Page 1 Together we’re making health and social care better Annual Report 2022–23 Healthwatch Wandsworth Logo Page 2 Contents Message from our Chair Page 3 About us Page 4 Highlights from our year Page 5 Listening to people across our community Page 7 Advice and information Page 17 Thank you: volunteers Page 19 Finances and future priorities Page 21 Statutory statements Page 22 "In the last ten years, the health and social care landscape has changed dramatically, but the dedication of local Healthwatch hasn't. Your local Healthwatch has worked tirelessly to make sure the views of local people are heard, and NHS and social care leaders use your feedback to make care better." Louise Ansari, Healthwatch National Director Page 3 Message from our Chair Last year saw huge pressures on our communities as the impact of Covid was overlayed by the growing cost of living crisis. Healthwatch Wandsworth (HWW) has continued to listen, to flag up concerns and to act as a key voice for local people with commissioners and providers of health and social services across our borough. For example: • We highlighted the need for hospitals to work much more closely with carers when people are discharged; • We flagged the growing pressures in primary care and the need to ensure the patient voice is heard; • We continued to work with seldom heard groups and support initiatives to tailor services more closely to their needs. You will find more information about these - and many other initiatives - in this report. For Healthwatch itself 2022/3 also saw important changes. We were delighted that the contract with Wandsworth Care Alliance to provide the service was renewed. We developed our relations with the NHS ‘Integrated Care System’, which has replaced the previous structure. And we saw increased co-operation between Healthwatch across the boroughs of South West London. The success of Healthwatch rests on our team of staff and volunteers, and the individuals and communities with whom they work. I’d like to record my personal thanks to everyone who helped ensure that patients and communities continue to be heard at this challenging time.” Photo of the Healthwatch Wandsworth chair, Stephen Hickey. Page 4 About us Healthwatch Wandsworth is your local health and social care champion. We make sure NHS leaders and decision makers hear your voice and use your feedback to improve care. We can also help you to find reliable and trustworthy information and advice. Our vision A world where we can all get the health and care we need. Our mission To make sure people’s experiences help make health and care better. Our values are: •Listening to people and making sure their voices are heard. •Including everyone in the conversation – especially those who don’t always have their voice heard. •Analysing different people’s experiences to learn how to improve care. •Acting on feedback and driving change. •Partnering with care providers, the Government, and the voluntary sector – serving as the public’s independent advocate. Page 5 Year in review Reaching out Over 1100 people were involved in sharing experiences of health and social care services with us to raise awareness of issues and improve care. Over 6000 people received health and care advice and information online. 70 people contacted us and received information about topics such as mental health and the cost-of-living crisis. Making a difference to care We wrote 14 reports about the improvements people would like to see to health and social care services. Our most popular report was Perinatal Mental health which highlighted the struggles people face maintaining mental wellbeing when pregnant and after giving birth. Health and care that works for you We are lucky to have had 31 outstanding volunteers who gave up their time to make care better for our community. We’re funded by our local authority. In 2022-23 we received £185,810. The same as the previous year. We employed 4 staff, 3.3 full time equivalent, who help us carry out this work. Page 6 How we’ve made a difference this year We use the insight we gather from the public to make the case for improvements in health and social care. How far our evidence or recommendations are acted on by the people who run health and care services can be difficult to measure and can take time. To better understand our impact we surveyed key decision makers. We received 18 responders (13 were from a health or social care commissioning organisation, 5 were health or social care providers, 1 was from a statutory information provider and 2 were from other type of organisation). We learned we had made the following changes in our communities: All said that HWW has increased their insight/knowledge of the community in Wandsworth. 15 said that HWW had strengthened the voice of local people, including those that might not be heard. All said HWW had increased their insight/empowered the community with information to reduce health inequalities (except one who said not applicable). Committing to improvements After speaking to HWW: 11 had committed to improvements or were in the process of doing so. 4 were intending to. (This wasn’t applicable to 3). Making improvements After speaking to HWW: 4 had made improvements. 