Healthwatch Bracknell Forest will be a strong, independent and effective champion for users and consumers of health and social care services.

We believe in the power of the collective voice of the people of Bracknell Forest and will work together to find the best way of improving health and social care.

• Independent – We are accountable to the local people of Bracknell Forest
• Visible – To ensure everyone is clear of our purpose and remit
• Inclusive – As well as the organisations that make up our consortium, we will find ways of working with the many different groups, users and consumers across our communities. Every voice counts when it comes to the future of shaping health and social care 
• Partnership working – We recognise we must work in partnership with all stakeholders
• Credible – We will use good quality intelligence and research 
• Self-aware – We will actively seek feedback on our own performance
• Value for money – We will make best use of our resources, seeking to avoid duplication
• Transparent – We will be open and honest
• Sustainable – We will actively seek opportunities to make Healthwatch sustainable moving forward

1. Improve people’s understanding of their rights (consumer champion)
2. Greater patient and public involvement in developing health and social care services
3. High public awareness/profile of Healthwatch Bracknell Forest
4. Good image/trust in Healthwatch by the public to make their voices heard
5. Strong relationship with all stakeholders including commissioners of services, the Health and Wellbeing Board and Overview and Scrutiny.

1. Improved public and patient experience of services
2. Improved satisfaction with health and social care services in the local area
3. Improved access to health and social care services
4. Improved communications between patients, users, service providers and commissioners
5. To be a critical friend and feedback public and patient concerns to all stakeholders

The health and social care landscape has, and is, changing dramatically. Healthwatch Bracknell Forest is part of a national network of Healthwatch organisations but is commissioned locally by Bracknell Forest Council to enable the voice of local people to be heard.

The NHS reforms proposed in the White Paper Equity and Excellence: Liberating the NHS set out the government’s vision for the future of the NHS and its proposals for Healthwatch. It said that the NHS would “be genuinely centred on patients and carers” and “give citizens a greater say in how the NHS is run”. One of the main ways the government intends to do this is by creating a new consumer champion – Healthwatch.

The Health and Social Care Act (March 2012) required local authorities to have a local Healthwatch service in place by April 2013. This amends the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007, which contained the requirement for the provision of a Local Involvement Network service (LINks) between April 2007 and March 2013.

The Health and Social Care Act moves the responsibility for the commissioning of health services to Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCG) that in turn will work with partner agencies.

The ethos of the Act enshrines the values of localism and public engagement. The public are integral to the strategic development of services through stakeholder groups attached to GP surgeries and local authority departments. Healthwatch Bracknell Forest will be able to significantly contribute to current delivery by identifying the emerging needs of people who use services and the public through the collection of quantitative data, research and analysis and feedback to the providers of health and social care services in the public, private and voluntary sectors. Through the collection of information and comment, commissioners in the public sector will be able to offer more targeted services.

Healthwatch Bracknell Forest has a seat on the Health and Wellbeing Board. The board will develop a joint health and wellbeing strategy, support joint commissioning of NHS, Social Care and public health services, ensure close working relationships between Public Health England, NHS, local government, Director of Public Health and CCGs, and provide a framework for commissioning plans for the NHS, social care, public health and other services to best meet health and wellbeing needs for the population of Bracknell Forest and ensure that services improve health and reduce health inequalities.

Healthwatch Bracknell Forest is not only being set up to represent patient and public interests locally, it will also give local voices influence at the national level through the creation of Healthwatch England. Healthwatch England will be a statutory committee of the Care Quality Commission (CQC). Healthwatch England will be key to ensuring that the collective views and experiences of people who use services, influence national policy, advice and guidance. It will better enable CQC to address failings in the quality and safety of care by enriching the evidence used to regulate services. This information – alongside other data that it gathers – will also inform the CQC’s national work such as special reviews.

Healthwatch Bracknell Forest will take into account the Demography of the area, the population of which is 113,200 (2011 Census). The authority is split into six parishes, including Bracknell Town and sits within two parliamentary constituencies. The Bracknell and Ascot Clinical Commissioning Group (BACCG) includes practices outside these defined areas. Healthwatch Bracknell Forest sits in East Berkshire where there are three CCG’s and two other unitary authorities. Broadmoor Hospital, part of West London Mental Health Trust, also sits within Healthwatch Bracknell Forest boundaries.

Healthwatch Bracknell Forest will work within the regulations and procedures applicable to our partners where this is in the best interest of health and social care users. This includes Bracknell Forest Safeguarding of Adults and Children and Young People procedures.

