Impact award: Outstanding work leads to first-ever joint win

Two projects have been awarded the 2025 Healthwatch Impact Award for their exceptional work in using local people’s experiences to improve care.   

The annual awards ceremony saw teams from both Healthwatch Milton Keynes and Healthwatch in Sussex take away top honours for their work.

With 18 shortlisted projects from across England, there were plenty of strong entries for this year’s Impact Award. 

The award celebrates the difference local people make to health and social care services by sharing their feedback with our staff and volunteers.

The projects submitted ranged from an initiative to improve access to social care to work to ensure more people get health checks. 

The quality of the work was so high that the judging panel named two winners for the first time. 

Joint winners

Better mental health care for women in Milton Keynes

When a CQC inspection found issues with the relationship between patients and staff on the Willow Ward, an acute mental health care unit in Milton Keynes, Healthwatch Milton Keynes took action. 

Speaking to 400 people, they learned that patients felt staff attitudes were poor. There wasn’t enough communication about discharge, and patients didn’t feel treated as individuals.

This feedback meant Healthwatch Milton Keynes could make recommendations that led to staff training on trauma-informed care, and the introduction of a Peer Support Worker to help with discharge.

These changes have improved relationships between staff and patients and made patients feel less anxious about the discharge process.

Improved patient transport in Sussex

After local Healthwatch across Sussex heard about problems with Non-Emergency Patient Transport Services, they worked at a regional level to improve the situation for patients. Healthwatch East Sussex, Healthwatch West Sussex, and Healthwatch Brighton & Hove gathered feedback from the community and made recommendations.

New plans for patient transport services in the region reflected their recommendations. This work also helped improve patient communications, give clearer guidance about who is eligible for the service, and provide better information on alternative transport services.

Praising the winners, chief judge and Chair of Healthwatch England Professor David Croisdale-Appleby, said: 

“Your work shows exactly why listening to local people interviewed in their community is the key to understanding how best to design and deliver the most appropriate and relevant health and social care services. 

"Because your communities have trusted you with their experiences, not only have you helped services identify problems, but you’ve also enabled them to provide better support through the understanding your research provides.” 

Commendations for a further six Healthwatch

Healthwatch highly commended for their work were: 

• Healthwatch Herefordshire, whose work to understand and address barriers preventing people with learning disabilities from having annual health checks led to greater awareness and better access among local people.
• Healthwatch Barking and Dagenham, for research into why South Asian residents are not taking up social care support. This led to the council working with community groups to tackle misconceptions and make  information more accessible to those whose first language is not English.
• Healthwatch Liverpool, who raised awareness among healthcare professionals about how to better support people who have experienced sexual trauma. They also secured funding to provide trauma cards to patients so they can feel more confident when attending appointments.

Judges also commended award entries from Healthwatch North Yorkshire, Healthwatch York, and Healthwatch Dudley.

Recognising the brilliant work of all the nominees, Professor David Croisdale-Appleby said: 

“You exemplify the best of Healthwatch. Your work demonstrates the very real difference Healthwatch makes to health and care every day – whether that's finding out what people want, helping people access support, or working with services to improve the care they provide. 

"You and your communities should be proud of what you do, and the difference it makes to the quality of people’s lives.”