State of Support - local Healthwatch finances 2019/20

Summary

Each year we publish ‘State of Support’, a report that sets out the funding local Healthwatch have received from local authorities.

The key findings from this year's report show: 

• The 151 Healthwatch in England expect to collectively receive £25,536,039 from local authorities to carry out their statutory activities in 2019/20.
• Reported funding for local Healthwatch for this year has therefore fallen by 2.0 per cent when compared to the £26,067,9971 received in 2018/19.
• Funding reductions as a whole are slowing, suggesting that hard-pressed councils are trying to protect budgets where possible.
• However, since 2013 the Healthwatch network has seen core funding from councils fall by 36.6 per cent compared with the original allocation of £40.3 million set out by the Department of Health and Social Care.
• As in previous years, budget reductions have not been evenly spread across the network.