What is social value?

Social value is the wider positive economic, social and environmental impact your organisation has on society.

This impact is often measured using proxy values attributed to things such as improving local people’s skills, using local suppliers for goods and services or reducing carbon emissions. But it also includes telling the story about how your organisation operates in an ethical way to achieve these things.

Why think about social value?

Social value is part of the overall narrative about how Healthwatch benefits local residents. Although you may only be specifically asked about it as part of the tender process for your contract, thinking about it more routinely as part of your annual planning cycle will not only strengthen your tender response but also increase ongoing public and stakeholder support.

Different angles on social value

There are two ways of looking at the added social value of a Healthwatch service.

One way is to consider the added social and economic benefits linked to improvements made to healthcare services due to your insight. Your work contributes to people being more able to retain their employment, maintain a stable home, be socially active, focus on education and can reduce pressure on carers. Reduction of health inequalities can also benefit healthcare services by reducing demand. These links can easily be forgotten, so it’s useful to find opportunities to remind stakeholders, such as local councillors, about them as you talk about the impact achieved from investing in Healthwatch.

However, service commissioners view this social value achieved through the delivery of your core contract requirements as 'benefits realisation'. It's part of the rationale for why they are commissioning the service in the first place.

What they are looking for you to address during a procurement process is the additional social value you will bring through doing things over and above core activities and contract requirements. How will your socially responsible approach to the delivery of the contract benefit the community and wider society?

Social value as part of your contract tender process

The Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012 requires public authorities to consider how delivery of procured contracts could improve ‘economic, social and environmental well-being’ in their area. Scoring of tenders for contracts now typically includes between 5% and 20% based on the provider’s commitment to deliver additional social value.

While nationally commissioned public contracts tend to use the Cabinet Office’s Social Value Model, local authorities usually use either the National themes, outcomes and measures (TOMs) model from the Social Value Portal or their own locally developed social value framework. A new ‘TOMs Light’ was introduced to encourage further take-up of this model.

Both the Social Value Model and the TOMs model contain lists of social value outcomes that potential providers are asked to address and instructions for evaluating the responses. There’s usually a quantitative element with financial values attached and a qualitative element related to the plan or 'method statement' the provider gives to explain how they will achieve the outcomes. Usually, local authorities have one procurement team member who leads on social value as an additional responsibility.

Ideally, the approach shouldn't be totally prescriptive but instead, give broad category headings from TOMs or the council’s own framework priorities – such as achieving net zero or 'developing a strong, resilient local community' – and ask you to refer to the relevant framework to propose what you’ll deliver. This helps ensure your offer is relevant, proportionate and within your gift in relation to the contract itself. Less sophisticated and probably less helpful is when the question you’re asked to address more vaguely asks, 'What social value will you bring'.

Part of business as usual

One of the best ways to strengthen your organisation’s position on social value when it comes to tendering for a new contract is to have already embedded it into your wider planning cycle.

If you’ve not already, then may now is the time to introduce a social value strategy and policy and an ethical procurement policy. Following that, develop an annual action plan with objectives to contribute to positive change through your added social value.

Thanks to Carol Glenn, Social Value Programme Manager, Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council for advice during the writing of this item.

We have lots of guidance and support to make your job quicker and easier, from planning through to analysis and publishing your findings.

Alongside the research team’s support, we have a range of resources designed to help you carry out research. These resources are part of the core skills framework, which staff can use to brush up on any skills they need for their current role at Healthwatch.

What does this guide cover?

This guide covers all aspects of planning, carrying out and writing up a research project, including:

• Learning the basics
• Planning your research
• Using specific research methods
• Data collection and storage
• Data analysis
• Inclusive research
• Presenting your findings

New to research?

We have introductory guidance on qualitative research and quantitative research to help you get to grips with the basics of both approaches. These documents will help you to understand the differences between quantitative and qualitative approaches and when each approach is appropriate. Both resources introduce you to concepts and ideas that our other resources will build on.

