Every Local Healthwatch should have a published conflict of interest policy to demonstrate its independence and meet the requirements of being an effective local Healthwatch. This guidance helps you to assess whether your current policy is fit for purpose, or in need of a refresh.  

It explains:

• what a conflict of interest is
• why you need a policy
• what you need to do if you encounter a conflict of interest.

We've also provided templates to help you meet the requirements which you can use and adapt at your local Healthwatch:

1. A declaration of interest form
2. A register of interest form

Every local Healthwatch should have a published code of conduct policy to demonstrate to the public how you bring to life your organisational values. This guidance helps you to assess whether your current policy is fit for purpose, or in need of a refresh.  

It includes:

• Why you need a policy and the importance of ensuring it is tailored to meet the needs of your staff and volunteers.
• Direction on what can be included and what to do when there is a breach of conduct. It also gives additional ideas regarding Trustees and how they can commit to your team’s agreed code of conduct.
• A template for a code of conduct and a trustee agreement, which you can adopt and adapt to your team’s needs.

Every Local Healthwatch must have a published decision making process. This guidance helps you to assess whether your current process is fit for purpose, or in need of a refresh.  

It sets out why you need a policy and the benefits a robust process can bring to your team. It explains the legal requirements, and what they mean for your local Healthwatch and provides tips on gathering a robust evidence base and prioritising in your work plan.

You will also find a template which you can adopt and adapt to your team’s needs.

How to structure a call

About this guidance

If you are a local Healthwatch member of staff or volunteer who answers phone calls from the public, find out how to structure your conversation to best help the caller and to support your wellbeing. This guide covers:

• Beginning a call
• Exploring and clarifying the caller's issue
• Ending a call
• What to do after a call

Managing calls from the public 

About this guidance

Members of the public contact Healthwatch for advice and information about health and social care services. These calls are often complex and at times you may find some or all parts of a call challenging. Find out how to best manage this in our guidance, which covers:

• Top tips for managing calls
• Handling last resort calls
• Handling repeat callers
• What to do if you feel a call is becoming abusive

Assessing risk and safeguarding 

About this guidance

You might receive calls from people in distress, who could be at risk to themselves or others, or where there might be a safeguarding concern. We have a duty of care help keep the person safe, while getting them the help they need. To support you to manage these types of calls, this guide covers:

• How to assess risk
• Safeguarding
• Callers with suicidal thoughts

What is the Quality Framework?

Last year, we launched the Quality Framework which sets out the key ingredients to running a Healthwatch.

The framework tool was developed:

• To take stock of which aspects of your service are working well and where you can make improvements.
• To help local councils develop a more consistent approach to commissioning and monitoring local Healthwatch services.
• To help Healthwatch England identify where we need to provide more support and training, as well as the individual services which might need more help.

How can it help you?

Developed and tested in partnership with local Healthwatch, the framework is a self-assessment tool which Healthwatch boards and leaders can use to explore key questions such as:

• Which aspects of our work are more effective?
• Where can we improve things?
• What barriers do we need to address?
• What factors drive our success?
• What impact are we making?

By using the framework, you can also help the wider Healthwatch network by adding to our understanding of what makes an effective Healthwatch and the impact we are collectively achieving.

Is the information you share confidential?

Any information you share when completing the quality framework assessment tool remains confidential and can only be seen by Healthwatch England. We do not share identifiable information about your service with any third party.

What have we learned so far? 

Over 20 Healthwatch have used the quality framework assessment tool so far and found it to be useful in several ways.

A chance to take stock

Board members and leaders have told us that they found the exercise itself useful. It provided an opportunity to bring together staff and volunteers to explore what they are doing effectively or could be better. This helped to develop a plan in partnership to harness their strengths or address any issues. It also helped frame conversations with their commissioners to highlight the totality of the work involved in running Healthwatch, and for some to review the monitoring arrangements.

Helps drive a wide range of work

The information generated from this teamwork has been used to in a variety of ways, such as:

• improving the way services are run
• setting work plans 
• developing the ways boards work
• preparing for the retendering of a service.

Builds the confidence of boards

For many board members and leaders, the exercise provided assurance that the services they are responsible for are well run.

Adds to our collective knowledge

The evidence collected to date highlights the strengths of Healthwatch and areas that need improving – which in turn informs where Healthwatch England can focus our support. For example, all the Healthwatch who completed the framework have highly motivated and well-managed staff and volunteer teams. However, the same Healthwatch identified a need to improve their approaches to measuring impact – something echoed by many Healthwatch on other occasions.