• Healthwatch Bracknell Forest is rooted in the community it serves, whilst having the benefit of information, guidance from Healthwatch England ensuring a consistent, quality service across the country. 
• Healthwatch Bracknell Forest is a consortium of ten community and voluntary sector organisational members led by The Ark Trust Ltd, who hold the contract for Healthwatch Bracknell Forest. There is also public representation on the Board.
• Healthwatch Bracknell Forest is part of a national network of Healthwatch organisations. 
• Healthwatch Bracknell Forest will have effective Governance systems in place to oversee the work and ensure it has a robust management and staff structure to deliver the service remit.

Healthwatch Bracknell Forest currently has a budget of £301k over 3 years. We will actively work in partnership with our commissioners to ensure value for money and effective use of our resources while developing strategic direction for the future.  As a social enterprise, we can also generate additional income which supports Local Healthwatch functions.

Healthwatch Bracknell Forest must:

• Act as a local consumer champion
• Ensure that we operate for the benefit of our local community
• Play an integral role in the planning of the Health and Wellbeing for the people of Bracknell Forest
• Influence commissioners, providers, regulators, and Healthwatch England
• Promote and support the involvement of people
• Evidence the need for change
• Work together with Overview and Scrutiny to identify and overcome poor health outcomes and inequalities
• Ensure effective use of all resources, including generating our own, and actively seek value for money

Healthwatch Bracknell Forest is accountable to the people of Bracknell Forest. Within this there is also accountability to the commissioning authority in terms of value for money and contract compliance and to Healthwatch England in terms of quality standards. 

We will ensure transparency by:

• An annual meeting, open and accessible to local stakeholders, partners and the public. 
• An annual report and 360°evaluation.
• Regular contract management meetings which can be shared with relevant Boards and on the website.
• Project Management Board meeting minutes available on the website. 
• Public members on the Project Management Board.

Championing Diversity is a fundamental value of Healthwatch Bracknell Forest. We will ensure ‘Every Voice Counts’ in accordance with the Equality Act 2010. 

We will develop quality assurance processes in line with guidance provided by Healthwatch England. We will have robust monitoring and evaluation systems in place.

The main AIMS of Healthwatch and Objectives

1. Influence service development across health and social care services by representing the views of patients, people who use services, carers and the public.

• To ensure attendance and feed into relevant commissioning bodies, including the Health and Wellbeing Board. Healthwatch Bracknell Forest will attend where we feel we can add value or gather information to support our evidence needs and not for the sake of representation.
• Establish clear relationships and accountabilities using Memoranda Of Understanding (MOU) such as those already in place with the Bracknell and Ascot Clinical Commissioning Group and health Overview and Scrutiny function.
• To use our powers of enter and view to visit certain premises and observe the care provided and support commissioners and providers to continuously improve services.

2. Enable people to share their views and concerns about their local health and social care services. 2.1 To develop an information gathering framework ensuring that public views are easily collated.

• Share these views with providers and commissioners through reports and recommendations so that services can reflect evidence of user need and experience
• To identify issues of national and regional concern, determine how these might impact locally and respond accordingly.
• To monitor the impact on service improvement.
• To produce a comprehensive Bracknell Forest Engagement strategy to identify who we need to target in the local population and which is inclusive and represents the community it serves.
• To develop a robust marketing and communication strategy to show how we will engage with the local population identified in 2.5.
• To develop and deliver a comprehensive volunteer recruitment strategy

3. Liaise with and alert Local and National stakeholders of Health and Social Care service concerns.

• To establish criteria for alerting HWE and CQC and alerting commissioners and providers of concerns from HWE and CQC.
• To use our powers to request information judiciously to source additional information and evidence that could help commissioners and providers to continuously improve services
• To establish formal relationships with key stakeholders, and establish reporting mechanisms and memoranda of understanding as necessary to define those relationships and accountabilities.

4. Provide a health and social care information and signposting service for the people of Bracknell Forest.

• To enable people to make informed choices about health and social care services and support, we shall gather local health and social care information, in particular from the voluntary and community sector
• Devise an access route to the NHS Complaints Advocacy Service.
• Develop partnership relationships with patient and public engagement groups across Bracknell Forest, e.g. GP Practice-based patient Groups.
• Develop signposting protocols and arrangements with local networks.

5. Give authoritative, evidence-based feedback to organisations responsible for commissioning or delivering local health and social care services.

• To use our powers to request information, undertake enter and view, source information from the wider Healthwatch network and the CQC to provide evidence based, robust reports for commissioners of health and social care services
• Offer our community engagement and research skills to providers so that they may commissioner additional local or targeted research
• To develop rigorous, robust, fit for purpose monitoring and evaluation systems
• To develop and implement an Enter and View strategy and programme
• Promote the Enter and View plus process to private providers as a way to secure continuous improvement in private health and social care services

6. Explore the use of income generation powers

• As a social enterprise, to use our trading powers to generate income for reinvestment to enhance the objectives of Healthwatch Bracknell Forest in line with guidance from the Healthwatch network
• Explore ways in which generated income might be reinvested into the community