You can also learn about the research process and what carrying out a piece of research from start to finish will look like. This guidance also contains a Gantt chart template that you can use to help you plan your research in the future.

Planning your research

There is also guidance on starting research projects, which looks at setting aims and objectives, and e-learning on planning research projects, which helps ensure your research project goes smoothly.

When planning your research, thinking about bias, ethics, and risk is essential.

Our guidance on bias introduces different types of bias you should consider. Our guidance on ethics and risk includes considerations about data protection and security, the wellbeing of participants, and the risk to Healthwatch, including risks to those carrying out the research.

If you plan on working in partnership with another organisation, we have guidance to help you consider how this could impact your work. This includes how to maintain independence and integrity, how to create a conflict-of-interest policy and considerations about intellectual property rights.  

Using specific research methods

To help you, we have different guidance on survey research, including guidance on survey development and e-learning on survey design, which cover tips and best practices for survey research. Alongside our guidance on survey development, you can use the guidance on writing your own survey questions and a question bank, which contains various template questions for you.

To make things easier for you, there is also a template cost of living survey, which you can use to collect information about the impact of the cost of living on people’s health and wellbeing.

If you’re new to Smart Survey, don’t forget to check out the guidance showing you how to get started.

We have information and guidance on carrying out mystery shopping and Enter and Views too, with an Enter and View training pack.

Data collection and storage

The guidance on getting the right sample introduces you to different sampling methods and provides examples of projects to outline when each sampling approach could be appropriate.

There’s guidance on how to collect demographics and use demographic data and an e-learning course on demographics. These resources cover why it’s essential that we collect demographic data, which questions you should ask, when it’s best to ask demographic questions and tips to support you in asking for demographic information.

We also have guidance on partnering with local GPs to contact patients via text message.

To help ensure that you comply with legal regulations around data collection, we have e-learning about the UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and guidance wording consent. 

Data analysis

The guidance on analysing qualitative data takes you through why it’s important to analyse qualitative data, how to prepare your data for analysis and the process for coding your data. This helps you easily identify, explore and explain key themes to present your findings.  

Our introductory guidance on quantitative research highlights methods of descriptive and comparative analyses that you can use to make sense of the data you’ve collected. This includes top tips for analysing and visualising your data. 

We also have a five-part e-learning course on using Excel. In addition to introducing Excel, these courses also show you how to carry out descriptive and comparative quantitative data analyses, covering data organisation and transformation; visualising data using charts and tables; pivot tables; using formulas; and aggregating data.

If you are using Smart Survey, take a look at the guidance on using the analysis tools it provides, which can let you look at both text and numerical responses, break your data into subgroups, and create charts.

Making sure your research is inclusive

In addition to the resources on using demographic data, we have a range of resources dedicated to helping you listen to people from specific groups. This includes:

• People with learning disabilities
• People experiencing homelessness
• Refugees and asylum seekers
• Young people

We also have advice on:

• Working closely with local communities
• Working with seldom heard groups
• Co-producing with people from seldom heard groups

Presenting your findings

To make things easier when it comes to writing your report check out the guidance on how to write up your research and engagement findings. This resource takes you through the four areas your report needs to cover, how to present your findings and recommendations and how to finalise your report. We have targeted guidance on developing effective recommendations to help ensure that your report has impact and helps to achieve change.

We also have guidance on quality assurance, so you can ensure that you’re confident in the quality of your work before making it available to the public or sharing it with stakeholders.

About the logo

The Quality Framework is a self-assessment process that helps a local Healthwatch understand what aspects of your service are working well and identify areas for further improvement.

The process requires hard work and commitment and some local Healthwatch have asked for a visual device they can use to show they have been through this process and communicate their commitment to continuous improvement.  

