Annual Report 2021/22

Healthwatch Kingston upon Thames report on their key achievements for 2021/22.  It:

• Published a major report on Long Covid, highlighting the impact on residents’ health, work and daily lives. The findings influenced both local post-Covid services and national research, including Healthwatch England’s Long Covid work and the NIHR-funded LISTEN project. 
• Led extensive engagement on people’s experiences of health and social care during and after the pandemic, publishing a record 16 reports and making 33 recommendations for service improvement. 
• Strengthened support and representation for people with learning disabilities through the Kingston All Ages Learning Disability Partnership Board, helping shape work on health checks, primary care, dental care, hospital care, mental health and accessibility. 
• Influenced mental health planning locally and across South London through a community mental health audit, with findings helping inform the South London Listens Mental Ill-Health Prevention and Recovery Action Plan.
• Continued to champion improvements for people with Emotionally Unstable Personality Disorder (EUPD), helping secure greater equity of access to specialist treatments across South West London and supporting expansion of local psychological support services. 
• Supported young people to influence local services through Youth Out Loud!, including work on mental health, sexual health and youth information resources, and the creation of a mental health podcast distributed to schools across Kingston. 
• Expanded its safeguarding work through the Making Safeguarding Personal programme and support for the London Safeguarding Voices group, ensuring people with lived experience of safeguarding directly influenced local and London-wide safeguarding policy and practice.