10 were in the process of or intended to make improvements. (1 was not sure and 2 said it was not applicable). Page 7 Listening to people across our community Photo: Two women talking to an audience. Services can’t make improvements without hearing your views. That’s why over the last year we have made sure we hear feedback from across the community. This allows us to understand the full picture, and feed this back to services and help them improve. Page 8 Advocating for involvement of carers to improve care after hospital. Local carers told us there were many ways care could be improved by involving carers when someone leaves hospital. We’ve advocated for change. Carers told us improvements could be made with: • better Identification of carers and their caring role. • improved communication and information. • improved assessment of carer/caring needs. We worked with Healthwatch England and other local Healthwatches to advocate for change and have continued to do so this year. We started this year with a workshop with people working in health and social care to understand actions that could be progressed. We continued to contribute our insight to improve hospital discharges. Changes to how carers are involved and supported • Greater emphasis on considering carer needs now features in guidance of the Department of Health and Social Care. It includes ensuring carers are identified, kept safe and signposted to help their needs are assessed. • A practical toolkit is being used by 8 hospitals, and St George’s Hospital have committed to using it. The toolkit was informed by our findings, and offers practical tools to help hospitals improve support to carers and discharges through: o better identification of carers and recognition of their role, e.g. it provides example questions for admission forms. o providing information and support and raising awareness of carer rights, e.g. it outlines information carers need. o involving carer in discharge planning, e.g. questions to ask and tips about when and how to involve carers. o supporting the transition to home, e.g. suggestions for discharge plans and sample leaflets and tools for carers. Photo: A screen depicts the hospital discharge toolkit. Sarah Forrester, HW Vice Chair and Governor at St George's Hospital and Wendy Doyle, Head of Patient Engagement stand in front holding a copy of the toolkit. Launch of adoption of Carers Discharge Toolkit at St Georges Hospital. Left: Sarah Forrester (Healthwatch appointed Governor), Middle: Kim Ferns, Head of Nursing, Right: Wendy Doyle Head of Patient Experience and Partnership at St George’s Hospital. Page 9 • The Director of Adult Social Care and Public Health reported on support for carers. He cited our findings that hospital admission adds pressure to carers and increases the level of care and physical and mental fatigue when there is a lack of involvement in discharge planning and post-discharge care. Plans included an initiative to improve identification of carers and support to enable longer term support built around the person. • Wandsworth Council committed to address the issues we raised as they develop a carers’ charter. What difference will this make? Better supported discharges can improve the chance that someone will recover and stay well when they go home from hospital and can prevent returns to hospital. These developments should improve support for patients carers... “It’s incredibly important to hear carers experience in their own words. HWW hold a mirror up to our statutory services so we can see a true reflection rather than what we might want to see. The report on carers’ experience of hospital discharge was the catalyst for launching our multi agency regional project to co-produce a new professionals’ resource with the input of nearly 400 people (including unpaid carers) to support improved experience. Supporting carers is important because of the health inequalities created by the impact of substantial unpaid care can have on carers’ health, wellbeing and ability to juggle work and care, yet it is estimated they contribute over £13.8 billion to the London health and care economy.” Debbie Hustings NHS England London Region - Carers Lead This shows the power of people’s feedback – decision makers are listening to your voice and taking action. “HW have led excellent sessions for health and social care staff to highlight the experience of service users through sharing the feedback they have gained. We have worked more closely with health partners to support carers better when patients are leaving hospital; for example, we have identified a carers' champion and work more closely with partners to identify and support carers of patients in hospital and people in hospital that may be carers themselves.” James Isaacs, Head of Service, Richmond and Wandsworth Social Services Page 10 Amplifying experiences of mental health during and after pregnancy It is common to experience difficulties maintaining mental health wellbeing during and after pregnancy (the perinatal period). This can have an impact on the mental health wellbeing of both parents and their children. We are making sure people in Wandsworth have the