The quality logo:

• Is an acknowledgment of having completed a self-assessment quality assurance process at a point in time. The logo is given retrospectively to Healthwatch who have completed the self-assessment and who have conducted a review with their Regional Manager.
• Can be used to indicate to external stakeholders that you regularly self-assess your quality against a set of standards set by us and are committed to quality improvement. It can support you as an enterprising Healthwatch to demonstrate that you are continually improving.

Terms and conditions for using the quality logo

• You can use the quality logo if you have completed a Quality Framework self-assessment and you have conducted a review of the findings with us.
• You can use the quality logo from the date of your review meeting and, in line with the Quality Framework process, use of the logo is valid for three years.
• The logo should not be more prominent than the local Healthwatch mark or used directly alongside the mark.
• However, it can be used to support communications. For example, it can be used at the bottom of  email signature, letterhead stationery, website, or on marketing materials. Guidance on how to use the quality logo is available, along with the logo in a range of formats. 
• The quality logo is a brand asset provided by Healthwatch England. So, like any brand asset, it can no longer be used if a service provider's contract to provide a local Healthwatch service comes to an end.
• The logo cannot be transferred if there is a change of provider, they will need to undertake a fresh self-assessment.The logo can only be used by the specific local Healthwatch who have completed the self-assessment and should not be used by other local Healthwatch who come under a multiple provider if they have not undertaken the assessment.
• This logo is not intended to be perceived as a quality mark as this would give false assurance that we have conducted an audit or inspection. It is confirmation to stakeholders that you have committed to working with us to continuously improve.
• The quality logo must not be used in any manner that expresses or might imply the affiliation, sponsorship, endorsement, certification, or approval, other than as set forth in these terms.
• Except for size, the logo must not be altered in any manner, including proportions, colours and elements. Nor should it be animated, morphed, or otherwise distorted in perspective or dimensional appearance.

Text to support the logo

Committed to quality

At Healthwatch Anytown, we aim to provide the best service we can to our community and to make the greatest difference we can to local people.

To help us be the best we can be, every three years we undertake a comprehensive assessment of our work using a tool called the Quality Framework.

This helps us to understand what we are doing well and where we might need to improve.

You all provide an information and signposting service, as it is a statutory function. These differ in scope and scale due to local commissioning arrangements, but you told us that many of you have seen an increase in complex calls since the pandemic and many are now facing the challenge of providing the service from home.   

You also told us there can be a need for more clarity on the role of Healthwatch and the remit of the information and signposting service with the public, commissioners and sometimes within Healthwatch themselves. We also know that due to high levels of commitment, some staff feel they go above and beyond due to a lack of alternative sources of help. 

We met with 14 people who either manage or deliver Healthwatch information and signposting service across 12 different Healthwatch to find out how they address the current challenges and see if we could identify some good practices and principles. Above all, we urge you to be clear about your service and remit with your teams, board, commissioners, and the public.  

What can I do to meet these challenges?  

Read on for a summary of their ideas and suggestions to help you manage your own information and signposting service. It isn’t guidance but could be a useful conversation starter in your teams.   

