1. Healthwatch Warrington
Annual Report Overview 2016/17
October 2017

2. Our Vision
We believe;
In a Health & Social Care system provided by the state that delivers universally high quality care to everyone
We can make change happen through playing our part, reflecting on practice and improving our performance, to influence services to be the best that they can be
It is vital that all people are treated with dignity, are listened to and that all experience, whether positive or negative, is treated as valid and acted upon appropriately
In transparency in communications and decision making that appreciates the whole picture drawing upon narrative and evidence which will encourage people to have confidence in our independence and impartiality.

3. Our Core Values Initiative
Willingness to make the first move: creating, developing and exploring how we can best play our part and enable others to play theirs.
Generosity
Investing our time and energy in listening to and believing in others; in sharing and learning together; and in how we treat others and ourselves.
Quality Service
Our spirit of service to something greater than ourselves keeps the main focus of our attention outward on the people, communities and systems we exist to support and enhance

4. Feedback
Healthwatch Warrington takes a proactive approach to gathering information about local people’s experiences of health and care services and identifying their needs.
Freepost feedback cards
Public forums & partner meetings
Online Feedback Centre
News articles & e-bulletins
Social Media
Public engagement events

5. What We Heard
As in previous years, Hospitals, GPs and dentists attracted the most reviews (359 in total).
Our Feedback Centre and analysis system shows the majority of this year’s reviews were positive.
Reviews awarded services 4/5 stars for overall quality
Service users were particularly happy with general cleanliness, staff attitudes, treatment explanations and quality of care (4.5/5 stars).
Quality of food and waiting times were scored 3.5/5 stars & 4/5 stars.

6. What Else Did We Hear?
Staff attitudes/interactions with an approval rating of 85%, play a fundamental role in shaping people’s impressions of and effectiveness of care.
The efforts of staff in health and social care are appreciated by the public and should be highly commended.
Feedback we received also indicated there are ongoing issues with;
Internal communication,
External communication, and
Access to services.

7. Engagement
Throughout 2016/17 we have; Organised and delivered public events for 100+ people on issues important to them e.g. Hospital Discharge, Care Planning and Person- Centred Care. Held a public Presentation Day to present and discuss our year’s work. Hosted a public Quality Account event to present and discuss NHS Quality Accounts.

8. Advocacy
We also offer support, advice and information to anyone who has a general issue or complaint with health or social care.
Healthwatch’s Independent Complaints Advocacy service (ICA) offer a wide range of information to support you to make an NHS complaint, including self help information.
Throughout 2016/17, we undertook;
10 referrals to the ICA Service for NHS complaints
135 local people in one to one advocacy meetings.

9. Enter and View
Throughout 2016/17 we visited & reported on 27 services through Enter & View;
5 residential care homes (looking at general experiences of care)
8 care homes (Values in Action: Best Practice)
14 GP Surgeries (GP Access)

10. Our Key Projects 2016/17
‘Men’s Experiences’ Hearing Local Men’s Views on Health and Social Care Services ‘GP Access in Warrington’ Exploring Ways to Improve Access and Share Best Practice ‘Ask 3 Questions’? Looking at Person Centred Care and Decision Making in Warrington

11. ‘GP Access in Warrington’: Exploring Ways to Improve Access & Share Best Practice
Access to primary care services (mainly GPs) was identified as a recurrent theme within feedback, often highlighted as a negative aspect of patient experience.
Issues included;
Difficulties booking appointments,
Lack of appointment availability &
Communication problems.
Public reviews, however, also hinted at areas of good practice.
Throughout the project, Enter & View teams visited 14 GP practices in different clusters, to speak to visitors, staff, and PPGs as well doing Enter & View visits.

12. Outcomes and Recommendations
Throughout the project, Enter & View teams visited 14 GP practices in different clusters, to speak to visitors, staff, and PPGs as well doing Enter & View visits. Each Enter and View report contained recommendations for improvement (e.g. environment upgrades, reviewing cultures values) as well as a focus on sharing good practice found. Findings and recommendations were compiled and shared with commissioners, regulators and GP practices to support improving access for local people.
Outcomes and Recommendations

13. ‘Expert in Me’: Looking at Person-Centred Care & Shared Decision Making
'Expert in Me’ is a joint project with the Advancing Quality Alliance (AQuA), Bridgewater Community Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, Warrington CCG, GP surgeries and partners to focus on ‘person-centred care’ and ‘shared decision making’.
We worked with GP PPG Groups to ask patients if they have been encouraged to;
Discuss their care options
Discuss the pros and cons of each option &
Access support to make the right decision.

14. AQuA already specialize in supporting practitioners to learn about the importance delivering care within the legal framework, consulting with patients, and the benefits of shared decision making practice. Our work over 2016/17 has identified the need to increase the awareness and skills of patients, as well as that of practitioners, to develop shared approaches to decision making and care.

15. Throughout 2016/17 we worked to gain support from commissioners, partners and services, so we've extended this project to 2017/18 as delivery is planned to begin in mid Using the training model of Connect 5 Mental Health Training, we're developing training Patient Participation Group (PPG) representatives to deliver training to patients and staff within surgeries, in a 1 hour awareness raising session.

16. Outcomes and Recommendations
‘Expert In Me’ will help patients, carers, and service users to have open and honest conversations about their care, helping patients to get the most from their appointments.
For services, ‘Expert in Me’ aims to;
Make GP time with patients more effective,
Minimise repeat/double appointments,
Support better care conversations, and
Achieve more effective care journeys.

17. Men’s Views: Working Together
National and local findings suggested inequalities experienced by men in health and care are linked to their reluctance to access, or speak about their views of services. We visited Healthwatch Blackburn with Darwen to hear how they spoke to seldom heard men through the ‘Bloke’s Views’ project. Learning from this helped us reach out to more men in Warrington.

18. Men’s Views – Working Together
We designed a survey to capture men’s experiences of health and social care (achieving 48 responses with help from partners e.g. Citizens Advice Bureau, Warrington Wolves Charitable Foundation and volunteers). We also held Curry Night events with guest speakers on mental wellbeing and national men’s health campaigns. We became a member of the Men’s Mental Health Group partnership (led by the Public Health Team). The group worked to design a survey and heard from 583 local men on how they wanted to receive info on mental health support. The work is ongoing and we will continue to work with local partners to ensure everyone can have their say on health and social care.

19. Our Key Projects 2017/18
Drawing upon feedback from local people, services and other sources of local data, we have prioritised four key areas for exploration in 2017/18: Taking Action on Frailty & Supporting Preventative Care Pharmacy Services Public engagement & involvement in the NHS 5 Year Forward View Dentistry in Care Homes

20. Our Year in Numbers Nearly 35,000 website visits
Twitter reach of 1,240+ followers
188 Facebook likes
139 Instagram followers
820+ subscribers
Visits and reports on 27 local services
2,245 people engaged with
60+ public events attended/participated in

21. Our Volunteers
Without you, we couldn’t achieve so much as your local Healthwatch! To our Board, Enter and View Reps, supporters, survey takers, reviewers and more, we want to say…

22. Thanks for listening! Healthwatch Warrington
The Gateway, 85 – 101 Sankey Street, Warrington, WA1 1SR
Tel:
Website: