About this resource

Discover why it’s important to collect demographic data and how and when to collect it. The resource also contains ideas about how you can support your staff and volunteers to collect demographic data and how you can use it.

It’s important that we understand how different groups of people experience health and social care services. To make this a reality we need to collect demographic from people as well as their experience. 

We know that some Healthwatch find it difficult to collect and use demographic data, so Healthwatch Waltham Forest has produced this guidance to help. 

It includes: 

• Why collecting demographic data matters
• GDPR and demographic data collection
• The Healthwatch England demographic taxonomy
• How to decide what to collect
• When to think about demographics in projects
• How to ask people for their demographic data
• Integrating demographic data into analysis and reporting
• Links to relevant e-learning

The guidance includes a note on sex, gender and gender identity demographic questions.

About this resource 

We have created a learning and development calendar for the year ahead so you can see what training opportunities from us you will have throughout the year.  

We have designed this plan based on your feedback and the Healthwatch core skills framework. 

Events are now available to book through our training and events section. Please always remember to let us know if you can no longer a session that you book in advance, so we can offer the place to someone else.  

You told us that you would find it helpful if we grouped our learning and development offer into pathways linked to key Healthwatch roles and responsibilities.

There are some core activities that all local Healthwatch must do.  These will be carried out by different people in each local Healthwatch, so we have focused on activities rather than job titles.  We have a range of training, peer networks, guidance, and e-learning courses to help you develop your skills and build your confidence in these areas.  The activities are: 

• Welcome to Healthwatch 
• Providing information and advice to the public 
• Gathering views from the public 
• Making views known and using them to improve services 
• Reaching people and communicating the difference we make  
• Managing volunteers 
• Running a Healthwatch  

How to use the framework 

There is a page for each core activity with the keys skills you need to carry them out and the learning opportunities that will help you. New members of staff or volunteers may want to complete the whole pathway, more experienced people may just want to plug gaps in their learning.  

Everyone learns differently so we have colour coded the different learning opportunities so you can choose which suits you best. Where there are several learning opportunities next to a skill, you can choose which suits you best and do as many as you wish.  The links will take you straight to the session to book, the e-learning course or the resource to download.   

From left to right you will see webinars, e-learning courses, peer network meetings, guidance documents then bespoke support.  This is not in any priority order, just for ease of reading.