mental health support they need. Previously we heard from local people that there needed to be improved: • referrals and reduced waiting times for mental health support. • understanding of perinatal mental health amongst health professionals and better knowledge about when to refer people to support. • co-ordination and continuity of care. • availability of support and face-to-face contact, and better information about it. • greater inclusion and support for family, friends and relatives. This year, we supported the person in charge of the contract for the Health Visiting Service to hear people’s experiences of how the service is identifying and signposting people to mental health support. The feedback has informed a review of the service and recommendations for its future development. We also raised awareness of the issues people were having and discussed them with a variety of people who work with new parents by hosting a workshop. We raised awareness of parent mental health wellbeing workshops. What difference has this made so far? • 185 people were empowered with information about maternal mental health support published on our website. • The perinatal mental health lead working with health visitors told us it was useful to hear the experiences of local people. Since attending our workshop: - face-to-face sessions have been restored and are already decreasing social isolation. - there is a regular information sharing meeting about mental health support available between providers of services. - training in awareness of perinatal mental health in the workforce is needed and we were told that the information HWW circulated about what is available was useful. • Wandsworth Council used the evidence to assess local needs for services and what could be commissioned. • The London Assembly’s Health Committee reflected experiences shared by us in their findings about the need for improvements in maternal health and care in London. We will be monitoring actions they recommended for the Mayor of London. • Wandsworth Talking Therapies are working with maternity wards to provide drop-in sessions. Page 11 Photo: A couple holding a newborn baby. Hearing more from black, Asian and ethnic minority communities We are strengthening the voices of people who identify with black, Asian and ethnic minority groups due to evidence of disparities in experiences in the perinatal stage, recognised health inequalities and limitations in insight available. It is a difficult topic to talk about and new parents have busy lives, so this project could not be rushed. To find people to speak up, we’ve collaborated with local groups including the Ethnicity and Mental Health Improvement hub, Franciscan Road Children’s Centre, Muslim Women’s Network and AGOE Empowerment Network. We spoke to 12 local people in detail. Some told us that they have found it enjoyable and cathartic to take part and we’ve been able to signpost them to a range of organisations in Wandsworth. We will report the stories we have heard soon and will share our findings with people who can make changes. The NHS Integrated Care Board (ICB) will be listening to the results because they have provided some funding towards the costs of the project. Some of our emerging findings Examples of things that can impact on the experience of people relating to ethnicity: • Bias impacts on communication and whether support is offered. • Not being listened to, worries can be dismissed, and concerns are not heard. • Being able to be heard is better the more they have access to an interpreter. • Having advocates or people who are encouraging, and continuity of care is important. • There could be more specific information available about things that people are going through (rather than generic guidance) and opportunities to meet others who might share similar experiences. Page 12 Photo: A group of people sitting around a table during a Healthwatch meeting. Making a difference for the community Throughout our work we speak to people whose experiences aren’t often heard, reaching different communities and gathering information about health inequalities. Getting services to involve the public Services need to understand the benefits of involving local people to help improve care for everyone. Examples this year: We increased insight about how people in the community can champion health issues to tackle health inequalities through our community event (find out more on our website). “The pandemic reminded us that the health of communities is affected by factors outside the NHS’ usual remit and that traditional NHS services are not accessible for all, affecting health outcomes and experience. We’re keen to change how we involve communities to understand how we can deliver services differently and how they can stay healthy and HWW has supported this. We want to better engage with local people, develop culturally aware approaches and understand how to empower people, with methods that are obvious to our community, but the opposite of how we have been operating. We are proud to continue this journey with local people, through organisations like HWW.” Mary Idowu. Deputy Director – Wandsworth Place Partnership, NHS South