The People's Academy Manifesto: a new partnership between citizens and professionals

We believe that where citizens work in partnership with health and care professionals everyone benefits. This partnership improves the health and wellbeing of people, Our beliefs, based on evidence, are that partnership working: • Improves the health and well-being of individuals and populations • Improves confidence, knowledge and self-care • Brings new assets to improvement and innovation • Improves quality and safety by focusing on what matters most to people • Reduces the reliance of citizens on healthcare services Put simply, working in this way improves healthcare and benefits people, health professionals and the health and care system. Each day we are inspired by the humanity, courage, commitment, steadfastness and motivation of the majority of people that work in healthcare. We know the difficulties these same people face in their work. We are inspired by citizens who step up to enable changes in health and care, bringing communities together to solve their own problems, and we are outraged by the lack of respect and support for citizens making significant and vital contributions to service commissioning, policy and delivery.