Your good practice checklist  

• Update your home working policy to include regular contact with colleagues and the manager and try to schedule annual leave to ensure one person is not covering the service alone. 
• Include out-of-office voicemail and e-mail auto-responder messages with clear guidance on opening hours, how long it will take to get a response, useful numbers, and local information. 
• Include information and signposting as an agenda item in your regular team meetings to allow people to discuss calls and get advice and support from colleagues.  
• Build relationships with the Integrated Care Board and health and social care partners to understand local support options and agree on circumstances when you can make escalations and referrals. 
• Ensure you have the right level of insurance for the level of service you deliver. 
• Join or set up local information and advice hubs where queries can be handled by the most appropriate organisation so that callers are not given more numbers to call. 
• Create a clear information and advice section on your website. Include details of local organisations, the support they provide, and frequently requested information such as how to register with a GP, make a complaint and access emergency dental care. Check out our website for up-to-date advice content you can localise for your own website.    
• Include a clear section on your website covering what you offer but also what you don’t do to help manage expectations. 
• Agree on the number of calls that are reasonable to take in a day and develop a process to prioritise these so that staff wellbeing can be looked after. Decide how to set the phone system to deal with out-of-hours calls and if you have the capacity to respond to the number of voicemail messages that are left (i.e. in effect, provide a 24-hour service) 
• Consider if there are supporting roles that would allow volunteers to contribute to the information and signposting service. 
• Work with local voluntary and community sector partners to share insight into needs that are not being met and the impact on local people. Make the case for funding an enhanced service over and above traditional ‘information and signposting’. 
• Consider working towards becoming a 'Trauma Informed Organisation', which includes include incorporating the principles into all staff policies from induction and training and ongoing support for staff.  
• Update your call-handling process to give clear guidance on ending calls if a person becomes aggressive. Include a structure to end calls where there is no solution and a debrief process to support call handlers.  
• Access dedicated support that is available for information and signposting staff. This includes: 
  • How to structure a call webinar 
  • Handling challenging calls webinar 
  • Assessing safeguarding and risk webinar (for I&S staff) 
  • Call handling guides 
  • Listening skills webinar 
  • Personal resilience and wellbeing webinar  

1. Annual Satisfaction Survey 

   Every year, your insights have been instrumental in shaping our support to Healthwatch. This year, we are requesting each Healthwatch to complete the satisfaction survey responses on behalf of your organisation. This survey will provide a comprehensive understanding of the views and experiences of your staff, volunteers, and board members collectively, helping us to learn and tailor our support to better meet your needs. 

2. Healthwatch People Diversity Survey. 

   As part of our commitment to Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion, set out in our Roadmap, we collect data about the demographic profile of Healthwatch staff, volunteers, and Board/Advisory board members. We use the data to help us track the extent to which we reflect the communities we serve and whether the measures taken by individual Healthwatch together with the training provided by Healthwatch England are making a difference. You can view and download the questions below.

The single survey is made up of two parts for your convenience and efficiency. Both sets of information will need to be uploaded together. You can access the template survey, and it is also available in SMART survey to copy and download and use for those Healthwatch with a licence.

To upload your data, please go to this link. Survey responses are needed by 28 February 2024. 

We have created an interactive Easy Read version of our Have Your Say webform to help more people have their say on health and social care services.

We have adapted this into a template for any local Healthwatch who use our Have Your Say form on their website.

This document is best suited for being printed and completed by hand. 

Please note the supplier who produced this for us is happy for you to use it and add your own logo and contact details - but please don't change the wording of the questions or the pictures associated with each question. 

How to use this template

You must have a Canva account

• Click on the Canva link;
• Click on 'File' then 'Make a copy';
• Edit the parts underneath the red stars;
• When you've made your edits, delete the red stars;
• Save the file in PDF format.

Easy read form Canva link

Healthwatch are increasingly focussing on planning for, identifying and communicating outcomes and impact achieved for people who use health and care services. This contributes to ensuring your organisation's financial stability and increases support from members of the community.

About this resource

Recruiting a volunteer to take on responsibilities relating to monitoring outcomes can help give this work a greater profile within your Healthwatch. In particular, the role could provide additional capacity to update the Impact Tracker and liaise with other team members to check on how different areas of work and opportunities to influence are progressing.

This document provides guidance and tips on introducing an Impact Assistant volunteer role. It includes a suggested role profile.

The profile for this role has been developed so that it can be adapted to meet your specific local needs. Create your own role description by using whichever of the listed activities you feel will be most useful for your team.

Link to other resources

This guidance and role profile is an addition to our other volunteer role descriptions, which are available for you to use and adapt.

This latest Impact Tracker has been designed to help your Healthwatch keep an ongoing record of outcomes and impact you are working towards and then summarise what you have achieved in a single document.

