What can I do as a volunteer?

There are many benefits to volunteering with your local Healthwatch, whether you want to help give a voice to people in your community or develop your professional skills in a health and social care environment.

Here are just some of the ways you can get involved as a Healthwatch volunteer:

• Help people in your community have their say on health and social care
  Many Healthwatch volunteers spend time in the community finding out what people think of local services so that Healthwatch can raise any concerns with service providers. Our volunteers play a vital role speaking to local people about their experiences and giving them a platform to share their views and ideas for how services can improve.

• Report on local health and care services
  Some Healthwatch volunteers are trained to visit health and social care services and report on the experiences of people using those services. You might be observing the service, gathering the views of patients, residents and staff, and contributing to reports which highlight your findings.

• Help raise awareness of Healthwatch
  As a volunteer, you could be attending community events to raise awareness of your local Healthwatch and encourage people to share their feedback on health and social care in their community.
• Develop your professional skills in an office environment
  Could you support your local Healthwatch office by sharing your professional skills? Many local Healthwatch are looking for volunteers to help them with design, marketing and communications work. This is a great way of developing your skills while helping ensure that people are able to shape the health and social care services they use.