Shaping our Future
Healthwatch
Opens: 08 November 2017
Closes: 03 January 2018
Healthwatch the independent national champion for people who use health and social care services, launched in 2012. Since then, in partnership with local Healthwatch, they have worked hard to understand what people want from care services and make sure that those who run services hear these views.
They are now developing their strategy for 2018 – 2023.
Between June and September 2017, they asked the public, professionals and local Healthwatch a number of questions to help shape their future focus. They invite you to take part in the next phase of their strategy.
They asked people where they should focus their efforts to have the biggest impact.
The ideas people shared largely focussed on the following areas:
- Working to improve existing care, particularly the access people have to support, and the avoidable differences in people’s experience of health and social care across the population.
- Mental health and care for older people were also common issues where people wanted to see improvements.
- Making it easier for more people to have an equal say in decisions that affect them by tackling barriers, such as public awareness and professional attitudes.
- Ensuring that communities are involved in shaping future health and social care services.
- Supporting a stronger, more consistent Healthwatch network – from the service the public receives, to the way the network works together to achieve change.
- Maintaining the independence of the network and working in partnership with others to improve health and social care services.
What this means for their work
People’s feedback has helped inform the development of three aims for their future.
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Empowering you and your community to have your say
We want to make sure people can access the information they need to take control of their health and care, make informed decisions and shape the services that support them.
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Providing a high quality Healthwatch service for you
We want to support a consistently high quality Healthwatch service for people who want to share their views or find information about health and social care. We also want to help local Healthwatch to champion people’s views effectively and make sure that local health and social care services truly reflect people’s needs.
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Making sure your views help improve health and social care
We want people’s views to drive health and social care – ensuring you get access, on an equal basis with others, to support that works for you, as well as helping to shape future services for your community.
Download “Shaping our Future”
www.healthwatch.co.uk/sites/healthwatch.co.uk/files/20171107_-_shaping_our_future.pdf
They would like to hear your views on these aims.
Have your say via the Healthwatch website
www.healthwatch.co.uk/resource/shaping-our-future