Healthwatch Brent's 2024 Priorities

Healthwatch Brent is working towards an important mission of improving health and social care services across our borough, empowering residents to speak out on issues of importance to them.

During 2024, we will begin work on new priorities - notably our Adult Social Care Project which includes: assessing social care needs assessments, removing barriers to access, and quality of care homes. Later in the year, we want to understand the new Pharmacy First Scheme.

Most importantly, we hope to strengthen connections with community partners and local groups, especially groups that are seldom heard. We intend to give a fair representation of communities and residents in our borough.

Access to Adult Social Care

From increasing numbers of people approaching us about adult social care to sharing feedback of their experiences, access to adult social care has emerged as a key area to improve in Brent. The lengthy process can create a domino effect in adults with dementia, , carers, and unpaid carers, often worsening pre-exisiting health conditions. 

Throughout the next quarter, we will be working on a project to evaluate the lived experiences of patients and carers, as well as the key factors and barriers to progression of needs assessments. We hope that our findings and recommendations will help providers tailor their services to the needs of these vulnerable users.

Improving hospital discharge

This forms the second strand of our Adult Social Care Project. The discharging of patients from hospitals to their homes or to care homes where continuing support is needed from paid or unpaid carers, has been a constant source of frustration in the complaints we have received. 

Our aims are: 

• To present services with clear evidence of the challenges faced after discharge for those with additional care needs
• To share recommendations for improvement, and work with external partners to ensure these can be implemented

This is a topic that we will be exploring both through our community visits and Enter and Views. If you have any insights on this topic, please get in touch. 

Care homes

The third branch of our Adult Social Care Project. Working in collaboration with care homes, our work can support and contribute to the borough’s data on care homes and care provision.

In particular, we would look at:

• How residents rate the quality of care they receive
• How much choice and agency care home residents have regarding their care 
• Whether residents are treated with dignity and respect 
• Access to wider health services for care home residents 
• Experiences of family members 
• Recommendations for individual care homes to improve care 
• Recommendations for the wider system to improve standards 

This would be done through Enter & View visits with our trained representatives. If you are interested in volunteering with us, we would love to have you join us.

Pharmacy First Scheme

Healthwatch Brent is often asked by healthcare partners to help promote the message that patients should visit the pharmacist instead of GP for a range of healthcare issues. In order to do that, we need the confidence that our local pharmacies are able to provide the required level of service.

Over the coming months, we will work with pharmacies in Brent to better understand what they are able to offer patients under the new scheme. Our focus will be visiting pharmacies and speaking with patients to evaluate the quality of care provided.