West London Integrated Care System * We worked with SWL Integrated Care System (ICS) to improve commitments to engagement and involvement in the ICS. We also promoted opportunities for people to be involved in a toolkit that Kingston and St George’s University are developing to ensure patient and public influence in ICSs. Page 13 Improving care over time Change takes time. We often work behind the scenes with services to consistently raise issues and bring about change. Examples this year: • Commitments to improvements in the SWL ICS strategies and Wandsworth Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategies include a focus on dementia support after our contributions to the strategy development. People found out about current support services due to our Dementia Action Week article, which was viewed 240 times. • Our event about GP services ensured experiences of GP services will inform a Primary Care Strategy to improve services. “‘The feedback has been used to inform a South West London Strategy for Primary Care, which was presented to the ICB Board in May, as well as feeding into the development of Wandsworth based delivery plans.” Katie Bugler, Deputy Director for Transforming Primary Care - Merton and Wandsworth, SWL ICB. Creating empathy by bringing experiences to life It’s important for services to see the bigger picture. Hearing personal experiences and the impact on people’s lives provides them with a better understanding of the problems. • Commitments to tackle childhood obesity in Wandsworth were developed in response to local voices through our collaboration with Elays Network, Wandsworth Council and Live Karma Yoga (more below). • We shared evidence and amplified the experiences of people affected by sight loss (more below). • We increased insight from people struggling financially with the impact of the cost of living and empowered people we spoke to with information that might help them. Our survey is still open to understand the longer-term impact, but it is already clear that there has been an impact on mental health wellbeing, including social isolation caused, for example, by less frequent contact with family and friends. Photo: Delia standing by a table ready to speak to people affected by homelessness about the cost of living. Page 14 Tackling childhood obesity Photo: A member of the community posting a post it notes on a board with suggestions on how to tackle childhood obesity. Feedback from workshop attendees displayed on a wall. We ensured a range of voices were heard to generate commitments to tackle child and family obesity by working in partnership with Wandsworth Council, Elays Network and Live Karma Yoga to host community workshops. Our events brought together a range of people, from parents and children who live in areas with higher rates of obesity in primary aged children (Shaftsbury, Queenstown and Battersea), to people who work in health and social care. What difference has this made so far? • Maps of support available and local priorities were co-produced during the events. • An action plan was created and it will tackle issues identified by local people including ‘finance and socioeconomic status’, ‘mental health and positive definitions of healthy weight’, ‘community spaces’, ‘health education and educational establishments’ and ‘wider communications and partnerships’. • Learning will be shared with South West London ICS and others who work to tackle family obesity. The council are using findings as part of a gap analysis on childhood obesity. Childhood obesity is an increasing problem in the UK and a complex issue because unhealthy weight can be affected by a range of factorsfrom environmental factors to lifestyle choices. It needs everyone to be involved in the solutions. The project was funded by a Greater London Authority grant programme aiming to put communities, particularly the most disadvantaged, at the heart of a whole systems approach to tackling obesity. Hear from people in the videos of workshop one and workshop two. The final report and action plan will be available on our website soon. Photo: A map created by one of the tables at the event. “It was fantastic to hear from the community about what it’s really like and their experiences of access to health and wellbeing, issues and support. There’s a lot of information for us to take back to make positive changes for the community that really meets their needs and not just what we think they need.” Kate Jennings, Senior Public Health Lead, Wandsworth Adult Social Care and Public Health Page 15 Amplifying experiences of people affected by sight loss and what could support them Photo: Person with sight loss, walking in a park with a cane. We worked with Wandsworth Council, Age UK Wandsworth , Katherine Low Settlement, Macular Society and Blind Aid to bring people together and empower people with sight loss, sight impairments and dual sensory loss with information about what digital technology is available to support them. Everyone who gave us feedback said they had gained knowledge and had interest in using digital technology after attending. People were also keen to have more opportunities to meet and hear about what is