annual report 2015/2016 - ealing ccg...angela weyers, hamdi issa, nadia ramjhun, katrina lucero,...

Healthwatch Ealing Annual Report 2015/16


3

Contents

Healthwatch Ealing Annual Report 2015/16 ....................................................... 1

Contents .................................................................................................. 3

Message from our Chair ................................................................................ 4

The year at a glance .................................................................................... 6

Who we are ............................................................................................... 7

Listening to people who use health and care services ........................................... 9

Giving people advice and information ............................................................ 12

How we have made a difference ................................................................... 16

Our work in focus ..................................................................................... 24

Our work in focus: Somali Health and Well Being Report ..................................... 25

Our plans for next year .............................................................................. 27

Our people .............................................................................................. 29

Our finances ............................................................................................ 34

Contact us ............................................................................ ……………………..36


4

Message from our Chair

With effect from 1st April 2016, Healthwatch Ealing became an independent organisation. Until then, we have had overall governance from Hestia with them having a sole member vote. They were put in place at our conception to carry out an oversight and support function to allow us to fulfil our initial statutory responsibilities. This support included employment of our staff and running our payroll, financial and IT systems on our behalf. Their assistance in all this has been much appreciated and my thanks go to Hestia for all they have very successfully done for us over the last two years. But this is the time to move on to our independence, the Hestia contract ended on 31st March and we are now on our own. This is a challenge we have been preparing for. New legal articles covering our self-governance and regulation are now in place and elections to a new member-elected board have taken place. We had a choice of options for our future governance ranging from some form of continued oversight to full independence. I’m delighted the board opted for the latter.

While this presents some risks, it gives us full control of our governance and operation. It will be up to us as to how we best represent the interests of the patients and population of the London Borough of Ealing, which is a big responsibility in difficult times. This move to independence does however have its costs. We have had to organise all the support services previously provided by Hestia and to achieve this with a reduced budget. We are mainly commissioned by the Council who are facing their own budgetary challenges. Big cuts to Local Authority funding are forcing them to take difficult decisions and I can sympathise with their predicament. They have to protect funding for the statutory services they have to provide and that has meant cuts in peripheral grants to balance the budget. Healthwatch Ealing is having to go into independence with around £100k less than 2015/16. From 1st April, we have had far less to fund our staffing, organisation and activities. We have had to cut our staff from 5 to 4, all part-time. Current staff have been offered ongoing employment by Healthwatch Ealing through the Transfer of Employment (TUPE) process. We know some have opted to take redundancy and we are now working to fill the new posts. Transition of knowledge and procedures will be vital. We are planning for that by employing temporary consultants to manage the change process. We have commissioned new providers for payroll, finance & audit and IT.

While all this is going on, we’re now putting

much emphasis on increasing the

involvement of members in our management


5

and activities. A new Members

Organisational Group has been established

which is now up and running.

This group is now supporting existing and

proposed specialist activity groups. We are

also looking at new groups to better

represent the special and varying needs of

the Borough’s geographical areas. We hope

this will encourage more new and current

members to participate in our range of

activities.

There is now a new culture of openness in

Healthwatch. Our Board Meetings and the

group meetings overseeing our transition

and membership have been open to all

members.

Following all the transition process, I see a

potentially very bright future for Healthwatch.

I’m looking forward to us taking a far more

positive profile in doing our main work

representing patient interests and reaching

out to the community to get the best health

services we can for the Borough. This is

becoming more difficult given local cuts and

closures with more patients having to go ‘out

of Borough’ for appointments and

treatments. That’s more work for us

including more service monitoring and

matters such as public transport and patient

transport, but we’ve good work already

going on. We shall be looking to increase

our income by working with external

commissioners, thus allowing us to expand

both our staff and activities.

As we move forwards as an independent

body, may I thank all our board trustees,

staff, members and stakeholders for their

support. To the board members and staff for

their commitment to achieving

independence, to our members for keeping

all their valuable voluntary work going

through a very difficult time and to the

Council and Ealing CCG for bearing with us

while we’ve been spending so much time on

our own affairs.

