Mystery shopping has many uses. It allows the researcher to experience the service from the view of a service user and can be used to assess various aspects of a service, such as accessibility, customer service or overall quality.

This guide will help you through the process of carrying out a mystery shopping exercise. Topics covered in this guide include:  

• What is mystery shopping? 

• Types of mystery shopping 

• When should you consider mystery shopping? 

• Planning a mystery shopping exercise 

• Running a mystery shopping exercise 

• Ethical considerations 

Before you start, think about whether you need to collect people’s names and contact details. If you don’t, then GDPR doesn't apply, and you don’t need to have a consent question for personal data in your survey or feedback form. 

This document includes examples of how to word intriductions and questions about consent and explicit consent in:

• Surveys
• Webforms
• Interviews and focus groups

If you have any questions about this guidance or the examples, please contact the research team: research@healthwatch.co.uk. 

We rely on local Healthwatch insight to understand trends in how people experience health and social care services. It is also a legal requirement for Healthwatch to share their data with Healthwatch England.

Formalising data sharing 

As part of our work to strengthen our data standards, all Healthwatch are required to sign a data sharing agreement. 

This has been developed on the advice of data protection experts and in line with guidance from the Information Commissioners Office, for any system or process involving data sharing between Healthwatch and Healthwatch England. The agreement sets out our roles and standards of what is expected from the arrangement and each party, with a schedule for each system.

About this resource

To help you plan your communications, we have created a calendar that provides you with:

• Key network communication dates
• Campaigns that will provide you an opportunity to communicate your work
• Other communication opportunities
• Religious dates you might want to mark

This calendar has two separate tabs, including:

1. A full year calendar view so you can see what's coming up at a glance.
2. A list of where you can go for more information about specific campaigns.

We are here to support those affected by the withdrawal of CiviCRM find alternative solutions. 

For Healthwatch wishing to continue using CiviCRM, you may want to contract directly with a provider suh as Circle Interactive for services including hosting and maintainence. 

Here you can find their standard terms and conditions.

About this resource

The rising cost of living is an increasing issue. To help you gather feedback in this area and understand issues at a local level we have produced:

• A template survey that can be used as it is, or you can adapt it to suit your local needs when finding out people's experiences.
• Guidance that will help give you ideas on how to broach cost of living issues in general engagement, help you take your findings forward with commissioners and learn how and why to share your findings with us. 

Collecting, storing and analysing data can be achieved using a CRM/database like Charity Log or Salesforce. Some Healthwatch have fed back that these solutions are not affordable.

This guidance looks at the pros and cons of data capture using a form or survey tool (Smart Survey), data storage using Excel and briefly touches on data analysis using Excel or Microsoft Power Bi – either the free or subscription service.

There is a step by step guide to setting up Microsoft Forms plus links to the templates for both Microsoft Forms and Smart Survey – both of which you can amend to meet the requirements of your Healthwatch. The templates are based on the Healthwatch taxonomy and there is a commentary on how this applies to the questions in the templates.

Speaking to people in your communities about their experiences of health and social care is at the heart of Healthwatch. However, getting some groups of people engaged can be more complicated than others.

Here, Healthwatch North East Lincolnshire share their top tips and four different approaches you can adapt to help you involve more young people in your work. 

Top tips for recruiting young people

We spoke to Tracy Slattery, Delivery Manager at Healthwatch North East Lincolnshire, to find out her top tips:

• Young people may not come to you to share their views. It’s up to you to go them. Find out if your area has youth clubs and centres. These are great opportunities for raising the profile of Healthwatch. Make local contacts with sports clubs catering to the age group and build relationships for future work  and consultation with young people.
• Selling your projects to young people can be difficult, so you have to make it engaging, and have short, medium, and long-term wins to keep them involved. Maintain contact, update them regularly and work with them. If they feel part of it from the start, they are more likely to stay engaged. Some young people leave halfway through projects but do not let this dishearten you, as they may have other life priorities.
• Develop a toolkit for your local Healthwatch that all staff and volunteers can use. Include campaign resources for young people, ice breaker exercises and a set of voting jars and counters that you can adapt for different events and topics
• Find out where their interests lie; it may be social media, marketing, speaking to people about their experiences or visiting services. Use co-production as a tool to interest them from the start.
• Young people may only work on one project as this is the only time they can commit. Like any volunteers, they may only want to micro-volunteer on a short-term project, as this is where their interest lies. As a local Healthwatch, the key is to work with them to make that happen.
• If you have a local Duke of Edinburgh Scheme, contact them and offer to give a talk about Healthwatch. Young people at the different levels of the award must carry out volunteering so you can help them complete their award.
• Consider offering certificates after 10 hours, 20 hours or 50 hours of volunteering.

We funded Healthwatch North East Lincolnshire to share how they’ve worked to involve young people with their work with others across the network and provide support to help colleagues replicate or adapt those successful methods.

We asked Tracy for her reflections on a small group of local Healthwatch coming together to discuss their approaches and what they all learned:

• The small group discussion approach worked well, and it was great to get a lot of e-mail contact and questions from the group between sessions.
• All eight group members got involved with e-mails, phone, and video calls. There was a clear commitment to participating and involving more young people in their work. 
• A top tip everyone learned was to contact pastoral care tutors and health and social care leads at colleges, as they can often be gatekeepers to large groups of young people and can work as brand advocates.
• Sharing resources as a follow-up was a great way to help people and save them time creating something from scratch—for example, the volunteer handbook and DBS guidance. 

What have local Healthwatch done as a result?

