Agenda item

The Board received a verbal update from Andrew Goodall on the STP ‘Community Conversations’ work that Healthwatch Doncaster had led on locally and across the STP footprint as part of the STP public consultation exercise, the details of which were as follows:-

Conversations around the STP in Doncaster

The Commissioners Working Together team were responsible for co-ordinating the STP.  Discussions with their Director of Communications identified that local conversations with local communities would be an ideal approach to gathering more information about perceptions of and feelings towards the South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw Sustainability and Transformation Plan.

The preferred vehicle for managing the local conversations was through local Healthwatch and Voluntary Action/CVS organisations.

In Doncaster there were 180 people engaged in local conversations through 9 groups and 5 local public meetings.

There were 872 people involved in conversations across the STP footprint – Doncaster represented 21% of the conversations.

There was also an opportunity for people to take part in an online survey that was developed and hosted by the Commissioners Working Together team.

Responses across South Yorkshire

In total, there were 1056 responses to the online survey – 54.92% of which specified they were a member of staff and 45.08% of the responses came from members of the public.

Responses in Doncaster

Conversations in Doncaster

In order to engage with as many people as possible, Healthwatch Doncaster used its networks and membership to arrange specific conversation sessions and focus groups with existing groups.

The conversation sessions with existing groups and networks proved to be the most successful vehicle for engaging with people although there are disadvantages linked to the fact that these groups are already engaged in some aspect of health or social care and are often populated by people who are not at work.

The conversational approach combined with accessing pre-existing groups and networks reached 180 people across Doncaster. This is not a representative sample from the local population but the individuals and groups that were involved are groups and individuals that have either decided to attend a conversation session or a group who have been willing to participate in a conversation session.

As with any conversation about change and especially conversation about change to the NHS there is always a high degree of emotion but the emotional investment in conversations demonstrates the strength of feeling and enthusiasm for on-going engagement and involvement.

The key themes that came out of the conversations were:

Service change – recognition that change is need and that change to the NHS could be a good thing if people are listened to. There were concerns that the proposed changes are the first sign of closing down services and privatisation.

Finance – there were many points raised around waste in the NHS and that this should be rectified to minimise the efficiency gap required. Conversations highlighted that there was a £571million shortfall and that this would have a significant impact on service provision.

Leadership – Young people expressed a desire to be more actively involved with the leaders of the NHS and the changes proposed.  People in some groups stated that ‘Leaders need to lead’.

Integration – Integration of health and social care services was recognised as a key area for development but there was also recognition that this had been talked about for nearly a decade and nothing had happened as yet.  The journey between health and social care services needed to be made more easy and straightforward.

Engagement – There were concerns about the lack of engagement in the development of the Sustainability and Transformation Plan and the local Place Plans. The online survey and questionnaire were criticised for being too leading in the questioning style.  People who attended the conversations and focus groups appreciated being involved and engaged but wanted more involvement as the Plans were put into place.

Healthwatch Doncaster were requesting the Health and Wellbeing Board to formally receive and acknowledge the reports, copies of which would be circulated to Board Members for their information outside of the meeting.  Healthwatch Doncaster would also be sending copies of the reports to all local partners and these were also available on the Healthwatch Doncaster website.

After Andrew Goodall had answered a question regarding future plans for engagement/communication with service users, and the Chair had commended Healthwatch on their good work in leading the conversation sessions, it was

RESOLVED to note the update on the STP ‘Community Conversations’ work undertaken by Healthwatch Doncaster and that copies of both the Doncaster and South Yorkshire & Bassetlaw Summary Reports be circulated to Board Members for their information outside of the meeting.