With best wishes to all for a successful

Healthwatch Ealing in 2016/17 and beyond.

John McNeill

Chair, Healthwatch Ealing


6

The year at a glance

This year we’ve reached people on

social media

Website 21, 147

views

Twitter over 800

followers

Our volunteers help

us with everything

from being

ambassadors,

strategic

representatives, to helping with

office adminstration

We’ve spent 750 hours on

reconfiguration of maternity and

paedatric services one

of our top priorities

this year

We’ve visited 27 local services which

includes but are not limited to

Hospitals, Sheltered

Housing, GP

Surgeries and Dental

practices

Our reports have highlighted a lack of

inclusion and access for the deaf,

hard of hearing and Somali

communities in

Ealing

We’ve met a range of local people at

through our community engagement

activities such as members of youth

parliament,users of a

range of community

groups,patients and

carers at Ealing Hospital


7

Who we are

We exist to make health and care

services work for the people who use

them.

Everything we say and do is informed by

our connections to local people. Our sole

focus is on understanding the needs,

experiences and concerns of people of all

ages who use services and to speak out

on their behalf.

We are uniquely placed as a national

network, with a local Healthwatch in

every local authority area in England.

Our role is to ensure that local decision

makers and health and care services put

the experiences of people at the heart of

their work.

We believe that asking people more

about their experiences can identify

issues that, if addressed, will make

services better.

Our vision

Healthwatch Ealing’s ambition is to have

the best health and social care services,

shaped by local needs and exepriences

We seek to make the public’s views

known to those involved in the

commissioning, provision and scrutiny of

health and social care services.

Promote and support the involvement of

a diverse range of people in the

monitoring, commissioning and provision

of local health and social care services.

Healthwatch Ealing is accountable to its

members, local service users and resident

taxpayers in Ealing borough and well as

to Ealing Council and the Department of

Health in terms of delivery and value for

money.

Our priorities

To make reports and

recommendations about how

services could or should be

improved.

To provide information to the

public about how to access health

and social care services to inform

their choices in relation to aspects

of those services.

To represent the views of

communities, patients, service

users and carers whose voice

Healthwatch Ealing is acting for on

the Health and Wellbeing Board.

To make recommendations to

Healthwatch England to advise the

CQC to carry out special reviews or

investigations into areas of

concern (or, if the circumstances

justify it, go direct to the CQC

with their recommendations, for

example if urgent action were

required by the CQC).


8

Our Staff

Our Healthwatch Team Staff Team (from left to right): Suzanne Lyn-Cook, Olasumbo Ajala,

Angela Weyers, Hamdi Issa, Nadia Ramjhun, Katrina Lucero, Susan Solanke and Francesco

Fruzza Jnr

In the year ending 31st March 2016, the members of Healthwatch Ealing were supported by seven members of staff working a combination of full time and part time roles. We also had dedicated office volunteers which included John Keaveney, Rayshaun Davis-Williams and Francesco Fruzza Jnr(who was later employed on a fixed term contract)

August 2013 - November 2013 - April-October 2015 July 2015-March 2016

August 2015 May 2015


9

Listening to people who use health and care services


10

Gathering experiences and

understanding people’s needs

An example of targeted information

gathering is our Engagement Visits with

Sheltered Housing residents and staff

We identified as an organisation that we

needed to open up a channel of

communication between Healtwatch

Ealing and the Sheltered Housing

residents and staff.

We recognised this group of residents and

staff have experiences and feedback

which would be of value to us.In

addition, we wanted to ensure they are

aware of Healthwatch and our role.

We made engaging residents in sheltered

housing a priority for this year.

A focused visiting project with sessional

worker undertaking visits to sheltered

housing schemes across the borough from

April to October 2015 was initiated

The objectives of this engagement were:

to promote Healthwatch within the

sheltered housing residents

to build a relationship with the

residents and the managers

to gather feedback on the

residents’experiences accessing a

range of health and social care

services in the borough.

