Our priorities are based on feedback from local people, conversations with the people who run services and Healthwatch Newcastle Committee discussions.
1) Annual health checks for people with learning disabilities
Under the NHS Long Term Plan, targets were introduced to ensure GP practices offered an annual learning disability health check service. We worked in partnership with local organisations to look at how health checks for people with learning disabilities work in practice Newcastle. We wanted to better understand the experiences of those receiving health checks, the value they have for people with a learning disability and any barriers that prevent uptake.
Our findings will be shared with key stakeholders to help support better health outcomes for people with a learning disability.
2) Children and young people affected by domestic abuse
Domestic abuse has an enormous impact on families across Newcastle. Prevalence rates are high (one in four women will experience domestic abuse in their lifetime). As communities emerged from the COVID-19 related lockdowns of 2020—21, one of the concerns about the impact of that period was a recognition that restrictions had made life particularly difficult for families experiencing domestic abuse. The Healthwatch Newcastle Committee chose this as a priority to explore in greater detail.
In the spring of 2021, we held a series of informal conversations with local agencies to identify emerging issues of concern and have published our report on this work.
We are grateful to all the organisations who supported us in carrying out this study. Those working with women and families affected by domestic abuse told us they welcomed the content of the new Domestic Abuse Act 2021. The Act recognises that children living with domestic abuse should be treated as victims in their own right and provided with specialist services.
Our work will help inform future commissioning decisions for services for children and young children affected by domestic abuse in Newcastle. The report focuses on:
- What is currently provided across the city
- How provision is resourced
- How secure funding is
- How easy it is for families to find and access support
Outreach in Newcastle
We run listening events so people can tell us their experiences of social care and health services in Newcastle.
We also work in partnership with voluntary and community organisations to arrange a Healthwatch listening event for their members and/or service users. We fund reasonable costs to make this happen, examples may include venue hire, refreshments and child care. Get in touch if you would like to work with us to make this happen.
If you are part of an organisation and are interested in our ‘bring an audience’ scheme please contact us.
Trends in Newcastle
In 2021 the top three themes that people mentioned most frequently in our feedback centre were:
- Treatment and care
- Staff
- Complaints
People’s experiences of treatment and care within this period tended to be negative (69%).
People expressed a number of concerns related to the complaints theme – the lowest rated area was in having a say in their care. In the staff theme, the overwhelming majority of comments related to staff attitudes (44% positive, 56% negative).
Working with the statutory and voluntary and community sectors
Health Scrutiny Committee
Our Chief Executive attends Newcastle City Council’s Health Scrutiny Committee. We worked together to develop a formal agreement for joint working and information sharing. The agreement was extended to the Wellbeing for Life Board, and led to a standardised proforma for NHS service providers to provide information to both the Health Scrutiny Committee and Healthwatch Newcastle.
Wellbeing for Life Board
Our Chair and Chief Executive are the formal representatives on this Board. Their role is to make sure the Board is aware of public and patients’ needs. Where appropriate they advise and support the public’s involvement in strategic activities and plans.
We participated in the development of the Wellbeing for Life Strategy which was produced through consultation with Board members. The Wellbeing for Life Strategy outlines the strategic health and wellbeing priorities for Newcastle.
Read the strategy at www.wellbeingforlife.org.uk/our-strategy
‘One collective voice’
We explored how information could be shared between us and the voluntary and community sector on social care and health services in Newcastle. Feedback from workshops was used to develop a protocol that we can all use to share information on local social care and health services.