This session will take you through the key ingredients of writing well to engage your audiences, whether telling a story or writing for impact.
Interactive learning session to a large audience with time to ask questions.
This event is for anyone involved in writing for their local Healthwatch.
By taking part in this session, you will:
This session will outline how the health and social care system works in your local area and show you, in practical terms, how you can build effective relationships with the people who commission and provide local services.
These meetings are an opportunity for local Healthwatch lead officers to meet with Healthwatch England's Deputy Chief Executive Chris McCann, hear key policy updates and to network with leaders from other local Healthwatch.
Networking meeting with national policy updates and discussion. Helping to shape these meetings by bringing agenda items and taking part in discussions is appreciated.
Local Healthwatch lead officers.
This is a network meeting for local Healthwatch Chairs and board members to hear about and discuss key policy updates from Healthwatch England. This is also your opportunity to network and share learning with other Healthwatch leaders.
Networking meeting with key updates and discussion. Your input and participation are appreciated.
Local Healthwatch Chairs and board members.
This event will help you understand how you can best highlight your achievements in your annual report and help you understand where to start and how to structure your case studies.
This is a small group session and will involve audience participation in break out room with discussion and tasks as well as a demonstration and presentation from the hosts.
Joining in with your camera on will be appreciated.
Please note: our previous ‘Measuring Success’ workshop covered much of the content of this session. We therefore suggest you don’t book on this if you have attended that.
Few non-profit organisations don’t want to improve how they measure and then communicate their impact.
But what level of demonstrating impact can they realistically achieve? What do they want to prove – to whom – and what will convince them anyway?
These meetings are an opportunity for local Healthwatch lead officers to meet with Healthwatch England's Deputy Chief Executive Chris McCann, hear key policy updates and to network with leaders from other local Healthwatch.
Networking meeting with national policy updates and discussion. Helping to shape these meetings by bringing agenda items and taking part in discussions is appreciated.
Local Healthwatch lead officers.
This article aims to give you the guidance you need for the duration of the upcoming local elections. It covers considerations such as staff and board member involvement in elections, managing your usual engagement and publication activity and dealing with media queries.
If you are still unsure how to handle specific activities during this time, please contact the Healthwatch England policy team via policy@healthwatch.co.uk
Where and when do local elections take place?
Local elections take place in England on 7 May 2026. Ministers had previously announced plans to delay elections in 30 areas undergoing local government reorganisation, however the government withdrew its decision on 16 February 2026.
Local elections are being held for 4,851 council seats across 134 of England’s 317 councils. In addition, ‘shadow elections’ will be held for two new unitary authorities due to be created in Surrey in 2027.
Many areas across England will also be electing parish and town councillors and some will also directly elect council leaders.
You can check if any elections are happening in your by entering a local postcode here on the Electoral Commission website. Please be aware of whether your Healthwatch covers multiple counties or unitary authority areas.
The pre-election period of sensitivity
This is the time from the date the local election is called (formally described as the notice of election being published), which can be no later than Tuesday 31 March 2026, until the date of the election.
During this time public authorities are limited in what they can do, to ensure that they are not seen to favour one political group or interest.
The pre-election period of sensitivity only affects your Healthwatch if there are elections within your Healthwatch boundary. However, it is important to be aware of any elections happening in neighbouring areas and to be careful that your activity does not affect them.
Key points
Conduct of staff and board members
Staff and/or board members may be involved in elections as supporters of political groups or as candidates. In these cases, it is important that they ensure that this is done in their own time and that they do not use any Healthwatch resources to support this activity.
Healthwatch will also need to ensure that their resources are not used in a way that might be seen as supporting any campaigning activity.
If any board members or staff are involved in canvassing, careful consideration should be given about their role in any public-facing activity during this period. You should consider whether a different person can take part in the activity or whether it can be postponed until after the election. It will be important to remind your board members and staff about your code of conduct and/or your conflict of interest policy so that they are clear about their responsibilities.
We would also urge your operational team to have a discussion with your local authority commissioner to establish if there will be any specific guidance during this period that the local authority will expect local Healthwatch to comply with, and share this with all staff and your board.
Engagement
Engaging with communities and enabling the involvement of local people in shaping services is a statutory function of local Healthwatch and can be continued during this period.
You should discuss with your board and operational team how you plan to conduct your external engagement (and communications) during this time. You may need to adapt your approach to assure that you maintain your impartiality. Whatever work you are undertaking, it is expected that it should not draw attention away from the election, so you should be careful about how you publicise any engagement activity, even if the subject is not contentious.
During the pre-election period you should also think carefully before you launch any new consultations or publish report findings from consultation exercises, which could be politically sensitive.
Publications
During this period, you may want to publish findings of Enter and View visits, engagement work and survey findings. Material that would normally be considered objective and impartial may well be seen as political and attract attention from candidates who wish to highlight these as evidence to support their campaign. You should consider each report separately before deciding whether to publish new material.
Social media
As ever, in your capacity as a Healthwatch representative, be careful not to issue any personal opinions on social media platforms or make any comments from your Healthwatch account that could lead you into a political debate.
Avoid offering additional comment or opinion. Candidates and supporters may ask directly about the work of your Healthwatch, and any comment you make should be purely factual rather than expressing an opinion.
Do not retweet tweets from a political or campaigning organisation that is advocating party political positions, or from a local figure who is standing for election. Consider removing any applications that share content automatically to your social media channels during the election period.
Media enquiries
It is possible for comments made to the media to be taken out of context or misinterpreted and used in a way that could call into question your political impartiality or that of your local Healthwatch.
If a journalist contacts you during this period, you should direct journalists to material already in the public domain such as previous statements or reports that you have released on issues. Avoid offering additional comment or opinion, and if a journalist asks questions directly about Healthwatch, any comment you make should reflect previously published materials. This will be important if the journalist is fact-checking something said by a candidate, as you may be perceived as being critical of that candidate.
It can be better not to respond at all than being pushed into saying something that does not accurately reflect your views.
Working in partnership
Public sector organisations will be aware of the limitations imposed by the period of pre-election sensitivity, but partners from other sectors may not.
Check that any partnership activity that you are associated with takes account of the heightened sensitivity. For example, if a campaigning organisation wants to launch a report that you have collaborated on, you will need to be assured that it will not be seen as supporting a particular political group or candidate either directly or indirectly.
Healthwatch England activity during this period
Healthwatch England will be subject to guidance issued by the Cabinet Office that will apply to all Government departments and arm's length bodies. During this time, we will continue with our day-to-day business of supporting the Healthwatch network and taking forward our projects.
However, we will be carefully considering if our work or publications could be perceived as having a particular local dimension or if they risk competing with local election activity for media coverage.
More information
You may find these guides useful, from the Local Government Association and for NHS organisations, from NHS England, on handling pre-election periods.
If you have any questions about this articles, contact the policy team at policy@healthwatch.co.uk.
Mike McClement will be running the course. Mike is a leading confidence coach in the UK and an international best-selling author. His book ‘Brilliant Self-Confidence’, published by Pearson Education, is available worldwide in a number of languages.
His practical techniques have proved that, whatever your situation, confidence really is a skill you can learn and his trusted formula for building self-confidence has helped thousands of people. Mike makes confidence building manageable, even for people who see the challenge as pretty well impossible.
Healthwatch Adult Social Care network is a quarterly meeting focused on sharing information and developing network-wide ideas to influence adult social care reform positively
Large discussion and information sharing network. Please bring any ideas about social care projects or challenges you want to share.
Healthwatch staff or volunteers who are actively involved in social care work or are seeking to become involved.
