Healthwatch Brighton and Hove - Annual Report 2025-26

Highlights this year

• 48 amazing volunteers contributed an estimated 3,055 hours of their time to support our work. That's an incredible 127 days in total over this last year!
• We published 31 reports, and made 88 recommendations to improve health and social care  - based on the feedback you shared with us.
• 59 newsletters and bulletins issued and over 280 social media posts giving you information and updates about services.

We helped:

• 202 people who contacted us via our helpline.
• Overall, we engaged with 3,627 people this year.

As you will read elsewhere in this report, we have continued to conduct surveys, execute Enter and View site visits and issued well-researched and well-received reports. I want to thank the staff team, Board, and all our dedicated volunteers for their continued support and dedication over a particularly challenging year.

Chair Geoffrey Bowden

Using your stories to deliver change:

• We shared patient experiences of our Emergency Department with the Hospital Trusts' senior management and Care Quality Commission, in response to corridor care concerns. We were advised that our findings will shape strategic plans.
• We conducted a follow-up survey of 1,600+ patients at Woodingdean Medical Centre to monitor how our earlier recommendations about improving access had been enacted. We were glad to see some positive changes.
• We heard from 49 refugees and asylum seekers about their health experiences. Insight was shared with our Integrated Care to plug gaps in their understanding. Some of our recommendations are now being implemented.
• We visited our acute Trust’s Kidney Unit in response to poor performance in a national survey. Our patient interviews empowered the Trust to improve how they will communicate with patients.
• 34 trans, non-binary and intersex people’s views about GP care were included in a national report that highlighted areas of concern. We shared our findings at a national LBGT conference delivered by NHS England.
• Our research on people’s attitudes to digital care, collected over five years, supported our detailed response to a government consultation about a new digital NHS. We made 14 recommendations. 
• Our insight about people’s experiences of their home care resulted in providers committing to recruit more staff, deliver in house training, simplify the process of openly talking with their care worker’s Supervisors, and more.
• Two Healthwatch reports published in 2022 and 2024 have been recently cited in the city’s Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) review into Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND), Learning Difficulties and Neurodiversity. JSNA’s help the city identify current and future health and wellbeing needs of local people. This means that the voices of people who we captured through our projects are now reflected in the city’s longer term plans for people with SEND.

What partners say about us

The strong collaborative relationship between Healthwatch and the Health Overview & Scrutiny Committee has greatly supported effective scrutiny, informed decision-making and helped ensure that local people remain at the heart of service improvement and delivery.” - Gary Wilkinson, Chair, Health Overview & Scrutiny Committee

Healthwatch have a critical role on the Safeguarding Adult’s Board (SAB) bringing challenge and in facilitating the resident’s voice. Partners have welcomed their work focussed on capturing people’s voices to prevent risk and harm to people. Without Healthwatch input it is unlikely that this work would have progressed in such a positive way. Thank you for all you do for safeguarding adults in the city.” - Seona Douglas, Chair, Safeguarding Adult’s Board

As a critical friend, their [Healthwatch’s] independence ensures that the patient voice is heard clearly and objectively within our Trust and is acted upon to deliver tangible improvements for our patients. On behalf of everyone at University Hospitals Sussex, I thank Healthwatch and its selfless volunteers for their dedicated work on behalf of our patients and local community.“ - Dr Andy Heeps, Chief Executive, University Hospitals Sussex

As members of the Sussex Health and Care Assembly, Healthwatch play a key role in ensuring that we meet the aims set out in our ‘Improving Lives Together’ strategy. Their commitment to ensuring that the voice of people using services is always heard, is invaluable.” - Helen Greatorex, Chair of Sussex Assembly, Integrated Care Partnership