available for them. We made sure that more people could hear about what is available through a press release and sent information to voluntary sector organisations. Our own page has been read 118 times. Evidence in our report about the event also includes other feedback we have received, and we had outlined recommendations for improvements to support. This led to the following commitments to service improvements: * Wandsworth Council intend to consider further: o identifying a location where people with sight impairments and sight loss can touch and feel equipment that can support them and where they can get information. o the possibility of holding an event to bring people together, share experiences and information about support available. o how communications with people with sight loss can be improved. * We will work with St George's Hospital as they work towards improving Accessible Information Standards. * The experiences shared with us underpinned commitments made by South West London ICS to improve services in their new strategy. The insight report they produced referenced our sight loss report seven times. “As a result of the event, we are taking action to reduce inequalities for people with sensory impairment and are exploring how we can work with Healthwatch Wandsworth in delivering some of these actions.” Nadine Hassler, Head of Transformation and Digital, Adult Social Care and Public Health, Wandsworth Council Page 16 Ensuring communities are heard in regional decisions Collaboration between SW London Healthwatch This year we strengthened our collaboration with other Healthwatch in South West London (Merton, Sutton, Richmond, Kingston and Croydon) to make sure communities across South West London are heard in the planning and running of services at ICS level. In late 2022 we recruited an Executive Officer and established a Joint Working Group to facilitate and support greater collaboration between us and with the new South West London ICS. This wouldn’t have been possible without funding from the ICS and our joint efforts to make sure that the arrangements maintain our independence. What difference has this made? Local people who shared their experiences with us directly influenced the ambitions of the ICS because over 100 reports across the six boroughs informed the Integrated Care Strategy and the Joint Forward Plan. Healthwatch Wandsworth was mentioned 75 times in the insight report, from our report ‘Our work with people with dementia and their carers’ to ‘Experiences of health and social care services for people with sight loss’. As the system develops actions to take we continue to ensure what you’ve told us is considered. In May 2023 we contributed to a conference that planned actions to tackle the priorities in the strategies. • We provided insights to inform a Data Strategy and a Digital Strategy. • We convened local dentistry committee leads and the ICS lead for dentistry to share knowledge about issues local people face and prepare for the move to local dentistry decision making. We are encouraging people to share their views here. “South West London ICS values Healthwatch insights that are informing our health and social care priorities, ensuring services meet the needs of our diverse people and communities. Since November 2022 we have worked in partnership with a new South West London Healthwatch Executive Officer. They attend many of our ICS meetings to ensure decisions impacting on people’s lives are guided by our communities’ needs, concerns, and aspirations. We look forward to our continued partnership with our South West London Healthwatch.  By working hand in hand, we ensure that the local communities and carer voice are not only heard, but genuinely valued and acted upon, making a transformative difference in the lives of local people.” Charlotte Gawne, Executive Director of Stakeholder, Partnership Engagement and Communications and Kate Wignall, Health of Patient and Public Engagement. Page 17 Advice and information Photo: Woman in a hospital. Smiling at the camera. With a man pushing a woman in a wheelchair in the background. If you feel lost and don’t know where to turn, Healthwatch is here for you. In times of worry or stress, we can provide confidential support and free information to help you understand your options and get the help you need. Whether it’s finding an NHS dentist, advice on how to make a complaint or choosing a good care home for a loved one – you can count on us. This year we’ve helped people by: * Providing up-to-date information people can trust. * Helping people access the services they need. * Supporting people to look after their health. Page 18 Photo: Woman talking to a nurse in a hospital. Help to get advocacy support When people need support to get the health and social care services they need, sometimes they need an advocate to make sure this happens. We had received some anecdotal feedback from people contacting us that it was difficult to access the advocacy service. We spoke to the people who commission the service and the service manager to see whether there were any barriers to access. We were reassured that there were actions in place to make sure people could