With a view to maintaining the

connection and to identify any further

issues or improvement in service, and

answer questions raised in previous visits.

The project resulted in engagement visits

to 12 of the 20 sheltered housing units in

the borough and meeting with 125

residents.

We gathered feedback about experiences

of services, from both residents and

staff, about GPs, pharmacies, as well as

A&E and urgent care services at local

hospital trusts.

In examing the feedback from this

sample, we found there were positive

experiences of the sheltered housing

service and local pharmacies.

There was disatisfaction with accessing

GP services, a lack of clarity for patients

about the relationship between A&E and

Urgent care services.

But the key concern was the lack of

coordination of outpatient appointments

or tests, which resulted in patients

having to make many trips to hospital.

This was frustrating and tiring as many of

these respondents were not eligble for

support with transport.

The findings of this report were shared

with the Sheltered Housing service, as

well as Ealing CCG and Ealing Social

Services Commissioners.

As part of the follow-up action on this

report, there has been an exploratory

meeting between the Director of

Healthwatch Ealing and the Director of

Housing to explore ways in which

Healthwatch’s expertise could be used to

help the department’s engagement with

vulnerable tenants.


11

What we’ve learnt from visiting services

Authorised Enter & View Representatives 2015-16

Alan Cook

Perry King

Peter Cleary

Beryl Pankhurst

Comfort Fullick

David Fullick

Barbara Trigg

In 2015-16 we did not undertake any formal enter and view visits.

PLACE Assessments

PLACE Assessors 2015-16

Alan Cook

Mr Bhasin

Graeme Crawford

Pam King

Jules Tennick

Nadia Ramjhun

Katerina Lucero

Angela Weyers

Amran Husain

Our members who are PLACE Assessors took part in 3 assessments alongside NHS professionals at the following locations Ealing Hospital, Meadow House Hospice and Clayponds Hospital Overall the assessments were effective with our members bringing an outside perspective they highlighted areas for improvement in the quality of the environment to improve patient experience and safety

“We were able to raise concerns about how expected procedure was not being observed,

in relation to maintaining the temperature of meals being served on the ward”

PLACE Assessor


12

Giving people advice and information


13

Helping people get what they need

from local health and care services

We have a well established service,

Signposting@Healthwatch Ealing, which

provides the local residents of the

London Borough of Ealing (LBE) with

access to information on any of the

health and social care services providers

in and around the borough.

The purpose of the signposting service is

to:

To deliver a fast and effective

signposting service to local people,

providing information on any of the

health and social care service

providers in the LBE.

Gather views and understand the

experiences of people who use

health and social care services,

their carers and the wider

community

To identify issues of local concern

and gaps in services

Help to signpost local residents to

the NHS Complaints Advocacy

service, Social Services Complaints Department and, where

appropriate, safeguarding teams

This is done with the aim of

makingpeople’s views known to local

commissioning groups, health and

wellbeing boards and, through

Healthwatch England, national regulators

- the Care Quality Commission, and the

Secretary of State in order to improve

the delivery of local health and social

care services.

We have worked to ensure the service is

accessible through a number of formats.

This includes:

Telephone Helpline and Email Contact

Over the reporting year, our Information

Officer, Volunteers and other staff took

calls and attended to email enquiries

during office hours Monday-Friday. The

telephone helpline utilises a local number

(0208 280 2277) as well as a Freephone

number (08000 147 306) to facilitate easy

access to the Information signposting

service. In addition to our general email

address, the service is also accessible via

the dedicated email address

[email protected].

We have also had various information and

signposting requests including but not

limited to:

How to make complaints about

health, mental health and social

care services

Availability of Mental health

Cognitive Behaviour Therapy(CBT)

and Improving Access to

Psyhcological Therapies (IAPT)

services

Befriending services for the elderly

Finding reviews of care homes in the

borough

Keep fit/sports activities for people

with disabilities

Signposting to Social Care Customer

services

mailto:[email protected]


14

Signposting to substance abuse

support

Signposting examples of how we helped

individuals:

GP access for Homeless Persons

We had a series of enquiries from support

organisations regarding where homeless

people could access GP services.

