Reaching out to our community
We strive to make sure we hear from a wide range of our diverse community as possible. We want to tell the people who make decisions and change things about the experiences everyone has with health and care services.
We understand that factors such as culture, location, wealth and education, environment and discrimination can lead to worse health outcome, and we support the strong consensus that this must change. We stand ready to help by doing more to amplify the voices of communities to go unheard and reduce the barriers they face.
Below is a collection of case studies highlighting some of the work we have carried out using the feedback we have collected from the local community which has helped us to make a positive impact to local and national services.
Influencing change
Each year, our health and care systems develop new strategies to respond to changes in NHS or government policy and the needs of people in Sunderland. Our work helps services and leaders to define priorities for improvement.
Change services and processes
Our team helps services to respond to feedback from local communities. They often make changes (big and small) to improve people’s experiences, and this might include a change to how they are working (e.g., appointment systems) or changes to service environments, and more.
Signposting
Last year our team helped more than 900 people to find their way to information, services, and support in Sunderland. Sometimes, this activity can help people to resolve issues with services and achieve change for others too.
Co-production and working together
Our team has worked to bring together patients, service representatives, and professionals ensuring local people and communities plan and deliver care collectively whenever possible.
Sharing
Our feedback can help and support other bodies to influence change in services and support. By sharing our insights, we can support them to know more about how people’s experiences need to change.
National influence
We share thousands of comments about health and social care each year with Healthwatch England to help it inform NHS, social care, and government policy. But there are other ways we’ve achieved impact beyond our borders too.
