Healthwatch Share Services
Supporting Healthwatch to help you make better informed decisions and improve outcomes
Helping you put the public voice at the heart of every decision
Our role is to champion the interests and views of local people using health and social care services and give people the opportunity to speak out, be listened to, and to ensure their views shape the way services are designed and delivered. We take our role very seriously and in each area where we deliver Healthwatch, we have a team of highly trained and experienced local staff who work very hard to create partnerships and collaborative relationships with local services and providers, in order to discuss issues openly and effectively and create impact form the work they do.
Healthwatch Services
Local Healthwatch services exist to ensure that people are at the heart of care. Healthwatch was set up by Central Government, through the Health and Social Care Act 2012, to be the independent patient champion for health and social care locally.
Dedicated teams of staff and volunteers listen to what people like about local health services, and what could be improved. These views are then shared with the decision-making organisations, so together a real difference can be made. People can also contact their local Healthwatch to find the information they need about health and care services in their area.
Local Healthwatch organisations also share the feedback they receive about services with Healthwatch England, a national body supporting the local Healthwatch across the country, to help improve the quality of services across the country. You can find out more about local Healthwatch by visiting Healthwatch England
We provide a different approach to Healthwatch by supporting our local delivery teams with our social research team, to enhance local research projects and maximise the insight we obtain from local feedback so that we have evidence to support the recommendations we make to local service providers.
We are incredibly proud of what we have been able to achieve with Healthwatch so far, including national recognition for some of our work.
We currently provides Healthwatch in the following areas:
We are highly experienced in delivering Healthwatch Services
We work in an extremely complicated and challenging environment. As Healthwatch deliverers we understand how difficult it is just to keep on top of the day job, let alone add value and innovate. This is why we have built up a team of expert social researchers and invested heavily in the latest technology platforms to support our Healthwatch community engagement activities and social research and insight programmes.
Our Healthwatch teams make a real difference and are increasing the impact of our work with both providers and commissioners, through the provision of the following services.
Our local Healthwatch offer provides a bespoke online public feedback centre which holds information on all health and social care providers in the local delivery area. Members of the public can easily post their reviews online, share their experiences and rate the services they received.
The familiar review-style format is user-friendly, and specifically designed to make it as simple as possible for patients to leave relevant feedback and share their views. All content on the site is moderated and provides a valuable, open and transparent information exchange between providers and the public.
Training
Build the capacity of your organisation to maximise the impact of its social research and community engagement activities. Our accredited training programmes are delivered either by in-house experts or a professional and experienced network of specialist partners.
Whether you need to add value to your Enter and View activity, update your research techniques or improve the effectiveness of your volunteer management plans, we have training to suit. We also deliver ‘Train the Trainer’ activity across our programmes and have experience in helping support other Healthwatch boards in their development.
Community Engagement
Draw on our wealth of experience to support your team. We can support you by designing, and where appropriate delivering, your Community Engagement activities. This includes services such as focus groups, surveys, public events and consultations.
Friends and Family Test
At ECS we totally understand the need to monitor the level of service offered by the Healthcare providers in the UK, and everything we do has one basic goal: improved patient care.
The good news is besides the monitoring and support we give our healthcare services, that there is another system. The continuous feedback loop created by the Friends and Family Test. This in essence provides ‘patient satisfaction scores’ as well as a host of related data.
Healthcare Quality
We know that over 50% of NHS staff use patient feedback to improve the quality of patient care they provide. We can therefore definitely say that the information we collect on ‘patient experience’, whether they are an outpatient or an inpatient, will result in an improvement in quality.
The Healthcare Sector and Accountability
There is little doubt that today, accountability has become a ‘watch word’, care givers of all forms now having to ensure that they provide the highest possible level of service.
This level of commitment must start with the way appointments are managed, the methods used to store and protect patient information, and the level of patient safety, right through to the percentage of successful patient outcomes.
Increased Health and Wellbeing
Health service clinicians of all types, whether they work on a maternity ward, or are a part of mental health services, need to provide the appropriate level of patient advice and the quality of care required to improve healthcare for all.
Improved Quality Care
At ECS we know that when any care provider, no matter what part they play in the overall health system, implements measures designed to increase the quality of services they provide, the health outcomes of all of their patients will be enhanced.
Therefore, we are dedicated to helping providers of health care across the UK.
Contact us and find out just how much we can help you help Your Patients.