The year ahead - Our plans for 2024 - 2026
Our strategy outlines the difference we want to make by 2026 and how we intend to get there in partnership with local Healthwatch.
Our business plan outlines the steps we will take over the next 24 months to help deliver our strategy.
About us
Healthwatch is your health and social care champion. We ensure that NHS leaders and other health and social care decision-makers hear your voice and use your feedback to improve care.
There is a local Healthwatch in every area of England. At Healthwatch England, we support local Healthwatch to listen to what people like about services and what could be improved, and we share these views with those with the power to make change happen.
We also help people find information about health and social care services nearby.
Our strategy in brief
Vision: To bring closer the day when everyone gets the care they need.
Mission: To make sure that people's experiences help make health and care better.
Values:
- Equity: Working inclusively and compassionately, with a strong link to the communities we serve and empower.
- Collaboration: We will build relationships, internally and externally, communicating clearly and co-producing with partners to amplify our influence.
- Independence: Being ambitious about creating change for people and communities, being accountable to them and holding others to account.
- Impact: Our agenda will be driven by the public, being a purposeful, critical friend to decision-makers.
- Truth: Having integrity and honesty, speaking truth to power.
Aims:
- To support more people who face the worst outcomes to speak up about their health and social care, and to access the advice they need.
- To support care decision-makers to act on public feedback and involve communities in decisions that affect them.
- To be a more effective organisation and build a stronger Healthwatch movement.
Our plans
1. Supporting the public to feedback on care
Our aim : To support more people who face the worst outcomes to speak up about their care and access the advice they need.
Steps along the way
We will:
- Work to increase awareness of our service, especially amongst those facing inequalities.
- Campaign with key partners to support more people from underrepresented communities in sharing their experiences of care.
- Ensure that our advice and communications are accessible to the communities we serve.
- Use new and emerging technologies to help us achieve our aims.
- Engage health and social care professionals to help create a better culture of listening in the NHS.
- Provide more opportunities for those who use our service to get involved in our work and learn how their views make a difference.
Signs of success:
- More people know who we are and what we do.
- More people who experience the worst health inequalities are sharing their experiences with us.
- A greater number of people follow and support our work.
2. Improving health and care services
Our aim : To support care decision-makers to act on public feedback and involve communities in decisions that affect them.
Steps along the way
We will:
- Ensure that every project we do is designed to tackle health inequalities.
- Focus on issues that most concern patients, such as access to NHS dentistry and GPs, and make recommendations that help improve care.
- Raise awareness of how social care can be reformed and improved.
- Take an in-depth look at the care experiences of women and other sections of the community who report unequal access to services.
- Undertake a comprehensive review of our evidence to bring to light the public’s perspective on the state of health and social care.
- Increase the amount of insight we share and make our recommendations more accessible.
- Work in partnership with national decision-makers to ensure that the feedback people share with us is used to help improve health and care.
Signs of success:
- Every project we do includes a focus on tackling inequalities in health.
- Health and care professionals trust and value our work and access our insight and recommendations.
- Our research remains high on policymakers' agendas, and more of our recommendations to improve care are adopted.
3. Building a strong organisation and movement
Our aim : To be a more effective organisation and build a stronger Healthwatch movement.
Steps along the way
We will:
- Deliver a learning and development programme to build the core skills of national and local staff and volunteers.
- Review our shared culture and update our values and behaviours to ensure we are as effective as possible.
- Work with local Healthwatch and our partners to improve the sustainability of local Healthwatch and Healthwatch England.
- Develop a new digital strategy to make it easier for people to share their experiences with us and for us to analyse and share this insight.
- Support local Healthwatch in participating in national campaigns, engaging local stakeholders with our findings, and communicating their impact to their communities.
- Continue to review our policies and systems to make sure we maintain the highest finance and governance standards.
Signs of success:
- Our staff and volunteers rate our training and support as good.
- Our values shape our work and culture.
- Local Healthwatch can demonstrate the impact they are making for local communities.
- We have established a more sustainable way to fund our work.