access the service on the phone. We also arranged a way that we would be able to directly refer people to Rethink Advocacy. Helping make sure information is available about support with dementia. When we spoke to people affected by dementia and their carers, they told us that it was difficult to find up-to-date information about support available. For Dementia Action Week we called local groups to understand what support they were offering and created a webpage resource. Over 300 people have read this information. We have continued to speak to Wandsworth Council and others to highlight the need for an up-to-date information resource. Wandsworth Council have now created a webpage and have committed to keeping this up-to-date. Wandsworth Carers’ Centre will also be hosting meetings to bring together support organisations and share information about support available. Page 19 Photo: A picture of 5 hands prints in bright colours, containing the names of our volunteers. Thank you…Volunteers We’re supported by a team of amazing volunteers who are at the heart of what we do. Thanks to their efforts in the community, we’re able to understand what is working and what needs improving. This year our volunteers: * Collected people’s experiences and supported their communities to share their views. * Shared views of local people in reports and meetings to help local services improve. * Researched websites of local services to provide people with up-to-date information and helped us analyse information. * Made sure decision makers put people at the heart of decisions. Page 20 Photo: Portrait of a woman looking into the camera with a smile. Oksana “I was associated with Healthwatch Greenwich as an Outreach Volunteer in 2022, gathering input on people’s experiences with their general practitioners. During that time, I met a lot of new individuals who shared with me their stories and associated issues with it. Unfortunately, after the war in Ukraine started I was unable to volunteer any longer. Then, in 2023 I began volunteering at Healthwatch Wandsworth as a Policy and Research Assistant. I was actively involved in the research process, which gave me a great deal of satisfaction as well as new, intriguing, helpful skills and friends. Recently I started a new job as a receptionist at a nearby GP. I found this job opportunity while conducting research on GP websites and decided to give it a go, submitting my CV on their website. I feel like the experience gained with Healthwatch definitely opened doors to my professional career in the health field.” Fatima “Volunteering with Healthwatch Wandsworth (HWW) has so far been an enjoyable and worthwhile experience for me. I have gained useful insight into the work Healthwatch is doing to help improve health and care for everyone. I have also had an opportunity to identify my strengths and reflect on the type of voluntary work I would like to be involved with at HWW in the coming years. I am hoping to help make a difference and give something back to the community, e.g. through participating in outreach events. One of my tasks was attending a carers' workshop online about carers' experiences of accessing health and social care services during the pandemic. I wrote a report of the workshop for the HWW newsletter. My listening skills came in handy for this task, although I did find the report writing slightly daunting to begin with, HW England have since released some online training courses that I hope to complete when time permits. Another task involved updating a list of the different support services available in the community for people suffering from dementia and their carers, as part of the Dementia Awareness Week. I also attended an informative session on 'Health Inequalities' online, a subject I am passionate about and would like to be more involved with in the future. Knowing the problem exists and issues around it are being acknowledged and addressed is encouraging.” Do you feel inspired? We are always on the lookout for new volunteers, so please get in touch today. www.healthwatchwandsworth.co.uk 020 8516 7767 enquiries@healthwatchwandsworth.co.uk Page 21 Finance and future priorities To help us carry out our work we receive funding from our local authority under the Health and Social Care Act 2012. Our income and expenditure Income Contract income from Wandsworth Council: £185,810 Additional Income: £9,151 Total income: £194,961 Expenditure Expenditure on pay: £128,984 Overheads and management: £60,126 Total expenditure: £189,110 We received a total of £18,951 additional income. £9,151 has been included in the figures above for 2022-3 and £9800 has been carried forward to the next year for ongoing work. Please note: these figures have been taken from management data and have not yet been formally examined or audited and therefore may be subject to future adjustment. Next Steps In the ten years since Healthwatch was launched, we’ve demonstrated the importance of involving the public in decisions about health and care. The aftereffects of the pandemic and a ‘Cost of Living’ crisis have had lasting effects on people and the health and care system. Over the next year we will continue our role in collecting feedback from our community and giving them a voice in collaborative efforts to bring positive changes during challenging times for all. We will also continue our work to make sure health inequalities are tackled and to reduce barriers to accessing care. Top priorities for 2023-24 1. Mental health. 