Client & Community Engagement - Better Health Network

At BHN, Client and Community Engagement is how we ensure that the people who use our services and the communities we serve have a real voice in shaping them. It is about working in genuine partnership with those who bring lived, living, and local experience, especially people most impacted by health inequities.

Engagement at BHN means more than just consultation. It means creating space for shared decision making, co-design, and leadership. It is guided by our values of trust, inclusivity, transparency, and care. Through structured processes and strong governance, we aim to build relationships that support better health outcomes and a more equitable, community led health system.

Snapshot of timelines and key commitments

Update on the Board Consumer Advisory Group

As part of our commitment to elevating community voice, BHN is preparing to establish a Board Community Advisory Group (CAG) by September. This group will act as a formal mechanism for ensuring that lived and local experience informs decisions at the highest level of our organisation.

The CAG will also act as a resource to BHN’s internal committees – bringing community insight into planning, policy, and service improvement by:

Offering advice and insight to BHN’s internal committees on what matters to our communities
Ensuring community feedback is heard and acted on in strategic planning
Work closely with the Client & Community Engagement Committee to identify emerging issues
Close the loop by reporting back to the community on what’s changing and why
Together, these efforts help make sure BHN is shaped by community, for community.

Client & Community Engagement Framework (refreshed P&E Model) and next steps

Over recent months, we’ve been working on a refreshed approach to community participation and engagement – one that reflects your feedback, honours lived experience and ensures the voices of those most affected by health inequities are shaping our services.

Since Launching the first version of the model, BHN has:

Shared the framework at the 2024 AGM and via internal channels
Formed an internal working group to guide planning
Started developing a communications strategy to connect community, workforce, and leadership
Shifted from eight separate reference groups to recruiting directly into a single working group, which will transition into a permanent Committee.

Introducing the Client & Community Engagement Framework

This new framework replaces our original Participation & Engagement Model. It’s been simplified and re-focused to ensure it’s easier to understand and use, and more directly connected to how BHN makes decisions.

It outlines:

Why engagement matters
The values and principles guiding this work
The ways community members can be involved
How your voice will connect into BHN’s governance structures

You can read the one-page overview or view the full framework here.

What’s Next?

We’ve recently completed interviews with community members who have expressed interest in joining the Participation & Engagement Working Group that will support the rollout of the Framework and help shape how we put it into practice. As shown in the timeline, this group will evolve into a permanent Client & Community Engagement Committee in March 2026 and will report into to our Board Community Advisory Group.

If you’re interested in future opportunities, we’d love to hear from you. Email us at [email protected]

Thank you for continuing to help us build a service shaped by our communities, for our communities.