Agenda item

[The current Healthwatch (Wolverhampton) contract is due for renewal in April 2022. The Council wishes to engage with local people including key partners in health and social care, service users and their families/carers in order to shape and enhance the new Healthwatch (Wolverhampton) provision].

The Deputy Director for Adult Services presented the item on Healthwatch pre-tender engagement activity.  She stated that the Healthwatch contract was up for renewal next year, when the current contract came to an end in March 2022.  Given the importance of Healthwatch, particularly in the current climate and as the country began to recover from Covid and learn from the last 18 months, it was crucial that the voices of people in the City were heard.  Lived experience was incredibly important to Adult Services when they were delivering services and improving the delivery of service.  It was essential to the practice model in Wolverhampton.  They were keen to obtain the views of Members of the Health Scrutiny Panel, so these could be incorporated into the work on the contract. 

 

The Commissioning Officer gave a presentation on Healthwatch Wolverhampton.  The engagement exercise was to inform the development of the service specification.  They wanted to hear the views of the general public and stakeholders to see what they could do to improve the service specification.  A 12-week consultation had taken place which ran from the 1 April 2021 to 24 June 2021.  The consultation process had taken place online because of Covid-19.  It had been promoted through press releases, various websites and media platforms including CCG, Wolverhampton Voluntary Sector Council and the current Healthwatch Wolverhampton service, in addition to individual communications aimed at all Social Care providers. 

 

The Commissioning Officer commented that whilst the official engagement exercise had finished, she was still happy to incorporate any feedback from the Health Scrutiny Panel, up until the point when the official document had to be submitted to procurement for the official tender process.  The new service had to be in place by 1 April 2022.  There had also been four on-line workshop meetings.  She had been working with Children and Young people to support input specifically from young people through an on-line workshop. 

 

The Commissioning Officer remarked that the overarching purpose of Healthwatch Wolverhampton was to improve local health and Social Care services through:-

 

 

·       Championing the views of local people who use health and Social Care services by ensuring that their collective voices are heard, and views and experiences are used to improve existing services and to help shape future provision at both an operational and strategic level.

 

·       Ensuring that action is taken to resolve concerns and problems in relation to services and to prevent them from arising again. 

 

·       Signposting individuals to the most appropriate services.

 

 

All local Healthwatch’s had an overall arching body, Healthwatch England. They determined to a large extent the operational parameters for all local Healthwatch organisations.  The parameters were as follows: -

·       Promoting and supporting the involvement of people in the commissioning and scrutiny of local services.

 

·       Enabling people to monitor the standard or provision of local services and to influence improvements.

 

·       Obtaining people’s views of local services and making them known to relevant organisations.

 

·       Reporting / recommending improvements to services.

 

·       Providing advice and information about access to local services.

 

·       Making recommendations to Healthwatch England to advise the Care Quality Commission.

 

·       Providing Healthwatch England with the intelligence and insight needed to enable it to perform effectively.

 

 

The Commissioner commented that to avoid conflicting with Healthwatch England’s operational requirements, the focus of the engagement had encompassed local aspect of service delivery.  This included: -

 

·       The means of raising local awareness through promotion and understanding of the service. 

 

·       The means of local engagement to gather views, report back and establish annual priorities.

 

·       Membership of various local and regional boards, committees and networks to optimise the ability to influence meaningful changes, both operational and strategic.

 

·       Local performance measures to support the achievement of the aspects referred to as above.

 

The Commissioner asked the question, “Do you think that Healthwatch (Wolverhampton) could improve awareness and /or understanding of its services to local people? If ‘yes,’ how?  

 

The Chair responded to the question stating that the organisation of Healthwatch did need promoting.  She had not been aware of Healthwatch until she had become a Council Member.  There probably would have been a couple of occasions in the past where she or her family would have approached Healthwatch had they had known about them.  She believed that certain sections of the Wolverhampton community were aware of Healthwatch but certainly not the population as a whole.  The Commissioner agreed with the Chair’s comments.  Promotion and raising awareness of Healthwatch was a key area for the future.  Even the people that were aware of Healthwatch were not necessarily clear as to their responsibilities.  There was an inner circle of people that had a relationship with Healthwatch, this needed to change and be expanded.  This was clear from the feedback received to date.

 

The Commissioner asked Members a second question of, “How you would prefer to communicate your views and experiences in respect of health and care services and priority setting in addition to receiving feedback from Healthwatch (Wolverhampton)? 

 

·       Organised face-to-face events

·       Confidential telephone line

·       Existing forums / groups

·       Postal – paper questionnaires / feedback forms

·       Online – questionnaires / feedback, forums

·       Social Media – Facebook / Twitter

·       Other (please state)

 

 

The Chair responded that she felt it should be a mixture of communication methods and finding the right balance was key.  The Scrutiny Officer commented that in the last municipal year, the Health Scrutiny Panel had received a presentation from the Youth Council on mental health.  As part of this presentation it had been clear that TiKTok was one of the most used social media platforms by young people and Instagram.  More organisations including the Council were starting to use these social media platforms to reach a wider audience. 

