What is Healthwatch?

Healthwatch is a charity established in 2012 under the Health and Social Care Act. It aims to understand the needs, experiences, and concerns of people who use health and social care services and to speak on their behalf.

There are 152 Healthwatch across the country, each working locally to broadcast individuals’ voices regarding health and social care systems.

What Does Healthwatch Do?

Healthwatch is your local Health and Social Care champion. We are here to champion your views and challenge key decision-makers to improve services in your community.

In each Healthwatch our teams are made up of passionate individuals working towards amplifying the voices of their communities. We do this in various ways including engagement events with the public, surveys, research projects and using our statutory right to enter healthcare settings and collect patient feedback.  

How Do We Do Our Role?

Engagement Events

Heading out on engagement is a key responsibility for our engagement officers who thrive when meeting with the public. Throughout the year we attend various events including well-being events, pride, local health groups, conferences and talks where we have open conversations with members of the public, signpost them to helpful organisations and promote our projects.

Enter and Views

Enter and Views are key aspects of Healthwatch where we use our statutory rights to enter any healthcare setting to find out what’s working well and what could improve. We speak to both staff and patients in each setting to discover why they choose this healthcare setting be it a GP, Dentist or Pharmacy and their honest views on the service provided and put together Enter and View reports available to the public.

Research Projects

Throughout the year each Healthwatch will complete various research projects to understand the views of people from all walks of life. For example, at Healthwatch Lancashire this year we worked on our Women’s Health Project and Disability Voices project.

Feedback Centre

We know how difficult it can be to tackle health and social care issues one-on-one with the organisation. Our feedback centre allows our community to leave feedback on healthcare settings they have used and prompts them to rate their experiences. These reviews can be anonymous, or you can choose to leave your details, and all reviews are sent directly to the healthcare provider who is given a chance to respond.

We love to hear about the good stuff also, so feel free to leave your positive feedback.

We Listen

Above all, our main responsibility is to listen to our local communities and ensure that their voices are heard. We hear feedback from individuals from all walks of life who share experiences, thoughts, ideas and concerns regarding health and social care across Lancashire.

We use this feedback to investigate healthcare settings, conduct research projects and provide recommendations to key decision-makers across Lancashire.

What Are Our Main Functions?

Each local Healthwatch is funded by local authorities, in our case we are funded by Lancashire County Council. We have a few main statutory functions which include;

• Obtaining views from people about their needs and experiences using health and social care services and taking our findings to key decision-makers.
• Producing detailed reports and making crucial recommendations about how health and social care services should be improved.
• Promoting and supporting the involvement of people in the monitoring, commissioning and provision of local health and social services.
• Providing the public with information and advice about accessing health and social care services and the different options available to them.
• Amplify the views and experiences of people to Healthwatch England, helping them to carry out their role as a national champion.
• Provide recommendations to Healthwatch England and advise the CQC to carry out special reviews or investigations into any areas of concern.

How Do We Help?

At Healthwatch Lancashire we help people across Lancashire in various ways. One of the most common ways is through signposting. Our job is to listen to and report back to key decision-makers on what parts of the health and social care system require more attention, but regularly we are contacted by individuals who need specific help and that is where signposting comes in.

We liaise with so many organisations across Lancashire that offer support for mental health, substance abuse, disability support, carers support and more and a huge part of our role is getting you in contact with the right people.

Each month we publish a ‘You Told Us’ report which details how many people we engage with each month, their concerns, how many have been signposted and key themes. For example, in October’s You Told Us report, we spoke to 474 people and GP services were the most common theme in 47% of all feedback.

If you would like to have your say about a health and social care service whether it is positive or negative (we want both!) contact us on info@healthwatchlancashire.co.uk OR 01524 239100.