2. Hospital Discharge. 3. Working with community-based health champions. 4. Ensuring the patient and community voice has influence in the ICS. Read more details in our business plan. Page 22 Photo: Two young women talking to each other. Statutory statements Healthwatch Wandsworth, Wandsworth Care Alliance, 3rd Floor Tooting Works, 89 Bickersteth Road, Tooting, SW17 9SH Healthwatch Wandsworth uses the Healthwatch Trademark when undertaking our statutory activities as covered by the licence agreement. Page 23 The way we work Involvement of volunteers and lay people in our governance and decision-making We have a Healthwatch Committee with eight members who volunteer their time to oversee and scrutinise our work and steer our direction. The Committee ensures that decisions about our priorities reflect the concerns and interests of our diverse local community. Throughout 2022/23 the Board met five times, agreed priorities for the year, monitored progress against objectives and advised on key issues such as emerging concerns around primary care and other services. We ensure wider public involvement in deciding our work priorities through surveys and information and signposting queries. Methods and systems used to hear people’s experiences We use a range of approaches to ensure as many people as possible can provide us with insight about their experience of using services and are committed to taking additional steps to ensure we obtain views of people from diverse backgrounds who are often not heard. During 2022/23 we have been available by phone, email and through social media, as well as attending meetings of community groups and forums. We have used telephone interviews, interpreters and work with trusted community-based leaders when needed, for example in our perinatal mental health and sight loss work mentioned earlier in the report. We ensure our Annual Report is made available to members of the public and partner organisations and publish it on our website. Taking people’s experiences to decision makers Our representatives including our Chair, Committee members, volunteers and staff attend a wide range of meetings with local decision makers, including the local authority, acute and mental health trusts, primary care providers and strategic boards. Their role is to ensure that decision makers remain constantly focused on the needs of local people and that they hear experiences shared with us. For example, our Chair, Stephen Hickey attends the Wandsworth Health and Wellbeing Board, the Adult Social Care Health Committee (formally Overview and Scrutiny Committee), Wandsworth ICB Health and Care Partnership Board, Wandsworth ICB Health and Care Committee and Merton and Wandsworth Health and Care Board. We also take insight to decision makers in South West London ICS and ensure they are putting patients at the centre of their decisions. In collaboration with other South West London Healthwatch and represented by Alyssa Chase-Vilchez, Executive Officer, we contribute to the Integrated Care Partnership Board, the Integrated Care Board, SWL Digital Board, System Quality Council, People and Communities Engagement and Assurance Assembly, Health Inequalities and Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Board and Patient Experience and Engagement group. We also share our data with Healthwatch England to help address health and care issues nationally. Page 24 Responses to recommendations Most providers and commissioners responded and acknowledged our recommendations, but continued pressures on services, including a high demand for services, high staff vacancies and changes within organisations meant that we did not always get the responses we would have pre-pandemic. We have not yet returned to a regular routine of contact and liaison meetings and opportunities to discuss actions, but stakeholders are keen to remain in contact and review our recommendations. We hope to see increased collaboration across organisations as the ICS settles and will continue to increase the collaboration in our own work. We did not escalate specific issues directly to the Healthwatch England Committee for review or investigation, but we contributed our insight regularly at Healthwatch network meetings. Enter and view This year, support for people living with dementia and their carers was one of the priority topics identified by Healthwatch Wandsworth in the light of feedback from local people. Therefore, we made two Enter and View visits to the Gwynneth Morgan Day Centre, a specialist service in Wandsworth for older people, people with a physical disability and adults with dementia who have assessed eligible needs under the Care Act 2014. We reported seven recommendations to the local authority commissioners and the provider of this service and are expecting a response shortly. Table: 2022–2023 Outcomes Column 1: Project / activity Column 2: Changes made to services 1. Hospital discharges See pages 8-9. 