Unlocking the power of people-driven care
Healthwatch Northumberland Annual Report 2024-25
This year people came to us over 10,000 times for clear information on topics such as mental health services and the cost of living support through our website, at our in-person events or by telephone or email.
We published 22 reports about the improvements people would like to see in areas like health visiting, women’s health and care homes. Our most popular report was on health visiting services which looked at people’s awareness of how to access the service and what it offers, whether they were routinely accessing the service, as well as how happy people were with the support provided.
How we’ve made a difference this year
- To ensure we were hearing from all parts of the county, we attended events across rural Northumberland, and were regular visitors to Hexham Livestock Auction Mart
- We presented our work on autistic children and young people’s experiences of mental health support to Healthwatch England, ensuring your feedback was heard at national level and used to influence change
- To help people get the most out of their GP appointment, we produced a handy guide with useful tips, explanations of staff roles at GP surgeries, and different ways to access healthcare
- Our popular ‘cost of living support for people in Northumberland’ booklet was translated into six other languages, so it could be of use to more communities across the county
- As well as supporting mental health events organised by the council, we put together a printed guide to the mental health services and support available to local people
- We worked with Northumberland County Council to gather experiences and help shape the Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment
- We asked people with Parkinson’s to have their say on the NHS 10-Year Plan. The group welcomed the idea of Community Diagnostic Centres but said that an accessible roving van service might be better for those in rural areas
- Our monthly online information sessions continued to be popular with local people. This year we heard about issues including domestic abuse, kidney care, macular degeneration and substance misuse
Working together for change
We’ve worked with neighbouring Healthwatch to ensure people’s experiences of care in Northumberland are heard at the Integrated Care System level, and they influence decisions made about services in the North East and North Cumbria.
This work includes listening to people’s dental care challenges. The Integrated Care Board’s new action plan includes stabilising services, additional investment for out-of-hours treatment, the establishment of Urgent Dental Access Centres and working with partners to improve recruitment, retention, and training of staff. We continue to work closely with the Integrated Care Board as new ways of working are developed.
We worked with North East Ambulance Service (NEAS) and Local Healthwatch to understand people’s experiences and expectations of its services including ambulances and paramedics, patient transport, 999 call handling and NHS 111.As well as a region-wide survey, we gathered more in-depth feedback from individuals and groups in Northumberland about experiences and expectations of services and how they could improve. This feedback was welcomed by NEAS and will inform its clinical strategy.
Making a difference in the community
We bring people’s experiences to health and social care professionals and decision-makers, using their feedback to shape services and improve care over time.
Now in its second year, the Adult Social Care People’s Panel is going strong and shows that service providers and service users working together can make a big difference. Panel members advised about improvements needed to public information about adult social care on the council’s website, making it easier for the public to find this vital information. They also attended training for social care staff to give their experience of using services and especially on how Carer’s Assessments are carried out. This directly acted as a sounding board for Northumberland County Council’s Adult Social Care function as it prepared for its Care Quality Commission inspection
We like to think this helped achieve the ‘Good’ overall rating!
Listening to your experiences
As part of our Enter and View programme we have visited care homes in Northumberland owned and run by HC-One, allowing us to see, hear and feel what life is like for people who live there. Our recommendations after the visits offered in the reports led to improvements to areas such as care home activities, interior décor, improvements to meals and more information provision, which demonstrates the impact our Enter and View activity can have and the change it can effect.
Following increased concerns from people in Northumberland about audiology (hearing) services we did some work to understand more about the key issues including what was working well, what was not working so well, and what could be improved. An action plan in line with our recommendations is now being implemented, which includes improved communication with patients about services and the support available, mapping exercises to improve on current clinic locations and review of patient pathways to access support and more proactive follow-on care.
Hearing from all communities
We’re here for all residents of Northumberland. That’s why, over the past year, we’ve worked hard to reach out to those communities whose voices may go unheard.
Every member of the community should have the chance to share their story and play a part in shaping services to meet their needs.
Hearing from the farming community: Over the past year we have attended Hexham Auction Mart monthly to engage with farmers and their families as part of the Supporting Our Farming Communities initiative. This is a joint piece of work led by The Church and Community Partnership (Tynedale) and in partnership with Andy’s Man Club, Papyrus Suicide Prevention and Northumberland County Council.
Here to Hear: We continue to get out across the county to different venues and groups to hear people’s experiences of health and care services and offering our Information and Signposting Service. We regularly review which venues and areas we go to, ensuring that we can hear from more people. This includes areas or groups we may not hear from as much or who might experience poorer health outcomes or find it harder to access services.
Information and signposting
Whether it’s finding a local GP surgery, making a complaint, or choosing a good care home for a loved one – you can count on us. People have reached out to us this year for advice, support or help finding services. We’ve helped people by:
- Providing up-to-date information people can trust
- Helping people access the services they need
- Supporting people to look after their health
- Signposting people to additional support services
Showcasing volunteer impact
Our fantastic volunteers have given 491 hours to support our work. Thanks to their dedication to improving care, we can better understand what is working and what needs improving in our community. This year our volunteers:
- Visited communities to promote our work
- Collected experiences and supported their communities to share their views
- Carried out Enter and View visits to local care homes to help them improve
Next steps
We will keep working across the county, reaching out especially to people less listened to, for example, people whose work or lives means they face difficulties in using health and care services.
Thank you to everyone who responded to our Annual Survey and the suggestions for what we should work on next year. It has helped us decide the things we’re going to work on which are:
1. GP access – we will focus on the impact of digital services
2. Dentistry
3. Adult social care – we will focus on hospital discharge and respite care
We will remain responsive to emerging issues that people raise with us throughout the year.
View the Healthwatch Northumberland Annual Report 2024-25 or download a pdf version.
