Patient experience is increasingly recognised as one of the three ‘pillars of quality in healthcare’ alongside clinical effectiveness and patient safety. The health care sector is heavily regulated, however delivering a compliant service does not necessarily translate to a good service experience for the consumer. An increasingly common strategy used by organisations to measure patient experience is to undertake patient journey mapping.

Quite often structured engagement activities are seen as nice-to-have additions to an organisation’s pre-existing repertoire. However in the health and social services sector, specifically in the non-profit arena, the benefits that genuine stakeholder engagement can have on mitigating the negative effects of market competition, public cynicism and perceived transparency are profound.

With all the media attention on energy policy over the last few months, we take a look at the issue from a social impact perspective. It has been largely left to a few of the larger NGOs to advocate for those who really face the brunt of rising power bills—people and families on low incomes, the long-term unemployed those living with disabilities or chronic health conditions, pensioners, students amongst others.