 

The Vice-Chair commented part of the reason for the existence of Healthwatch was to identify areas that had gone wrong and to report back so things could be improved.  He thought it was important for Healthwatch to identify services which had improved because of their work.  It needed to be clear where the outcomes were to prove value for money.  He felt more could be done to publicise their work and their achievements.  The Commissioner concurred with these views and stated that it would be reflected in the new service specification.  A robust performance management framework would be put in place with quarterly meetings with Commissioning.  It would be a tighter process, which would include partnership working with the Local Authority.

 

The Scrutiny Officer spoke on the subject of Webinars.  He thought a Webinar about Healthwatch could add value which could be posted for people to watch at their convenience at a later date on the website and social media channels.

 

The Commissioning Officer asked Members a third question, which was, “Healthwatch (Wolverhampton) is expected to be an active member of various local and regional boards, committees and networks etc, to optimise the ability to influence change at operational and strategic levels.  Which boards, committees and networks do you feel that Healthwatch (Wolverhampton) should be members of and why in terms of the impact that this would make?

It was confirmed that for this question, Members of the Panel would write in with any comments.  The Chair however did have two questions of her own.  She asked how, did Officers see Healthwatch’s role in the Integrated Care System. 

 

The Deputy Director for Adult Services responded that the role of Healthwatch in the Integrated Care System and Integrated Care Partnership was an important subject matter.  They were invited members to both the Integrated Care System and the Partnership, which covered Wolverhampton.  The Integrated Care System was currently in a transition period with a mandate to bring about significant change.  With change came challenge, there was a considerable amount of engagement that needed to be done around the Integrated Care System.  The Healthwatch role would be vital in sharing views of Wolverhampton residents and holding the health system to account for the services which were being delivered and changing.  Healthwatch’s role would therefore be a crucial one.

 

The Chair asked if the new contract could have a requirement that the three positions given to Healthwatch on the Health Scrutiny Panel were filled and if there were vacancies going forward that they were filled swiftly.  She didn’t want long-term vacancies on the Panel, there was currently one long-term vacancy to fill.  The Commissioner responded that she would ensure there weren’t long-term vacancies in the future and would hold them to account on this point. 

 

The Vice Chair asked if the Commissioner could provide a summary of some of the main themes of the feedback received to date from the engagement exercise.  The Commissioner responded that there were some overarching themes.  One of the main themes was the awareness of Healthwatch and understanding of its role and responsibilities.  They had asked people why they had contacted Healthwatch.  The main contacts were as expected, those being, to ask for service information and to share experiences and complain.  The most popular means of communication was online and at actual events.  The Service specification would include a range of communication methods which worked well for the citizens of Wolverhampton.  It would be subject to influence and change.

 

The Commissioner remarked that there had been a whole myriad of response to the question about which boards, committees and networks Healthwatch should form a part.  It ranged from health groups, particularly mental health, Public Health forums, young people and disabilities, faith groups, ethnic minority groups, LGBTQ+ groups, trans groups, over 50s forums, all manner of NHS forums and schools.  The range of groups highlighted the lack of understanding about Healthwatch role as they could not possibly attend all of them.  Healthwatch was an influencer and an enabler service as opposed to a doing service. 

 

The specific areas which they felt Healthwatch should focus on included GP Services particularly waiting times, attitudes and there being an inadequate number of GPs. There had also been responses regarding cancer services, the post Covid impact, services for the trans community, obesity, dental care, health and wellbeing, exercise, mental health, domiciliary care services and scrutiny of NHS decisions. 

 

The Commissioner commented that other useful additional comments had included more robust reporting, communicating and seeing through recommendations.  A comment had been made about the importance of having a joined-up approach to ensure systematic change could take place.  Another point which had been raised was Healthwatch working with the Council in partnership.   Due to Healthwatch Wolverhampton only currently having 6 staff, it was important for some of the regional staff to attend meetings to free up some of their time at a local level.  It had also been raised that the priorities of Healthwatch should be aligned with the overall health system. 

 

The Commissioner commented that there had been some points raised about internal governance and decision making.  The composition of the Board and how it changed or people being re-elected needed to be addressed.   The voluntary sector wanted to be involved in decision making at a local level.  This would be built into the new contract, as they wanted local decisions taken by local people to feed into the wider healthcare agenda. 

 

The Commissioner asked a final question to Members which was, “In terms of local measures, are there any specific indicators that you feel should be set for the new service?”

 

The Chair commented that she would await written responses from Members on this question.  She added that it had been a difficult time for Healthwatch during Covid because they had not been able to carry out some of their normal responsibilities such as enter and view.  The Deputy Director for Adult Services agreed and added that they had supported residents in care homes when they could, when restrictions had allowed.  They had visited some care homes when allowed to do so and so adult services had benefited from their input.  She added this was information which would be good for Healthwatch to directly feedback.  The Scrutiny Officer commented that he had just been sent the Healthwatch Wolverhampton Annual Report.  This would be a good opportunity for Healthwatch to report back on the work they had completed.  It normally came to one of the Panel meetings in the Municipal year.  He would circulate the report to Panel Members within the next day. 

 

The Chair thank the Scrutiny Officer and the Scrutiny and Systems Manager for their help in running the first hybrid meeting of the Health Scrutiny Panel in the Council Chamber.  She thanked Members and Officers for their contributions during the meeting.  The next meeting would be a Special Meeting on Urology Services on Thursday, 29 July 2021 at 1:45pm.