2. Perinatal mental health See pages 10 – 11. 3. Dementia service provision and support for carers See pages 13 and 18. 4. Strengthening links with communities and groups who experience health inequalities See examples in pages 8-16. 5. Reviewing Wandsworth Council’s Social Care Front Door approach to holistically help people to remain independent. We prepared an Enter and View of the service, but were told the service was delayed so we postponed our work. We met with managers of the service later in the year who confirmed the service would not be established to the extent that a visit would be viable in 2022-23. We instead decided to visit the Gwynneth Morgan Centre to align with priority number 3. 6. Local information and co-design during the implementation of social care reforms We discussed implementation of reforms and communications about them with Wandsworth Council and provided insight from our work and Healthwatch England. We planned to support two community workshops in 2023. However, the timeline for reforms changed so this did not take place. We did take part in preparations for the peer review process introduced as part of a new CQC framework. Page 25 Photo: Healthwatch Wandsworth logo graphic Contact information: Healthwatch Wandsworth, 3rd Floor Tooting Works, 89 Bickersteth Road, Tooting, SW17 9SH. www.healthwatchwandsworth.co.uk telephone: 020 8516 7767 e-mail: enquiries@healthwatchwandsworth.co.uk Find us on social media: Twitter: @HWWands Facebook: facebook.com/hwwands Instagram: @healthwatchw LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/wandsworth-care-alliance/ Amplifying experiences of mental health during and after pregnancy Previously we heard from local people that there needed to be improved: • referrals and reduced waiting times for mental health support. • understanding of perinatal mental health amongst health professionals and better knowledge about when to refer people to support. • co-ordination and continuity of care. • availability of support and face-to-face contact, and better information about it. • greater inclusion and support for family, friends and relatives. This year, we supported the person in charge of the contract for the Health Visiting Service to hear people’s experiences of how the service is identifying and signposting people to mental health support. The feedback has informed a review of the service and recommendations for its future development. We also raised awareness of the issues people were having and discussed them with a variety of people who work with new parents by hosting a workshop. We raised awareness of parent mental health wellbeing workshops. Throughout our work we speak to people whose experiences aren’t often heard, reaching different communities and gathering information about health inequalities. Ensuring communities are heard in regional decisions Advice and information If you feel lost and don’t know where to turn, Healthwatch is here for you. In times of worry or stress, we can provide confidential support and free information to help you understand your options and get the help you need. Whether it’s finding an NHS dentist, advice on how to make a complaint or choosing a good care home for a loved one – you can count on us. This year we’ve helped people by: • Providing up-to-date information people can trust. • Helping people access the services they need. • Supporting people to look after their health. Volunteers We’re supported by a team of amazing volunteers who are at the heart of what we do. Thanks to their efforts in the community, we’re able to understand what is working and what needs improving. This year our volunteers: • Collected people’s experiences and supported their communities to share their views. • Shared views of local people in reports and meetings to help local services improve. • Researched websites of local services to provide people with up-to-date information and helped us analyse information. • Made sure decision makers put people at the heart of decisions. Finance and future priorities To help us carry out our work we receive funding from our local authority under the Health and Social Care Act 2012. Our income and expenditure Statutory statements Healthwatch Wandsworth, Wandsworth Care Alliance, 3rd Floor Tooting Works, 89 Bickersteth Road, Tooting, SW17 9SH Healthwatch Wandsworth uses the Healthwatch Trademark when undertaking our statutory activities as covered by the licence agreement. The way we work Involvement of volunteers and lay people in our governance and decision-making We have a Healthwatch Committee with eight members who volunteer their time to oversee and scrutinise our work and steer our direction. The Committee ensures that decisions about our priorities reflect the concerns and interests of our diverse local community. Throughout 2022/23 the Board met five times, agreed priorities for the year, monitored progress against objectives and advised on key issues such as emerging concerns around primary care and other services. We ensure wider public involvement in deciding our work priorities through surveys and information and signposting queries.