Annual Report 2017/18

Healthwatch Somerset reports on its key achievements for 2017/18. It:

• Gathered and amplified local people's views on health and care services, listening to more than 80 people directly through community outreach and using this feedback to influence local decision-makers. 
• Established stronger relationships with key health and care organisations, including representation on the Somerset Health and Wellbeing Board and the Somerset Clinical Commissioning Group Governing Body, ensuring the public voice was heard in strategic decisions. 
• Conducted research into loneliness and isolation in Somerset through surveys and focus groups, identifying factors affecting social connection and making recommendations to improve support for isolated people, carers and those with disabilities. 
• Shared findings from its loneliness and isolation report with community groups to support local action and awareness on this important issue.
• Carried out Enter and View activity in mental health inpatient wards, enabling service users to share their experiences and helping to influence improvements in mental health services. 
• Built on a programme of Enter and View visits across residential care homes, community hospitals, mental health wards, learning disability services and brain injury centres, helping ensure services reflected people's experiences and needs. 
• Produced and shared six good practice guides and more than 30 reports for commissioners and providers to support service improvement across Somerset. 
• Supported young people to influence health and care services through the Young Healthwatch programme, using surveys, focus groups, college engagement and service reviews.
• Worked with students at Yeovil College to undertake their own health-related research projects, helping young people develop skills while contributing to local health discussions. 
• Supported initiatives led by young people to tackle loneliness, raise awareness of LGBTQ+ issues and promote community involvement through fundraising and intergenerational activities. 
• Expanded its volunteer network, recruiting 15 new volunteers who contributed over 125 hours to engagement, representation and community outreach activities.
• Increased its reach and visibility across Somerset through community visits, digital communications and social media, reaching more than 118,000 people online and growing engagement with local residents.