Our key projects
Read the Healthwatch Decision Making Policy & Procedure to find out how we decide on our key projects.
Key projects
Alongside our day-to-day work we carry out key projects to find out more about particular issues or services.
Find out what we're working on
Everything we do is guided by what people tell us about their experiences of health and social care. Find out more about our current projects and how you can get involved.
Integrated neighbourhood care
Adult social care services in Wolverhampton provide essential support to many people, including older adults and those living with disabilities or long-term health conditions. However, recent feedback from the community has raised concerns about the effectiveness and coordination of these services.
We intend to ensure a positive joined-up experience for those receiving adult social care by working with partners implementing integrated neighbourhood care. That is why this autumn, we want to hear from people using adult social care services in Wolverhampton to get a better understanding of their experiences. We want to know the types of services residents are receiving, how well these services work together, and where there might be room for improvement.
Making hospital care more accessible
The feedback we receive about care involving hospitals is varied, with common themes of poor care, communication and lack of access. We wanted to explore this further as the Deaf community reported that they have no means of responding to letters about booking appointments, and that many hospital and secondary care settings are not following the Accessible Information Standards.
Over summer 2025, we engaged with Deaf and Hard of Hearing people to get their feedback about using local hospital services and whether they experience any communication challenges getting the care they need. We are now analysing the results and will publish our findings and recommendations in a report this November.
Tackling health inequalities
Our feedback data shows that for some vulnerable and diverse areas of our community, including those with dementia, learning disabilities, autism, sensory loss, and individuals whose first language is not English, are at a high level of disadvantage because their access needs are not being met. For example, we have heard many times of appointments being missed due to the lack of timely and quality language translation service.
Throughout the year, we continue to raise awareness of our work among areas of Wolverhampton communities that we seldom hear from and gather their feedback about local health and social care services. We tell those responsible for NHS and social care in the city about the issues that matters most to local people and share ideas for how things could be done differently to improve care for all.
Improving the quality of care homes
As part of our partnership working with the City of Wolverhampton Council and the Care Quality Commission, we will use our statutory powers to ‘Enter and View’ publicly funded care homes in the city to speak to people about their experience of using the service.
During these visits, we look at the quality of service and the environment; collect feedback from patients, residents, carers, and relatives; and we may also speak to care home staff. We will identify areas for improvement and areas of best practice, and we will report our findings, including recommendations for change based on what people tell us.
Read our latest reports: Atholl House Nursing Home | Penn Manor Medical Centre | Penn Hospital Mental Health Unit
Subscribe to our E-bulletin
Get the latest health and social care news from Healthwatch Wolverhampton delivered straight to your inbox.