One such enquiry was from a mental

health support agency, who had a case of

an older homeless man with mental

health issues, who needed to access a GP

for physical health issues.

The individual and the agency had tried

GPs in the area near the support

organisation, but as he had no fixed

address, the practices would not register

this gentleman. Even if the organisation

was willing to be a contact address, they

would not take on the individual.

Our signposting service undertook

research and was able get guidance from

the CCG which stated the rights of the

individual to access to primary care and

ways to deal with the no fixed address

The mental health organisation was then

able to liaise with a GP practice and get

the individual registered.

Podiatry Service

The wife of an 87 year old diabetic man,

who had a home visit by the podiatrist

booked May 2015, which did not happen.

She contacted our signposting service in

September, after struggling for months to

contact the podiatry service to get a

home visit as her husband was suffering.

She had attempted to contact the

podiatry service office by telephone,on

many occasions, including the day of her

call to us. She and we tried many times

that day. The couple were frustrated and

distressed by their experience of the

service as there seemed to be no way to

contact the service other than by

telephone

Our team found a fax number to the

service and sent a request to the service

to make urgent contact with the couple

and they also contacted the Patient

Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) office

to ask them to follow up with couple to

ensure they received ongoing care.

Our intervention enabled the gentleman

to access the service he needed and to

provide evidence of the pressure on the

podiatry service.

Website

Internet access ensures there is a

signposting service available to the public

24/7. Telephone numbers, addresses,

descriptions of the services provided, as

well as any website and email addresses

are available via Signposting’ page to

create a single point of access

We have incorporated a ‘How to make a

complaint’ page featuring videos

produced by Healthwatch England as well

as toolkits on how to make a complaint.

The Signposting page has received a total

of 468 hits, with 52 hits on ‘Make a

Complaint’, in the year ending March

2016.

In Person

A regular monthly stall has been

established at Ealing Hospital to help


15

collect patient experience and to

signpost people to services.

This year we held monthly drop-in

services where local people can come

and talk to us.

The drop-in sessions took place at various

community locations around the borough

including:

Southall Dominion Centre

Greenford Community Centre

Acton Community Centre

Grand Union Village Community

Centre

Lido Centre West Ealing

At these sessions local residents have

been encouraged to come along and tell

us their views or concerns of local

services as well as learn more about the

work of Healthwatch Ealing and how to

get involved.

We have reached out to over 400 local

people through our hospital stall,

community drop-ins and attending a wide

range of events across the year.

How we have made a difference


17

Our reports and recommendations

We believe we have a vital role in

ensuring commissioners in statutory

organisations follow up on commitments

made in response to reports and

initiatives facilitated or supported by

Healthwatch Ealing.

Facilitating the Deaf and Hearing - Loss

Community to be Heard

In September 2014 through the work of of

our deaf and hard-of- hearing active

members, we held a “Community Event

for Hearing Loss, Deaf and Deafblind

residents of Ealing” (the report is

available on our website)

The event was attended by 70 people

who gave a great deal of feedback about

their experiences and frustrations with a

wide range of health and social services

The key recommendation from this event

was to have a dialogue event between

the commissioners from Ealing social

services, Ealing Clinical Commissioning

Group and members of the hearing loss

and deaf community to look at how to

improve this community’s experience of

health and social care services.

Healthwatch Ealing hosted a follow-up

event, “A Dialogue with the

Commissioners” in October 2015.

The Commissioners demonstratated their

commitment to this issue, by funding the

event

Commissioners from Ealing CCG and

Ealing Social Services attended the

meeting and engaged with over 70

people, who attended the event.

The Commissioners gave responses as to

what initiatives had been taken by their

organisations, to address the deaf and

hearing loss patient, carer and service

user experiences raised in the

Healthwatch Ealing 2014 report.

The Commissioners were able to explain

the way the services are commissioned

and monitored, which was useful for

participants to increase their

understanding of how the services they

use are provided.

