A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Council and councillors

Agenda item

HEALTHWATCH UPDATE

To receive a presentation from Kate Holt, CEO of Connected Together, on behalf of Healthwatch Rutland.

Minutes:

A presentation (appended to the minutes) was received from Ms Kate Holt, CEO of Connected Together, a community interest company and the new provider of Healthwatch Rutland.

 

During the presentation the following points were made:

 

·         Connected Together Community Interest Company (CTCIC) had taken over the new contract for Healthwatch Rutland on 1st April 2018.

·         Although both were managed by CTCIC, Healthwatch Rutland was independent from Healthwatch Northamptonshire. Healthwatch Rutland benefited from joint backroom resources run by CTCIC.

·         A new board for Healthwatch Rutland had been recruited with Professor Will Pope acting as interim Chair until a new permanent Chair was elected.

·         Although volunteers were used, Healthwatch Rutland was not a voluntary organisation but an organisation that had a statutory role.

·         The presence of Healthwatch at meetings should not be seen as a ‘tickbox exercise’ and the public would still need to be consulted on issues.

·         CTCIC had set up Young Healthwatch in Northamptonshire which had been the only organisation in Northamptonshire to receive the Investing In Children award. It was hoped that a similar Young Healthwatch could be set up in Rutland with an officer seconded to Rutland for two days a week to set up this youth work. Young Healthwatch operated largely on social media, using Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat and Instagram to gain views and gather information.

·         Healthwatch Rutland would now provide a 9-5pm service which would extend their accessibility to the public.

·         Social media would be employed to conduct realtime snapshot polls to get residents’ views on, for example, how easy it was to get a dentist appointment.

·         All information gathered by Healthwatch Rutland would be saved on a database that fed into Healthwatch England so that a national picture could be built up.

 

During discussion with Members the following points were noted:

 

·         Some of the areas of work for 2018/19 included:

1.    The Sustainable Transformation Plan – Better Care Together

2.    Enter and View in Care Homes

3.    Oral Health

4.    Urgent Care

5.    Non-emergency transport issues

·         Funding for Healthwatch services came originally from central government and was now funded by Rutland County Council.

·         Previously the Healthwatch Rutland service had been funded by a grant. Following a tender process to move to a contract, CTCIC had been awarded a three year contract.

·         Healthwatch Rutland were not just expecting residents to come to them with their issues but would go out into the community and actively gather information by visiting places their targeted group would visit eg. playgroups if they were looking to do a survey on pregnancy services, school PHSE classes if looking at eating disorders. IPads as well as paper surveys were used to gather information.

·         Recently, Healthwatch Northamptonshire had worked with a graphic artist, Lemonpop, who engaged with pupils, who had behavioural issues, to draw what they said. Teachers commented that being creative in this way had engaged these pupils for the first time.

·         If there was a particular survey to conduct, Healthwatch would research the demographics and then go out to the most suitable places and events to engage with these residents.

 

 

AGREED:

 

1.    The Panel NOTED the presentation and the introduction to CTCIC, the new providers of the Healthwatch Rutland service.

 

 

At the end of this item, at 7.35pm, the Chair reverted to Mrs L Stephenson who expressed her thanks to Miss G Waller for acting as Chair until she arrived.

 

 

 

 

Supporting documents: