Annual Report 2019-20 - Guided by you

Our public workshop and survey in May 2019, in partnership with the Northamptonshire Health and Care Partnership (NHCP), was a great success and people’s views are being used to inform how the priorities in the NHS Long Term Plan are being implemented in Northamptonshire, as well as being part of the 40,000 responses to Healthwatch England’s national survey.

We continued our programme of ward visits to Kettering General Hospital, visited the local crisis care cafés and crisis houses to see what mental health support is available in an emergency, and our Young Healthwatch Northamptonshire went from strength to strength and were nominated for another PENNA award for the work they did with Kettering General and Northampton General Hospitals. Healthwatch Northamptonshire was also highly commended for our work finding out about the health and care needs of the Armed Forces community at the Healthwatch Network Awards in the autumn.

It was also a more successful year financially as our partners commissioned additional work from us above our core statutory duties to enable us to do things we wouldn’t have been able to do otherwise, such as an independent review of the local health and wellbeing fora unique to Northamptonshire.

Highlights of 2019-20 included:

• Engaging with people about the NHS Long Term Plan and continuing to contribute to the Northamptonshire Health and Care Partnership.
• Ensuring children and young people, including young carers, have a voice in decision making through our Young Healthwatch group and projects.
• Visiting services to look at local mental health crisis support and provision.
• Working with Northamptonshire Adult Social Services (NASS) to review the services provided to their customers.
• Keeping abreast of changes to the way primary care is organised and how the public are involved.
• Continuing to provide high quality and accessible information and working in partnership with others to have the most influence and impact.

Young Healthwatch Northamptonshire Annual Report 2019-20

Young Healthwatch Northamptonshire has had a busy year too!

We have seen some of our fantastic volunteers head off to university to study medicine and have welcomed some new volunteers. Our volunteers now range from 11-19 years old. We have forged great partnerships with local services such as Northamptonshire’s Young Carers Service to make sure that young carers are included in the conversations around health and social care locally and nationally, and have built on our valued relationships with local service providers across Northamptonshire, including both Northampton General Hospital and Kettering General Hospital. We have also continued to upskill our volunteers and offer them new experiences, but most importantly we have continued to make a difference to health and social care for young people in Northamptonshire while having fun and making friends.