HEALTHWATCH INVESTIGATIONS: Developing good practice

Investigating issues and concerns raised by service users, carers, patients and the wider public and getting feedback, is core business for local Healthwatch. This is an extremely challenging role. Local Healthwatch are small organisations who are charged with influencing large organisations and local health systems. In order to be successful local Healthwatch have to provide an analysis of the experiences of the public in a way that is credible and understandable to large organisations who will have much greater analytical and professional expertise and who may feel (rightly or wrongly) that they have a better grasp on what the challenges are and ‘what needs to be done’ than a local Healthwatch! This report summarises some of the thinking and practice that has emerged from work that has been led by Health Together1 and involved Healthwatch Leeds, Healthwatch Wakefield and other local Healthwatch in West Yorkshire - Bradford, Calderdale and Kirklees - as well as a briefing session facilitated by Involve Yorkshire and Humber which was attended by a further six Yorkshire and Humber Healthwatch

Need to Know Review Number two: What Local Government Needs to Know about Public Health

This review of existing research on local government and public health focuses on the leadership role of local government in developing local public health systems that are capable of addressing the wider determinants of health

Engaging the public in delivering health improvement: Research Briefing

Involving members of the public in delivering public health programmes offers a way to utilise the knowledge, skills and resources within communities. Many health promotion projects involve volunteers or lay health workers; they carry out activities such as peer support and peer education, signposting to services and running community groups. Engaging citizens in co-producing health and wellbeing can help services tackle health inequalities by improving connections with less advantaged groups and by shaping provision to better meet community needs. This research briefing considers what active citizens can do for services and how services can best engage, support and sustain a community or volunteer workforce in order to improve health outcomes. It provides practical guidance on the steps that need to be taken to redesign services and maximise the long term benefits: • deciding what people can contribute to health improvement • choosing a service model • recruiting, training and supporting people in their roles • changing systems to support citizen engagement. This research briefing is based on the findings of the ‘People in Public Health’ study, independent research conducted by Leeds Metropolitan University and funded though the National Institute for Health Research Service Delivery and Organisation Programme. The research examined approaches to support members of the public who take on public health roles, with a focus on the Choosing Health priorities