Local Healthwatch funding 2022-23

Summary

Across England, there are 152 local Healthwatch services. Their statutory role includes finding out what communities want from health and social care and providing people with information and advice about local services. 

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) fund our work. DHSC gives money to local councils so they can commission an effective local Healthwatch service. 

This money is essential to ensuring each local Healthwatch has the resources to provide a high-quality service for you. 

To enable the Government to track what is happening to its investment, we ask local Healthwatch every year how much funding they expect to receive and publish this information. 

This report looks at the funding for each local Healthwatch in 2022-23, how funding has changed over time and the potential impact this is having. 

The report also provides recommendations for Government on what steps they can take in response to our findings.

Key findings

• The 152 Healthwatch in England report that they will collectively receive £25,400,000 from local authorities to carry out their statutory activities in 2022-23.
• Although funding in cash terms is projected to increase slightly on the figures we reported in 2021-22, once inflation is taken into account, overall funding has fallen by £3.7 million.
• Seventy-five local authorities have not fully passed on the funding they received from DHSC for local Healthwatch.
• Most local Healthwatch services have received an in-year real terms funding reduction. 
• When local Healthwatch started work in 2013, the Department of Health and Social Care allocated £40,500,000 to fund local Healthwatch services. When adjusted for inflation, the real-term funding for local Healthwatch is now only 49% of what was initially allocated.
• Funding reductions risk impacting the ability of some local Healthwatch to carry out their statutory functions.

Recommendations

We have made several recommendations to the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care. These include enabling us to escalate concerns related to specific councils, updating local authorities' commissioning guidance, and exploring a more sustainable funding model for the local Healthwatch network.