Commissioners gave examples of how

changes brought in through the Care Act

and NHS requirements provide

opportunities to develop new ways of

providing services which enable access

for people who are deaf or have hearing

loss.

Experiences shared at the event

Commissioners were able to hear first -

hand the expriences and difficulties

faced by members of the deaf and

hearing -loss community.

“Issue when it comes to being diabetic is

receiving the correct information”

Participant

“Issue of communication once again

arose in relation to serious medical

situations and the idea that when

someone is in a situation like this, they

would rather be able to communicate

this is the best way they know how (BSL),

not on a mobile phone or piece of

paper.” Participant

Participant


18

The particicpants at the event were

encouraged by the Commissioners to give

suggestions, as to how to improve access

and services for hearing -loss and deaf

people.

One of the suggestions was for the Ealing

CCG and Local authority to establish a

forum, where they can meet on a regular

basis with representatives of of the

community, to begin the process of

involving them in the design, monitoring

and evaluation of services.

This forum was welcomed by the hearing

-loss and deaf community members, as it

would be the start of giving them a voice

with the service leaders.

Actions by Commissioners

following Healthwatch Ealing

Report of 2015

Following the Dialogue event in October

there have been meetings between LB

Ealing and Ealing CCG commissioners and

representatives of the deaf and hearing -

loss community. This has resulted in the

CCG undertaking the following

commitments to take forward:-

Provide a checklist on how to book

interpreters and a list of

recommended interpreters for

GPs.

Share the list of training providers

used by LBE with GPs

Learn from and share, the good

practice of a GP surgery who hold

PPG meetings which include deaf

patients, and routinely organise

interpreters to support effective

communication

Identify materials which will be

added to the CCG extranet.

A list of interpreter organisations

has now been provided to all GP

practices.

Lydia Best from HEALTHWATCH

EALING and National Association of

Deafened People (NADP)will be

presenting a session at the GP

Practice Managers’ Forum on best

practice and national guidelines

There is a plan in place to put

appropriate resources on CCG’s

web-site.

Equalities objectives are being

reviewed. Work with deaf and

hearing impaired patients will be

included in future objectives.

Working with other organisations

Working with Ealing CCG -Establishing

GP Networks Patient Participation

Groups

Healthwatch Ealing undertook a

commissioned project in partnership with

Ealing Clinical Commissioning Group, to

increase public and patient

representation on a number of Ealing

CCG’s work priorities.

One aspect of this commission was a

project for Healthwatch Ealing, to

facilitate the establishment of 7 GP

Network PPGs (NPPG) across the borough

that were co-terminus with the existing

GPs networks.


19

The aim was to create a channel of

engagement between the Ealing CCG,

GPs and patient representatives, to

increase patient engagement in strategic

developments and planning, to meet

patient’s needs at a Network level.

The collaboration ran from September

2014 to October 2015, Healthwatch

Ealing facilitated 4 rounds of Network

PPG (NPPG) meetings. The result of this

work is that there are now 7 Network

PPGs, which hold regular meetings and

engage with Ealing CCG and Network lead

GPs

A key factor in establishing these

Networks was, many of the Networks had

Healthwatch Ealing members as

representatives in their practice PPGs,

who could encourage involvement, and in

some cases take a pivotal role in shaping

the formation of the Network and it

activities.

Relationship with CQC

We have continued to share information

with the CQC, give feedback to inform

inspections of local serivces and to

promote CQCsr listening events that have

taken place across the NW London region.

We have as yet not been able to build a

working relation where we set up regular

meetings or shared events

Relationship with Healthwatch England

We have continued to have a strong

relationship with HW England, through

participating in London region meetings.

As well as being part of the national

online forum to exchange learning and

raise issues, we have continued to work

with infrastructure development section

HW England to ensure we are up –to- date

on the information sharing and analysis

systems.

