News and reports

Healthwatch is your local watchdog for health and social care services, aiming to ensure that local people’s voices are heard around the design, delivery and development of the services they and their families use. The
network is made up of 152 local Healthwatch across England.

A total of 488 residents in St Helens participated in the survey. The survey revealed both challenges and successes in how GP services are provided, shedding light on real-life challenges with phone queues, online booking systems, and the 8am appointment scramble.

NHS Cheshire and Merseyside Integrated Care Board commissioned the nine Healthwatch organisations to assess how recent changes to GP services are functioning in practice—and to ensure public feedback plays a key role in shaping future improvements.

A new report has been published from 9 local Healthwatch across Cheshire and Merseyside from 6,944 people in how their GP services are provided.

We knew there was a lot of work going on across Cheshire & Merseyside to find out young people’s experiences of accessing support for their mental health. We wanted to make sure that we were finding out what our local young people were experiencing.

At Healthwatch St Helens, we wanted to develop a better understanding of what our residential care providers are delivering and what would help them to enhance the care they deliver every day.

This guide aims to provide guidance to Healthwatch on their power to Enter and View health and
care services. It includes recommended practice based on learning from the Healthwatch
Network.

Part of the local Healthwatch duty is to carry out Enter & View visits. Local Healthwatch representatives carry out these visits to health & social care services to find out how they are being run and make recommendations where there are areas for improvement.

This visit was arranged in advance and took place to understand the reasons why people were attending, specifically whether they had attempted to access any other services prior to going to A&E. Listening Events allows Healthwatch to gather the experiences of individuals, which provides additional rich and detailed information, enhancing the statistics regarding A&E attendance.

Here you will find all other reports including all things health and social care.

Here you'll find our latest Board Meeting Minutes.

What is an Enter and View visit?

Visits can either be announced or unannounced. The majority of visits will be announced by contacting the provider up to a week beforehand. This allows the provider the opportunity to ask questions.

Our annual reports highlight all our work over the previous year. This shows how improvements have been made in health and social care services in St Helens with the help of your feedback.