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.
Making hospital care more accessible
While the feedback we receive about care involving hospitals is varied there are common themes of poor care, communication and lack of access, so we want to explore this further. The Deaf community and those with hearing loss are reporting 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.
We are engaging 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. Additionally, we want to gather insights from local interpreters and caregivers who support Deaf and Hard of Hearing individuals.
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.
Integrated neighbourhood care
We intend to ensure a positive joined-up experience for those receiving adult social care by working with partners implementing integrated neighbourhood care.
OneWolverhampton is a collaboration of health, social care, voluntary, and community organisations working to drive the delivery of key health and social care ambitions within the city. Their priorities for 2025-26 include the development of Integrated Neighbourhood Teams (INTs) to better meet individual needs through closer working of services. The aim is to reduce dependency on acute and emergency services, to strengthen relationships between organisations and professionals by aligning services around individuals and neighbourhoods.
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: Penn Manor Medical Centre | Penn Hospital Mental Health Unit | Wrottesley Park House Care Home
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