We regularly share information gathered

locally about patient, carer and service

user experience, as well as any wider

issues related to commissioning and

providers

Involving local people in our work

As the independent champion for the

people of Ealing, we have built on the

strategic work and relationships we have

developed from the time of the Local

Involvement Network (LINk) to

Healthwatch

Healthwatch Ealing has, through our

statutory role; sought to ensure

Healthwatch Ealing has had a voice in a

range of strategic boards, meetings and

project groups within Ealing and North

West London.

North West London (NWL) NHS

Shaping a Healthier Future Programme

(SaHF)

Healthwatch Ealing, with Healthwatch

from the other seven boroughs in NWL,

has continued to have representatives

involved with the project planning boards

that are working out how to implement

the changes to bring SaHF to fruition in a

way that benefits patients.

Our Chair is part of the North West

London (NWL) Healthwatch chairs group

who sit on the Patient and Public

Representative group which works with

the senior NHS staff to scrutinise the

implementation SaHF projects.


20

The Chair and other Healthwatch Ealing

Representatives have in the reporting

year worked on various areas including:

Maternity and Paediatric

Clinical Commissioning Groups Co-

Commissioning

NWL NHS Travel Advisory Group

In Ealing Healthwatch our members have

identified accessible transport as a major

factor to making the reconfiguration of

services to be out of hospital, and of

benefit to patients and carers.

Two of our members sit on the SaHF

Transport Advisory Group which is teasing

out and testing ways of improving

transport to make sure individuals will be

able to access the reconfigured hospital

and community NHS services, from

wherever they live in the Borough. They

have continued to make a substantial

contribution to the discussions that take

account of how transport would impact

on people using NHS services in NW

London. Our members Alan Cook and

James Guest have dedicated a great deal

of time to this work.

NWL NHS Out-of-Hospital Group

contracting of services in primary care

settings

NWL NHS Out of Hospital Group has two

Healthwatch Ealing representatives

involved on the Steering group and

Clinical governance group.

Our representatives have been involved

looking at the contracting of services in

primary care settings

They are scrutinising potential conflicts

of interest and monitoring services under

new contractual arrangement. They take

a robust approach to overseeing new

contracts as well as looking at the detail,

scrutinising the quality of services and

patient experience of new services. They

bring a patient perspective to the

services being contracted.

London Borough of Ealing

In our statutory role we engage with the

work of the local authority in the

following areas:

Health and Wellbeing Board

Adult Health and Social Services

Scrutiny Panel

Public Health, including the Joint

Strategic Needs Analysis Steering

Group

Adult and Children’s Services

including adult safeguarding and

children and young people Board

Health and Well Being Board (HWBB)

Healthwatch Ealing through its role on

the Health and Well Being Board seeks to

the have oversite and influence over

commissioning decisions across health,

public health and social care.

There are a number of working Boards

that report into the HWBB which also

have Healthwatch representation.

This year Healthwatch had a place on the

on the steering group that developed and

published the new Health and Wellbeing

Strategy. Our membership of this steering

group enables us to:-

have input into shaping the

content of the strategy

seek to ensure the local authority

thought through their consultation

process,to try to provide the


21

opportunity for all residents to

know they could give their

feedback on the draft strategy.

try ensure the document was

presented in a way that was

accessible to a wide range of

residents.

Joint Strategic Needs Assessment

(JSNA)

Through being a member of the JSNA

steering group we have been involved in

the ongoing refreshing of the JSNA. The

feedback we gather from all our activity,

adds another dimension to the data that

feeds into JSNA.

Ealing Whole Systems Integrated Care

(WSIC)

Local Whole Systems Integrated care

project is jointly led by the LB Ealing and

Ealing CCG and has applied the learning

and practice from the NWL WSIC to

create integrated services in Ealing.

We have had representatives on the

programme steering group which is now

bringing integrated care to fruition in

Ealing, with new ways for professionals to

work together, putting the patients and

their carers at the centre of services, to

ensure they receive the support and

enablement to give them a good quality

of life.

