Local Healthwatch – an introduction Chartered Society of Physiotherapy – ERN Event Dr Tom Nutt, Chief Executive Officer 17 th September 2013

A vision for Healthwatch Essex an independent voice for the people of Essex, helping to shape and improve local health and social care services

Or, in a nutshell…. Taking grass-roots views and lived experiences and translating them into something meaningful for the commissioners and providers of health and social care

Healthwatch Essex – the story so far A requirement of the Health and Social Care Act, 2012 A long line from Community Health Councils, Patient Forums and the LINk Statutory powers and responsibilities from 1 st April 2013 Healthwatch Essex Pathfinder – created in February 2012 Essex County Council – Cabinet decision to create and grant fund Healthwatch Essex – a company limited by guarantee and a registered charity, October 2012 Healthwatch Essex Ltd incorporated, January 2013

The legislation promote and support the involvement of people in the commissioning, provision and scrutiny of local care services obtaining the views of people about their needs for, and their experiences of, local care services make reports and recommendations about how local care services could or ought to be improved, to persons responsible for commissioning, providing, managing or scrutinising local care services

Why Healthwatch? ‘People do not know how to share views, but they’ve certainly got views. There’s a whole group of people not being listened to’ Focus group attendee, cited in ‘User engagement research’ (ecdp), conducted on behalf of Healthwatch Essex, 2012

A new landscape of health and social care Five CCGs NHS England– an Essex-wide Local Area Team Essex Health and Wellbeing Board Twelve district Health and Wellbeing Boards Five acute hospital trusts Two mental health partnership trusts ECC Adult and Children’s Social Care Health Education East of England East of England Ambulance Trust CQC/Monitor 10,000 voluntary organisations Community providers and so on…

A new way of working Focus on voice and lived experience Promoting the benefits of engagement, involvement and co-production A network of trained volunteers Research and public engagement

A new way of working (cont) Collaboration and partnership Sharing of information across the system - intelligence, complaints etc. Strategic priorities: the ‘gaps’ in the system - cross-cutting issues and the seldom heard (the ‘peaks and troughs’ model) Impact: do less, but do it better

How can CSP members get involved? Collaboration between CSP, CSP members and local Healthwatch Research and public engagement Sharing of intelligence Signposting and information Get involved…! Voice Network Share your stories... Strategic Ambassadors Community Ambassadors Research Ambassadors

Five Public Involvement Projects Identifying and reducing barriers to screening and NHS health checks, and, in particular, an accessible abdominal aortic aneurysm screening programme. Understanding young people’s experience of sexual health services and sex education, to improve appropriateness and accessibility. Understanding user experience of maternity services, to improve county-wide commissioning and delivery. Understanding the experience and choices of those dealing with the impact of dementia. Mechanisms to bring user/citizen input into the JSNA, which would support the development of Healthwatch working structures.

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Determining priorities: peaks and troughs

Where do we all fit in? The problem Who should be responsible for collecting your views and lived experiences? Officers from Essex County Council56% Health system managers59% People who work for VCS organisations52% Other users/patients59% Healthwatch56% Independent consultants19% Survey data, cited in ‘User engagement research’ (ecdp), conducted on behalf of Healthwatch Essex, 2012

A future work programme for Healthwatch Pre-programmed strategic work (i.e. where Healthwatch Essex or, say, Health & Wellbeing Board, have identified priorities in advance) ‘Bottom up’ work (i.e. reactive work, led by grass-roots intelligence/information gathering and/or emerging issues) Commissioned work (i.e. where others (statutory/VCS) approach us to conduct/assist with voice/engagement work)