Who we are
Healthwatch North Somerset is your health and social care champion. If you use GPs and hospitals, dentists, pharmacies, care homes or other support services, we want to hear about your experiences. We have the power to make sure NHS leaders and other decision makers listen to your feedback and improve standards of care. We also help people find reliable and trustworthy information and advice.
What we do
- Share your feedback with NHS leaders and other care providers, to let them know what's working well and what needs improving.
- Make recommendations about how health and social care services could or should be improved.
- Make sure NHS leaders and other care providers listen to what you have to say.
- Report issues to organisations such as the Integrated Care System, the Care Quality Commission, and the local Health and Wellbeing Board.
- Give you information and advice about accessing health and social care services, and the options available in your area.
- Help you get the best out of health and social care services.
How we work
We are here to listen to what you like about services and what you think could be improved. No matter how big or small the issue, we want to hear about it.
You can share your views and experiences by:
- Filling in our simple, online feedback form
- Call: 01275 244238 (9am - 5pm Monday to Thursday) Outside of these these hours, please leave a message with your contact details and we will get back to you within 5 working days.
- Email: contact@healthwatchnorthsomerset.co.uk
- Visit: Healthwatch North Somerset, Unit 21, Union Gallery, The Galleries, (middle floor), Bristol BS1 3XD (9:30am - 4:30pm Monday to Friday)
Your feedback will be anonymous and make up part of the evidence we use to help health and social care service providers improve how they run services locally and nationally.
Where possible, we will also let you know when changes are planned to services in our community and help you have a say. We will encourage those in charge of local care to involve you when changes are being planned.
There are number of things we take into consideration when thinking about which areas of health and social care we need to focus our work on. These include the experiences that people have shared with us, evidence we collect (such as through public surveys and polls), and national and local data that shows which issues are affecting the local population. We also hold Prioritisation Panels, where our volunteers and members of the public help us prioritise the issues that matter most to local people.
Our vision
Healthwatch North Somerset is a place where people's experiences improve health and care.
Our values
In everything we do, we are transparent, non-judgemental, and independent. We are inclusive, dedicated to co-production, and strive for continual improvement.
We adhere to the Nolan Principles, also known as the Seven Principles of Public Life. This means that we carry out our work with selflessness, integrity, objectivity, accountability, openness, honesty, and leadership.
Our functions
1. Promoting and supporting the involvement of local people in the commissioning, the provision and scrutiny of local health and social care services
2. Enabling local people to monitor the standard of provision of local care services and whether and how local care services could and ought to be improved;
3. Obtaining the views of local people regarding their needs for, and experiences of, local health and social care services and importantly to make these views known
4. Making reports and recommendations about how local care services could or ought to be improved. These should be directed to commissioners and providers of care services, and people responsible for managing or scrutinising local health and social care services and shared with Healthwatch England
5. Providing advice and information about access to local health and social care services so choices can be made about local health and social care services
6. Formulating views on the standard of provision and whether and how the local health and social care services could and ought to be improved; and sharing these views with Healthwatch England
7. Making recommendations to Healthwatch England to advise the Care Quality Commission to conduct special reviews or investigations (or, where the circumstances justify doing so, making such recommendations direct to the CQC); and to make recommendations to Healthwatch England to publish reports about particular issues
8. Providing Healthwatch England with the intelligence and insight it needs to enable it to perform effectively.
Our approach
People's views come first - especially those who find it hardest to be heard.
We champion what matters to you and work with others to find ideas that work. We are independent and committed to making the biggest difference to you.
- Read our 2023 - 2024 communications strategy
- Read our code of conduct
- Read our combined safeguarding adults and children's policy
- Read our complaints policy
- Read our confidentiality policy
- Read our conflict of interest policy and register of interests
- Read our co-production principles
- Read our decision making policy
- Read our Equality, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (EDEI) policy
- Read our engagement strategy
- Read our privacy policy
- Read our protocol for submitting 20-day request response letters to reports and recommendations from Healthwatch
- Read our terms of reference for our Finance and Resources Committee
- Read our terms of reference for our Prioritisation Panel