Feedback from local authorities has also been positive, with over 20 councils already using the framework to help shape their service specifications and monitoring of contracts.

Do you need help with impact?

Why not download our Making a Difference Toolkit or talk to Jon Turner, our impact manager and lead for this work.

About this resource

It is important that when a new provider takes over a local Healthwatch contract, the public continue to receive an uninterrupted service and there is no reputational risk to the Healthwatch brand.

This guidance aims to help both outgoing and incoming providers understand their responsibilities, and how they should work together to hand over key information and assets.

It includes advice on:

• Ensuring smooth communication
• Local Healthwatch's legal requirements
• Work priorities and delivery
• Who owns data
• How to access resources

About this resource

This guide explains the statutory requirements for Healthwatch and sets out good governance principles when it comes to delivering a Healthwatch service.

The guide aims to provide you with key areas of focus, recommended best practice, as well as links to other legislation and resources that you will need for your Healthwatch.

It includes:

• What legislation says about Healthwatch
• Setting up a Healthwatch
• Governance and decision making
• Practical steps when running a Healthwatch
• How to meet your obligations
• Key legislation you need to follow
• A Quick Reference Guide (appendix) outlining the set of policies that help your Healthwatch comply with its statutory and regulatory requirements and underpin the brand

Please note that this guide was last updated on 26 April 2021 and is subject to change.

Technology can make a massive difference to our work if it’s easy to use and useful, but it can also cost a lot of money to get right.

What should Healthwatch invest in?

• Support to help us with volunteer, supplier and stakeholder management?
• Solutions that help us better engage with the public and with each other?
• Systems that streamline and automate our processes?

These are big questions that only you can help answer.

More about our project

We are running a project to see how we can best use digital tools to help support you with your work, and your communications.

Over the next few months, you might hear us talk about the 'Digital Transformation Project'. We're working with an external agency Wildman Herring to find out more about how we work together and what we’re using across the network, to then develop ideas on how we can improve our digital landscape to help us work better together in the future.

Who is doing the research?

We’ve employed some experts to find out what you think and to help come up with a plan about how we can invest in the right technology to make the biggest difference to our work.

Dan Tagg, Professor Matthew Jones and their colleagues from Wildman Herring will be carrying out research from November 2019, with the aim of presenting a final report in the next financial year (2020-21).

What does the research include?

• Survey

• Workshops

• Draft report and roadmap

Take the survey 

Please take a few minutes to complete this survey about your digital needs. 

Tell us your views

When's the deadline?

A quick response is much appreciated as we want to complete the research as soon as possible.

Our work is driven by the belief that understanding local people’s experiences of health and care is key to providing effective support. A belief that is backed up by a considerable body of evidence.

We have been set up to find out the public’s views on health and care.

How we achieve this goal may vary from area to area but, whatever our approach, every Healthwatch is committed to making a difference.

Why showing impact matters

Demonstrating that we are making a difference is key because:

• It shows local people that sharing their experiences with us is worthwhile.
• It increases the trust of local partners and makes it more likely they will act on what we recommend and what the public has told us
• It demonstrates to taxpayers and our funders that we provide value for money and our work is worthy of investment.

Who is this toolkit for?

Healthwatch staff or volunteers who:

• Want to improve their knowledge and understanding of Theory of Change
• Are involved in helping their Healthwatch establish an approach to evidencing and communicating your impact

What will you learn?

This toolkit aims to deliver the following learning:

• Why demonstrating impact is important
• An introduction to outcomes and the Theory of Change
• Setting priorities and how they link to outcomes
• Steps you need to take to develop your a Theory of Change
• How you might use a Theory of Change to communicate effectively
• How to involve your board, volunteers and other colleagues

About this resource

Healthwatch have a legal power to visit health and social care services and see them in action. This power to Enter and View services offers a way for Healthwatch to meet some of their statutory functions and allows them to identify what is working well with services and where they could be improved.

This guide aims to provide guidance to Healthwatch on their power to Enter and View health and care services. It includes recommended practice based on learning from the Healthwatch Network.

It includes: 

• Where Enter and View can take place
• Who can carry out an Enter and View visit
• Key questions to ask covering the different stages of Enter and View
• Responding to reports and recommendations