• One local Healthwatch is developing an action plan with the other local teams in their Integrated Care System (ICS) patch about how they can involve young people.
• Most of the group plans to work with higher and further education establishments.
• One local Healthwatch is working with health and social care students in partnership with their local college to gather rapid insight via surveys that students can do on their phones.

The Health and Care Act gives Healthwatch the right to scrutinise the system and challenge health and care organisations to ensure they engage with local communities and meet their needs. 

The introduction of Integrated Care Systems and place-based working offers a real opportunity to ensure people and communities are at the heart of health and care.

Local Healthwatch have a dual role in holding to account, both of which require building and maintaining relationships and developing effective behaviours:

• Proactive: to influence strategy and service development by bringing live experience to the table
• Reactive: to provide feedback and scrutiny on strategy or service delivery. 

We want to ensure that you have the information and skills to do this effectively. As you work independently, changes to the commissioning process may affect local accountability processes differently.

About this toolkit 

This toolkit aims to help you understand the local impact of developments in the system and your role in holding to account. The toolkit provides suggestions and examples for building relationships and facilitating collaboration across systems, at place and within neighbourhoods.

It covers the following: 

• What accountability and holding to account stand for
• Your statutory powers 
• Key areas for scrutiny of services 
• Stages of holding to account 
• Behaviours of holding to account 
• Case studies of holding to account and various approaches from local Healthwatch 
• How to map your providers and relationships with them. 

Thank you to Healthwatch Surrey for producing the toolkit and to other local Healthwatch for supporting it, including Healthwatch Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, Havering, Stoke-on-Trent, Southend and Thurrock. 

Thank you also to Steve Inett for sharing his ‘Four Stages of holding to account Framework’.

Download the toolkit

We need to demonstrate diversity and inclusion in all of our work. To understand different approaches, we funded two local Healthwatch to work closely with others across the network, share their model and provide support to help their colleagues replicate or adapt those successful methods.   

In this article, we'll tell you about Healthwatch Essex's Learning Disability Ambassador scheme, the 2021 pilot where other local Healthwatch got together to discuss the approach and how you can do the same in your own Healthwatch.  

About the Learning Disability Ambassador Scheme 

Working with their local hospital, Healthwatch Essex recruited and trained 14 volunteers with learning disabilities to undertake visits to the hospital and identify improvements. This includes reviewing signage, accessible information, and the language used. 

Ambassadors also met with Healthwatch Essex staff and the hospital's patient experience manager to discuss issues affecting them and others in their network and attend focus groups and steering group meetings. They contributed to case studies and social media campaigns led by Dan Potts, Healthwatch Essex engagement manager, to showcase the difference they are making.

We spoke to Dan, and he shared his top tips for involving volunteers with learning disabilities.  

Map your stakeholders first  

These might include charity organisations, hospitals, local councils, health care professionals or other agencies working in a similar field. 

Use your stakeholders to help with recruitment

Recruitment is easier once you have a stakeholder map. Make a flyer or leaflet to share virtually and face to face in shops and community settings. During your recruitment, include an informal interview face to face or online to enable you to understand the needs of the individual and what you can do for them during their role. 

Keep recruitment simple and accessible

Include an informal interview face to face or online to understand the needs of the individual and what you can do for them during their role. Remember, it is not always about what the volunteer can do to help your organisation but more about how you can add value to their future.  

Make sure you have everything you need in Easy Read  

Ensuring information is accessible is vital to including disabled people in our work, but it also benefits everyone. You should make sure your crucial volunteer documents are available in Easy Read.  

If you want to create Easy Read documents:  

• Limit text – keep it very simple and don’t use any jargon.  

• Use clear images – either illustrations or pictures of real people, objects and places.  

• Do not overthink it – if you are asking for someone’s address, you do not always have to use a postcode symbol.  

• Attend a training course (Healthwatch England provides these) or find a local provider to help you produce Easy Read formats.  

Our Easy Read role description, application form, volunteer agreement, declaration of interest and volunteer handbook are all available below as downloads which you are welcome to use.  

Work as a team and be patient

Co-production works best when people with lived experience form a working group alongside health and care professionals to influence how services are designed, commissioned and delivered. Make sure you manage your volunteers’ experience. These are huge organisations, and it can take time and a lot of patience to influence and change services.  

Get your engagement method right 

Remember that all voices should be heard and that each project may need a different approach. It may be a survey, focus group, one-to-one conversations or social media campaign but remember to be flexible in meeting the needs of your volunteers.   

Carry out volunteer well-being checks  

The well-being of your volunteers is so important. Check-ins are a great way to keep up to date with how they are feeling and give them time and space to share any concerns they may have. These can be by phone or face-to-face. Remember, well-being checks are not always about mental health and well-being. It could be something they have seen or witnessed that they feel they need to bring up with you, or it could be that they are struggling with their physical health and need to take some time off. This will help you support and retain your volunteers.  

We asked Dan for his reflections on a small group of local Healthwatch coming together to discuss his approach and what they all learned. 

• Being able to share good practice between local Healthwatch was brilliant as everyone is so different, and you can learn from each other. 

• There was a high level of engagement and sharing from the group, and everyone was committed, which made it easy to facilitate. 

• Everyone appreciated the supporting resources and documents, particularly the Easy Read forms, role descriptions and handbook.  

• Six Healthwatch had made progress which they were happy to give updates on in the second session. 

What have local Healthwatch done as a result? 

• Recruited learning disability ambassadors. 

• Ran a learning disability steering group meeting. 

• Worked on digital transformation and addressed learning disability access to Zoom and Teams.

• Set up a learning disability health check programme.