Helping us to help you - what the Satisfaction Survey told us

Blog - 2 July 2024

In a new blog, Gavin Macgregor, Head of Network Development, highlights the key findings from our recent Satisfaction Survey and how we're acting on your feedback.

Each year, we ask local Healthwatch to tell us about the support we provide and how we can improve via the Satisfaction Survey.

This year we changed the methodology from asking individual staff, volunteers and board members to asking each Healthwatch to rate our support via one co-ordinated response to get a fuller picture across the network.

Therefore the results of this year’s survey are not directly comparable to previous years’ results. However, we have included last year’s results where the questions were worded in the same way. 

Below we set out what you said and what we’ll be doing.  

Overall findings

Almost all Healthwatch (96%) responded and we were very pleased that 74% of Healthwatch rate our support as positive, with a further 21% having mixed views. 

Overall support to the network

 

 

 

Positive 

74% 

 

Mixed 

21% 

 

Negative 

2% 

 

Don’t know/not sure 

3% 

 

 

We appreciate that delivering our support is in the context of Healthwatch under significant financial constraints and increasing demands, including from ourselves, such as the successful introduction of new digital and data systems and processes.

Areas where you noticed improvement included: 

 

  • People felt webinars, training sessions, toolkits and guidance were better fitted to what they needed and filled gaps.​ 
  • People felt that communications had improved​ 
  • People felt that Healthwatch England was becoming more collaborative and listening more to Healthwatch.​ 
  • People praised individuals/teams/projects, including regional managers, the policy team and the digital and data sharing project​ 
  • People praised face-to-face meetings and the leadership conference 

 

Areas for improvement

The survey is our key method for gathering suggestions for improvement from you of course, and there were some common themes to emerge. Some of these suggestions are detailed below, together with how we plan to act on them. 

Theme one

You said:

You want access to a digest of information from our data store which would make requests to share data more meaningful​ 

We're doing:

  • We will introduce new ways for Healthwatch to compare your local data with other areas  
  • We have introduced a new report on how we have used Healthwatch insight in our national work. The first such report is here. 

Theme two

You said:

Improve communication, two -way dialogue and reduce information overload. 

We're doing:

  • We’ll review our communication channels to ensure consistent messaging and streamline our communications.  
  • We provide Healthwatch with the Look Ahead – what's coming up in the next three months. 
  • We are revamping the network website to make it easier for Healthwatch to always find our key messages.  
  • We use our peer networks (eg Lead Officers, Chairs and Boards and regional meetings) together with Workplace to engage with Healthwatch. 
  • We keep our surveys of the network to twice a year. 

Theme three

You said: 

Better consultation with Healthwatch on our national priorities and longer lead-in times for campaigns and requests to gather data​. 

We're doing: 

  • We’ve set our process for determining our priorities, which includes consideration of the data, reports and priorities of local Healthwatch.  
  • We’ll consider how we can best co-ordinate priority setting with local Healthwatch, including syncing business planning cycles as part of our work on developing the Healthwatch model. ​ 

Theme four

You said: 

More training sessions as some sessions are booked up quickly and more face-to-face training. 

We're doing: 

  • We regularly have no-shows, so we will emphasise the importance of cancellation and consider when reviewing our digital systems.  
  • We’ll review popular sessions and consider within constraints of budget and staff capacity of repeating sessions.​ 

Theme five

You said: 

Requests for more support on collaborative working between Healthwatch on shared themes, demographics, roles. 

We're doing: 

  • Following the annual survey in September, we will connect Healthwatch working on similar priorities.  
  • We have a programme of work to support Healthwatch collaboration and facilitate nine peer networks. We will ask Healthwatch for ideas on how we can better support collaboration. 
  • We must replace our network intranet, Workplace, which provides an opportunity to review how we can best support Healthwatch collaboration.  

Theme six

You said: 

Respondents wanted a better understanding of the diversity of the network. 

We're doing: 

  • For the first time, we published 'The Healthwatch Network: A National Picture of Key Trends'. This highlights improving impact reporting and data sharing, variation means it's hard to compare activity levels. 
  • We also published a report on annual funding for individual Healthwatch, which highlights significant variation across the network.  

Thank you

We would like to extend a huge thanks to you for completing the survey. It really is vital that we understand what’s working and what could be improved or added to our support offer on a timely basis.

And while we can’t always put in place everything you’d like to see straight away, I hope the above shows that we’re committed to acting on your feedback and continually improving our support offer to you.