Healthwatch South Gloucestershire shortlisted for national award in record year

From encouraging a greater focus on wellbeing services for rough sleepers in Hastings to improving seven-day access to GPs in Manchester, Healthwatch across the country have been working hard to ensure health and care services meet the needs of their communities.

Recognising the efforts of local staff and volunteers, today Healthwatch England is announcing those who have been shortlisted for the annual Healthwatch network awards 2018.

Celebrated every year, the awards highlight the ways in which local Healthwatch across the country have helped make people’s views of health and social care services heard.

Healthwatch South Gloucestershire has been nominated for an award in volunteering, by using creative ways to involve volunteers and others in our work.

‘Hivewatch’ is a partnership between Healthwatch South Gloucestershire and The Hive (Avon), a charity that supports people with learning disabilities, their families and carers.

Together we trained five Hive members to be authorised Enter and View representatives.  Regulations allow authorised Enter and View representatives to visit settings, such as GP surgeries, hospital wards and care homes, in order to observe care being provided and speak to individuals, their families/ carers and staff using that service about their experiences.

Through the Hivewatch project, representatives visited four health and social care services across South Gloucestershire, exploring how accessible they are for people with learning disabilities, identifying areas of good practice and making recommendations for improvement.  The reports from these visits can be read here.

Through involving members of The Hive as ‘experts by experience’ we wanted to show how people with learning disabilities can make a real difference when they speak out, and can empower others to be able to contribute to better services and use them independently.

There were more than 170 entries. Other shortlisted nominations from around the country to the Healthwatch Network Awards include:

• In Manchester, the local Healthwatch noticed that the volume of complaints about not being able to get a GP appointment had not changed despite a new initiative to increase opening hours of local surgeries. A mystery shopper exercise conducted by volunteers revealed that only two out of five GP practices were offering the new evening and weekend appointments to patients. Their findings led to major marketing drive by the local Clinical Commissioning Group which has seen the number of complaints received by the local Healthwatch fall dramatically.
• In East Sussex, the Healthwatch worked with voluntary and public sector organisations and identified the local homeless community as one of the county’s most seldom heard and vulnerable groups. To find out what could be done to tackle the inequality and improve services for these people, Healthwatch East Sussex went out at night in the seaside town of Hasting and asked rough sleepers what they wanted from health and care. Since their engagement exercise there has been increased emphasis from local services on prevention and wellbeing, helping homeless people to stay well rather than waiting for them to become unwell before providing support.

The overall winner from each category will be chosen by a panel of judges and announced at our annual conference in October 2018.

Alex Francis, Healthwatch South Gloucestershire said: “We are delighted to have been nominated for this award.  We are really proud of this piece of work and the close partnership that has developed between Healthwatch and The Hive (Avon).  The energy, enthusiasm and commitment shown by the Hivewatch volunteers has been really inspiring and has come through loud and clear in the responses that have been received from the places that they visited.  They have made a real difference through this project and we hope to continue to do so as we work together during 2018”

“We would also like to say a huge thank you to the staff team at The Hiver (Avon) and our own dedicated Healthwatch volunteers, several of whom played a vital part in the success of the Hivewatch project.  We also want to encourage members of the public to speak to us.  Please get in touch with us if you have an idea to improve services in South Gloucestershire.  We want to hear what you have to say!”

Jane Mordue, Chair of Healthwatch England, said:

“Last year, more than 341,000 people shared their views about where things could be improved in health and social care with the Healthwatch network.

“The Healthwatch Network Awards are a fantastic opportunity to celebrate this work, highlighting the difference local Healthwatch have made by using this wealth of intelligence to help decision makers target their efforts to make things better.

“This year we received some outstanding entries from the network with over 150 submissions. We were impressed by the quality and incredible range of work on show and they all highlight the real impact we can have when people’s experiences are placed at the heart of the services they receive.”