About Healthwatch

Healthwatch Annual Richmond Report 2014/2015 Contents Chair’s foreword 4 Chief Officer’s foreword 5 About Healthwatch 6 Highlights 7 Engaging with people who use health and social care services 8 Young people (under 21) 8 Older people (over 65) 9 People volunteering or working in Richmond 9 People who are seldom heard 10 Disadvantaged or vulnerable People 10 Public engagement events 11 Networking 11 Enter and View 12 Nightingale House 12 Recruitment 13 Enter and View Authorised Representatives 13 Providing information and signposting 14 Influencing decision makers with evidence from local people 16 GP visits 16 Inpatient mental health services in South West London 18 WMUH transaction with Chelsea and Westminster NHS Trust 19 Quality Accounts 19 Conflict of interest 20 Residential care 20 Communications 22 Public events 23 Participating in boards 25 Boards and committees 29 2 = Working with others to improve local services 30 Nightingale House 30 Quality standards 30 Requests for information 32 Our plans for 2015/16 34 Opportunities and challenges for the future 34 Planned work for the future 34 Our governance and decision making 36 Making decisions about Healthwatch activities 36 Involving volunteers in Healthwatch activities 36 Our board for 2014-15 36 Financial information 37 Contact us 38 Case Studies St Mary’s freshers fair 8 The Care Act 11 GP practices 13 West Middlesex University Hospital 17 Nightingale House 21 Working with the Health and Wellbeing Board 27 Chudleigh House 31 Sharing reports and the Quality Information Sharing Group 33 3 Chair’s foreword It’s been a busy and services. These substantial projects, fascinating year for however, represent just a small cross- the Board and the section of how we are engaging with and team, with many representing the community’s views to opportunities for us ensure that health and social care know to get involved and and respond to patients’ views. engage the community on their experience of This will (probably) be the last annual health and social care report that I introduce. As Healthwatch in the borough. The Richmond has been growing over the past feedback you give us year, we have reviewed how we operate is making a difference. and how we can engage more people more effectively in our work. So we will We are delighted as a result that our shortly be creating a new Healthwatch contract to deliver Healthwatch Richmond Richmond Committee, and appointing has been extended by the London Borough someone to chair that committee. This of Richmond upon Thames Council until will be separate from the Board of M arch 2017. Richmond Health Voices - the body that has the contract to deliver Healthwatch We’ve taken forward our work on GP Richmond. practices in the borough, undertaking Enter and View visits to several different There will be opportunities for new practices. We’ve started work on social volunteers to join the Healthwatch care, visiting some residential care homes Committee. If you would like to be and undertaking a consultation on the involved with this, or any other of our implications of the Care Act for the activities, please do get in touch. The Council. more people who get involved, the more we can achieve. We’ve engaged young people on health and social care issues, and begun a new project on children’s mental health Amanda Brooks, Chair 4 = Chief Officer’s foreword Over the past This report covers a period over which we year we have have grown from an ambitious start-up become an to an effective and performing consumer organisation champion for Richmond. There is room for that makes a further growth and development and we difference to look forward to meeting these challenges care locally and over the coming year. nationally, that gives local people To do so we will be reviewing our a meaningful governance, revisiting our strategy, say in NHS and improving the way we support our social services volunteers and how we involve people decisions, listens to people and has helped in Healthwatch. We’ll also develop our people to find the information they need. communication to help us engage more people and make a bigger difference over As well as the hard work of our staff, our the coming year. success has been due to the dedication, skill and hard work of our volunteers and our Board. Both retain a good mix of people continuing the legacy of our predecessor Richmond LINk and of people new to Healthwatch. We are truly grateful for their commitment and for their support. We encourage anyone with an interest to get in touch and take part in our work. Mike Derry, Chief Officer 5 About Healthwatch Healthwatch Richmond exists to make health and social care better for the local community. Our role is to ensure that local health and social care services, and the local decision makers, put the experiences of people at the heart of local care. We believe that the best way to do this is by designing local services around people’s needs and experiences. Everything we say and do is informed by our connections to local people and our expertise is grounded in their experience. Healthwatch is the only body looking solely at people’s experience across NHS and social services. We are uniquely placed as a network, with a local Healthwatch in every local authority area in England and Healthwatch England, supporting our voice at a national level. We’re set up by government as an independent statutory watchdog for NHS and social care. This gives us powers to enter places where care is provided, to request information and to get responses to our reports. 63 and Admit 4 giving 1000 People Outreach One Events their say sessions Visits to West visiting 6 Wards Improved Middlesex local care 34 University 2 Patients homes Hospital 116 Bulletins 10 Visits to 67 75 Boards and local GP 220 Opportunities committees practices promoted 6 = Highlights Giving people a voice in the NHS We also made a difference at national and social care level with the CQC committing to improve the way it regulates supported living. Through 63 outreach sessions and visits, and 4 public events we gave over 1000 people a say in local care and promoted “reviewing how to improve its approach to Healthwatch. regulating supported living services that provide personal care and talking to the We sent 67 bulletins and newsletters Department in relation to this.” giving people information on 220 opportunities to have their say. Director General of Social Care, Local Government and Care Partnerships Members of the community were supported to sit on 75 external committees where they spoke directly to Hospitals decision makers. Through 34 visits to 6 wards at West Identified as best practice Middlesex University Hospital we spoke to over 100 patients and worked with staff Healthwatch Richmond was identified to turn their experiences into meaningful as an example of good practice by change including bringing nurses closer to Healthwatch England and we took part patients. in to two national research projects reviewing the performance of and setting We also ran an event for our volunteers quality standards for Healthwatch. The to quiz West Middlesex and Chelsea and way we work is used to demonstrate good Westminster on their planned merger and practice to support the work of other provide a formal response to this. Healthwatch. General Practice Improving care locally and nationally We responded to the local interest in general practice by making 10 visits to Our work led to improvements at two local practices leading to improvements in local care homes access and information. “Staff are spending more time at Chudleigh house and there was notable improvement” A resident’s advocate 7 Engaging with people who use health and social care services During 2014-15 we delivered an Healthwatch Kingston on: Joint extensive programme of work to ‘ Youth Engagement obtain the views and experiences Staff at Twickenham Academy of the community about NHS ‘ and social care services through As a result of this we: visiting community groups, events Engaged with almost 200 young and places. Our visits promoted ‘ people Healthwatch Richmond, supported Developed strong relationships people to access our services and ‘ with the key organisations that will brought our signposting service to support future engagement with the community. children and young people Identified the need to develop We used what people told us to set ‘ a work stream with Child and our work priorities, to shape our Adolescent Mental Health Services responses to consultations and to make Supported the development of the recommendations for local and national Local Offer for children and young statutory partners. ‘ people as part of the Children and Healthwatch Annual Reports are Families Act required to explain how we gathered the experiences of the following groups: Young people (under 21) St Mary’s University freshers fair Our work to engage children and young In September 2014 we visited people saw us participate in an average of St Mary’s University to speak to one session a month with young people, students about their health and either directly or by engaging with the provide signposting information. groups that support them, including the To engage students in our work following: and encourage them to sign up to hear more from us, we asked Richmond Youth Council students “Where would you go if ‘ Paernts Self Advocacy Group you suspected a broken bone?” We signed up over 150 students, ‘ Parent and Toddler Group St Mary who we continue to engage with. Magdalene’s Church ‘ Of those that we spoke to, only 7% Freshers Fair St Mary’s University knew where to go if they thought ‘ Children’s Centre Managers they had broken a bone.

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