcomes in Western Sydney. In 2023, we ran two Citizens’ Juries (formerly known as Community Panels) to find out what matters to our community.
What is a Citizens’ Jury?
A Citizens’ Jury is a way to directly involve community members in a decision-making process when addressing solutions to complex community challenges. It is about local truth-telling, building connections, sharing knowledge, shifting and building power and collaborating in a culturally safe way.
Members of a Citizens’ Jury spend time reviewing information to help them better understand the issues relating to a topic. Then they spend an equal amount of time considering the information through the perspective of solving the issue for the common good.
Why Did We Run Citizens’ Juries in Western Sydney?
In 2023, we hosted Citizens’ Juries to deepen our understanding of the health and social care priorities of the local community. A deepened understanding enables us to align the health investments in the Western Sydney region with what communities need.
Western Sydney is a diverse and vibrant region with people who have a range of experiences and levels of understanding of the way the health system works. Western Sydney is also home to one of the largest urban First Nations populations. Both populations have similar but different health needs. That’s why we held two Citizens’ Juries:
How We Did It
Before running the Citizens’ Juries, we reviewed the performance of Citizens’ Juries run by other organisations and used this to guide the project. We set up advisory groups of internal and external partners and leaders across Western Sydney, totalling 136 individuals.
The advisors strongly recommended that the information should be presented to Jury members using visual medium, rather than showing complex statistical data that might obscure the most relevant and informative information. It was also recommended that Juries could benefit from using a life-course model following the lives of two hypothetical Western Sydney families. The principle was ‘show me, don’t tell me’.
Following this advice, a handbook was developed for each Jury and we invited the selected jurors to a three-day event. Both Juries were asked the same question: “Should we, the people of Western Sydney, continue to invest in the health system in the same way as we have in the past?”.
We provided the Juries with information about the way the health system in Western Sydney operates so they could be well-informed and have an equal understanding about the topic.
How We Recruited
We selected jurors from a database of people who had opted in. The selection was randomised to ensure the Juries represented the profile of Western Sydney people. There was strong diversity in postcode, age, gender, employment, culture, religion, income, education and living with chronic disease.
What the Juries Recommended
After a day of reviewing the information we presented, both Juries came to many similar recommendations and some that were different. All members focused on the prevention of disease and wanted to see investment accordingly.
The Juries wanted:
- Proactive, data-driven and team-based care that addressed loneliness and created pathways for people who find it hard to access health care
- An investment in mentoring, education and training pathways for children to nurture and deliver the health workforce of the future
- To incentivise health staff to work in the Western Sydney community
- Western Sydney communities to be recognised for their strengths and to build on these strengths
- Integrated care that built on protective factors such as healthy food, supported families and intergenerational learning opportunities
There were several other recommendations which are available in the report. We will share this report soon.
Next Steps
We informed both Citizens’ Juries that their recommendations would form the agenda of WentWest’s investments into Western Sydney and have made this a permanent model. The members of the Juries have now co-designed the operating rules and principles for the Western Sydney Citizens’ Assembly. To our knowledge, this is the first permanent deliberative assembly in primary care in Australia.
As a representative cross section of the Western Sydney community, the Western Sydney Citizens’ Assembly aims to be a well-informed and respectful voice to speak up for the Western Sydney community. This group will meet monthly for the first year to:
- Demonstrate meaningful allyship between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and other culturally diverse communities in Western Sydney
- Track the implementation of the health and social care priority recommendations made by our two Citizens’ Juries in 2023 across Western Sydney
- Identify the issues that require deliberation by subsequent Citizens’ Juries in Western Sydney
- Share the knowledge accessed in the Citizens’ Assembly and previous Citizens’ Juries with the Western Sydney community
- Promote better connections between health and social care
We are reaching out to other organisations in Western Sydney that want to learn from the Citizens’ Assembly and get involved in implementing their recommendations. We are actively building relationships with others who want to participate. If you are interested, please sign up.
How Do Community Members Sign Up for Future Citizens’ Juries?
We would love to hear from you if you would like to go into the ballot for future Citizens’ Juries organised by WentWest. To express your interest in being a part of a future Western Sydney Citizens’ Jury, please complete the registration form.
This information is correct as of 15 July 2024.