Client Services

Do you provide health or social care services to people in Bucks? Is it important to you to understand what users think about their experiences?

It’s not easy to see things from someone else’s perspective.  But doing so can give you huge opportunities to improve the way you deliver. At Healthwatch Bucks, we believe what people have to say can help you do better every day.  We are here to help you listen and make a difference.

How can Healthwatch Bucks help you?

Healthwatch Bucks exists in order to listen to the voices of Buckinghamshire residents and to ensure that service providers respond accordingly. We’re an independent not for profit organisation and we’ve built up a strong reputation over the last four years.  We give the lay person their voice in what can be a confusing environment.

With the unique demographic of Buckinghamshire, we find hard to reach communities, we join up cross-border services and we highlight significant differences in user experiences.

We know how to find out what people are really thinking.

When can we start?

Healthwatch Bucks operates a core staff and expert volunteer structure:

• We can replicate our previous work to suit your specific needs.
• We can adjust planned work to include your requirements.
• We can project manage and source expert volunteers for ad hoc work.

The sooner we hear from you, the sooner we can work together to provide an independent understanding of the true patient and user voice in Buckinghamshire.

What people think

We want to work with you to help you listen to what your service users are saying and the experiences people have using your services.  Too often organisations deploy only their complaints process or instant feedback mechanisms to listen to their service users. We can help you deepen that conversation with support from our trained staff and volunteers.

On the spot – Do you want to understand what people think as they actually use your service? Our “Enter and View” expertise means we can come to where you are delivering your service and talk to people as they experience it in the here and now.

Streetview – Why do people use your service, what do they think about it – and why they don’t use it? Our Streetview projects can help you understand what people think about your service – and help raise its profile – as we get out and about and talk.

Questionnaires – Sometimes you will want a quantitative assessment of your service – our surveys can be conducted online, on the street and on paper depending on who you want to reach. We can design, implement and analyse to give you genuine insights.

Focus Groups – if it’s quality not quantity you need – getting in-depth feedback about what you do can be really challenging – the best way to get past those high-level statements and explore what people really think can be a focus group.

Structured Interviews – do you need to get under the skin of what people think about what you do? Are the questions you want to ask particularly sensitive? Sometimes the best way of getting people to open up about what they think is on a one to one basis in a safe and relaxed environment.

Mystery Shopping – our lay volunteers are ideally positioned to mystery shop your service whether it is a telephone, web-based or face to face. We have experience in checking out services from a lay person’s perspective – what does it feel like to use your service for the first time? We can tell you.

Creating the conversation

Part of really listening to what service users have to say is creating an ongoing dialogue – whether this is testing ideas about future direction; or understanding the way your services are running; you need to know what your users think. Genuine co-production will enable you to understand what your potential and existing services users want and tailor your strategy and services in a way that meets their needs and your vision.

We work with you to deliver that conversation – whether that be:

• a one off engagement event or a series of events,
• the creation of an engagement panel;
• resourcing and training experts by experienced or lay members;
• accessing new groups using social media or intensive face to face engagement;
• the delivery of an overarching engagement approach for your organisation or a particular project; or
• programme or a review of your current approach.

We can create a bespoke solution that allows your organisation to hear the service user/residents’ voice and to respond.

To find out more…

If you are an organisation that would value the integrity, independence and experience offered by Healthwatch Bucks along with the value for money that we provide, please contact our Chief Executive, Thalia Jervis, on 01844 348839 or via our information email info@healthwatchbucks.co.uk.