It also allows you to select outcomes you’d like to share with us, so we can promote them more widely and make a stronger case nationally for the power of the network.

Should you decide you don’t need to use the Tracker, there's a simple alternative spreadsheet you can still use to share the outcomes you achieve with us.

About this resource

Demonstrating impact is important to help secure future funding and ensure that we are seen as a credible organisation both locally and nationally.

This Tracker will help you to:

• plan follow-up work to check what success you've had.
• Reduce the possibility of things being overlooked.
• Review which areas of your work lead to the greatest success.
• More easily access details about your achievements for reporting and publicity purposes.

Starting with the Tracker

The Tracker contains an instruction sheet.

For you to be able to use the Tracker properly, you must:

• Download and save a copy on your own system.
• Open it in a full version of Microsoft Excel, not an online / Office 365 browser version.

Important: If a warning comes up about macros, or you are asked to choose whether to allow/enable them, then you need to confirm ‘enabling’ them. Otherwise, a couple of the features of the spreadsheet won’t work. The message you get and need to confirm might look like this:

If your IT system is run by another organisation, then you might find it’s set so you can’t ever enable macros. This might mean you need to ask them it’s possible to do so with this one spreadsheet. Or it might mean it’s not feasible for you to use it fully.

Using the Tracker

Use the Tracker as much or as little as you find useful for your team's needs. The three main sheets we suggest you might want to use are to keep a record of outcomes from individual enquiries, published reports, and other influencing work. But you could start by using just one or two of those and see how it goes.

Each of these main sheets has 300 rows that you can use before you would need to start using a completely new Tracker spreadsheet. 

Other sheets will be useful for some but not all Healthwatch.

The level of detail you record is entirely up to you. Decide how to incorporate completing it into your weekly or monthly ways of working.

You may want to consider introducing a new Impact Assistant volunteer role to try and recruit someone to specifically help support the team’s use of the Tracker.

It is good practice for all local Healthwatch to have clear agreements about roles, responsibilities and decision-making.

You told us you wanted more support for Healthwatch boards.  Margaret Curtis and Phil Morgan, the two consultants from local Healthwatch who led the board support programme in 2022-23, have produced these checklists and templates that will help you in your role as a Healthwatch Chair or board member, in both hosted and standalone Healthwatch.

You will find all of the resources you need below, so that board support is all available on one easy to use page.

These existing resources will also be fundamental for Chairs and board members.

Decision-making template and guidance

How we make decisions (Easy Read)

Code of conduct template and guidance

Conflict of interest template and guidance

Guide to running a Healthwatch

It's a legal requirement for your local Healthwatch to produce an annual report by the end of June. To help you do this, use our template, which is available in PowerPoint and InDesign formats on the Communications Centre (Brandstencil).

The template includes a branded design, as well as guidance on how to complete your report, what to change and what you need to include in your report.

Please note you will need to be logged in to see the resources on The Communications Centre. There is one account per local Healthwatch, however if you are having problems accessing your account please email hub@healthwatch.co.uk

Visit Communications Centre 

Images

It's great if you can personalise the report with local photography. However, we've also added a new album on our Flickr library, with images that you can use throughout your report.

These images are all selected to fit with the new visual brand guidelines. 

View Flickr album 

Who to send your annual report to

Once you have published your annual report, you need to send it to:

• Healthwatch England (use the web form below)
• Care Quality Commission
• NHS England - by emailing England.healthwatchannualreport@nhs.net 
• Senior Integrated Care System leaders for your area
• The Overview and Scrutiny Committee of your local authority
• The local authority that commissions your service 

Deadline

The deadline for submitting your annual report is Friday 30 June 2023.

If you have any problems or concerns meeting this deadline, please speak to your regional manager as soon as possible. 

How do I submit my report?

To submit your report, you need to upload your finished document through the web form linked below

Upload your report here