Welcome to the second newsletter of your new Healthwatch Wandsworth – the consumer champion for health and social care services in Wandsworth that helps you to shape the services you use.

Greetings

Hello and welcome to the second newsletter of Healthwatch Wandsworth. Monday 23rd September was our second Assembly meeting, as well as the first meeting of the new Healthwatch Voluntary Sector Forum. Both were very well attended with over 50 and 40 people attending each session respectively.Thank you to all those that attended and contributed to making the day lively and informative. A brief summary of both meetings can be found below and updates on other work Healthwatch Wandsworth is undertaking.

Following an intensive few months of consultations where we asked you ‘What do you think should be the number one priority for health and social care in Wandsworth?’ we are happy to announce that we have nowdeveloped our three year work planthat captures these priorities. If you haven’t already seen these priorities please contact the office to get your copy on: 020 8516 7767

Voluntary Sector Forum

This was the first Voluntary Sector Forum meeting and its aim was to discuss ways for voluntary sector organisations to influence the work of health and social care commissioners in Wandsworth. It was suggested that during the forum meetings organisations could comment on the Health and Wellbeing Board and OSC papers. Members of the Health and Wellbeing Board committed to attend regular meetings in the future and feed comments into the board. The organisations present were invited to feedback on the benefits of such a forum, how the meetings should be structured and how the relationship with the Health and Wellbeing Board should be developed. Comments included:

  • Make sure there is time for networking, contact sharing and make the sessions interactive
  • Provide information material in different formats when possible e.g. easy read
  • Include small organisations and minority groups
  • Give organisations the opportunity to present their work
  • Have themed sessions

Assembly Meeting

The Assembly meeting kicked off with a presentation of the ‘Better service, Better value’ (BSBV) review of NHS Services in South West London by Dr Mike Bailey. Thank you to Dr Bailey who gave an excellent explanation of the review and an update of where it is now. More information on BSBV is below. The second part of the meeting was an update on the work of Healthwatch Wandsworth Youth. Antonia Dixey, staff lead of the Wandsworth Youth Council spoke about the youth council and describedthe preparations underway for the youth led inspection of the Children and Adult Mental Health Service (CAMHS). Watch this space for further news on the youth inspection in the coming months! Thank you also to Peter West, who has been acting as the interim Chair of the Assembly over these past three months. Peter announced that elections will be held at the December Assembly meetings to elect four Executive Healthwatch Board members, one of whom will also be elected as Chair of the Assembly.

Better Service Better Value

‘Better Service, Better Value’ (BSBV) is a reviews of health services provided across seven local Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs): Croydon, Kingston, Merton, Richmond, Surrey Downs, Sutton and Wandsworth. The review has been conducted by clinical professionals such as doctors and nurses and is a response to the challenges facing our health care system today: the strain of making financial savings across NHS services, an increase in long term conditions and lack of senior and experienced doctors at key periods. A lively discussion was held following Dr Baileys presentation and notes of the questions and answers are enclosed for your information. A full report on this discussion will be sent separately to all Healthwatch members and published on our website.

Kings Fund

Healthwatch Wandsworth has been working in partnership with the King's Fund on the review of the commissioning of health and social care in England. We’ve been helping them to conduct a survey that will find out from the public if the health and social care system as it is now is meeting the needs of the population. We would love to hear your views. The survey can be found online by visiting: or alternatively the questions are below so you can call in and give us your answers.

  • With increasing overlap between the health and social care needs of the population, do you think that the boundary between services needs to be redefined? If yes, why?
  • Can you suggest other ways of defining health and social care needs that may be more useful? It may be useful to use examples from your previous answer of where things are not working to describe how health and social care needs could be better defined.
  • In your opinion, should the criteria for deciding who has access to social care support be the same as that for healthcare
  • Currently services are funded separately, with local authorities responsible for providing social care and health services funded through national taxation. Do you think that funding for health and social care should be combined?
  • If it was decided that the funding for health and social care should be combined, how should this be done? Should it be at a local or national level?
  • Currently the state pays for most healthcare but only pays for social care support for those most in need / with little or no means to pay. How much responsibility should the individual take, compared with the state, for paying for health and social care services?

Information & Signposting

The Healthwatch Information and signposting service started end of May this year and people are getting to know about the service. We’ve developed a new guide about the service setting out clearly what the service can and cannot do:

What can we do?

  • Offer you a friendly and confidential service, independent from the NHS and social care
  • Put you in touch with sources of information on NHS and social care services in Wandsworth
  • Put you in touch with an advocacy service to help you handle your NHS complaints

What can’t we do?

  • Investigate your complaint
  • Advise you on the 'best' place to go
  • Make a complaint for you

So if you or someone you know needs help with any aspect of accessing health or social

care services please get in touch with Hiliwona Solomon:

Call: 020 8875 2849 on Tuesdays 10:00am-12:00pm and Thursdays 2:00pm-4:00pm

Email:

Visit: care4me.org.uk – an online based community directory of voluntary and community organisations that provide services, information and activities in Wandsworth.

Healthwatch Wandsworth
Trident Business Centre, London, SW17 9SH
Tel 020 8516 7767
/