We won….Healthwatch B&NES

We would like to especially thank the volunteers who make this project so effective, the advisory group who direct the work plan and provide local insight and connections, and also the staff team who deliver high quality engagement, volunteer support and communications work.

We will be in touch with all volunteers to talk about our hopes that you will continue supporting the project and to ask how you would like your role to continue to develop over the coming 3 years.

The project is being slightly refocused, with the headlines as follows:

• We want to hear as many local voices as possible and so from now on our Executive Board will be supported by a quarterly planning group of local people, third sector organisations and other partners – all are welcome. We would love to hear from you if you would like to be involved in finding out more about what we could work on, and helping make decisions on priorities.
• Healthwatch needs to be led by local people. We will shortly be re-recruiting to our Executive Board. We have some excellent established Board leads who we hope will continue, and some opportunities for others to get involved too! Please contact us to find out more.
• Our funding model will award small grants to local expert partners to deliver work on behalf of Healthwatch. This will take place via our established Health and Wellbeing Network, which will continue alongside our quarterly planning group. Third sector partners who are regular members of the network will be invited to submit bids for funding to deliver work that supports the aims of Healthwatch for quarters 3 and 4 of 2018/19, and in subsequent years also.
• Healthwatch is being focused to ensure our approaches meet the needs of everyone. We will make use of social media and emerging communications tools to reach people in ways that suit them. For those who don’t or can’t use the internet, we will protect engagement time to hear from you in ways that best suit your needs. Look out for more information on what we are doing to tailor our service to meet your preferences, or get in touch to join our mailing list and hear more as we announce it!