Peter Cleary, our representative, has

been able to make positive contributions

to the development of the integrated

care by:-

Stressing the need for patients to

have a single point of contact

telephone number to contact a

care co-ordinator

Proposing that domiciliary care

workers be formally incorporated

into the integrated care process

Asking for a commitment from

Commissioners that this service

will be rolled out on a 7 day basis

Suggesting that processes should

be speeded up i.e. that members

of the joint care team can refer

directly to one another, without

going via the GP

Continually emphasising that

wherever possible the patient's

wishes should be respected

Health and Adult Social Services

Standing Scrutiny Panel

This panel is responsible for scrutinising

health services in the borough, as well as

the council’s provision of social services

for adults. Healthwatch Ealing has a

place on this panel and reports to the

panel on its work.

Example of our involvement

Alan Cook is our member who has

represented Healthwatch Ealing on the

Scrutiny panel for a number of years. He

has been able to gain a long-term view of

topics which enables him to ask

challenging and pertinent questions on

health and social service provision to the

residents of Ealing. It has been noted

that his contribution provides a valuable

additional dimension to the work of the

Scrutiny panel.


22

Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation

Trust Quality Stakeholder Meetings


Satpal Chana has been our representative

Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

quarterly Quality Stakeholder Meetings.

The meetings this year focused on

monitoring arears scored ‘as inadequate’

by CQC in October 2014. Therefore key

areas of focus during 2015 continued to

be urgent and emergency services,

medical care, surgery and services for

children and young people.

Our representative along with

Healthwatch Hillingdon colleagues

scrutinised the detailed reports and plans

the Trust provided to the stakeholder

meetings, highlighting areas for

improvements and concerns thus creating

an environment for open discussion and

challenge. A follow up CQC inspection in

May 2015 showed an improved scoring in

all areas from inadequate to ‘requires

improvement’. The quarterly Quality

Stakeholder meetings are planned to

continue in 2016.

Ealing Clinical Commissioning Group

(ECCG)

Ealing Clinical Commissioning Group is

responsible for buying health services

including community health and hospital

services for people in Ealing. The ECCG is

made up of local GPs, health

professionals and lay members who are

well placed to know which services

people need to support the well-being of

Ealing residents.

Out of Hospital Strategy (OHH)

Ealing CCG is committed to delivering an

out of hospital service that gives patients

and our clinical colleagues confidence

that care at home and in primary care

will be consistently high quality and

accessible.

Their vision is that patients will feel

confident and secure in the care they

receive out of hospital

Through joint working between GPs,

community and social care, hospital

services and consultants, with early

intervention and care in the right

place and at the right time

Patients will have easier access to

consistently high quality primary

care

More consultant led planned care

will take place closer to home

Patients with long term conditions

who need care from different

services will receive better

coordinated care with one package

of care.

Patients will be supported when

they are discharged from hospital.

Holding themselves and other

providers to account for delivering

high quality care out of hospital.

Ealing CCG has continued to ensure they

consult with and involve Healthwatch

Ealing in the developments that are being

put in place to make their Out of Hospital

strategy work in practice. For example,

the re commissioning of respiratory,

cardiology, pathology, wheelchair, 111

service and GP Out-of-Hours services.


23


Perry King who is an active member and

is a carer for someone who is wheelchair

user, has been involved with the NWL

procurement process for new wheelchair

service across 7 boroughs (Ealing, Central

London, West London, Hammersmith &

Fulham, Hounslow, Barnet and Brent)

As our representative along with carers

and users representatives he contributed

to the tendering process, they were given

training, that enabled them consider the

bidders applications and to ask bidders

questions to which they had to provide

detailed comments.

A bidder has been awarded the contract.

Perry will be part of the contract

monitoring meetings in the coming year.

Pan London Invovlement

Over the last two years, Healthwatch

Ealing members have taken part in a

number of pan London events and

projects such as NHS England London

Patient Dental Board where 3 of our

representatives , Beryl Pankhurst, Mary

Hamilton and Margaret Proctor have

contributed to the development and

direction of commissioning in dental care

across London.

Children and Young People

As Healthwatch we now have the

responsibility for scrutinising the quality

of health and social care services for

children and young people.

As Healthwatch we sit on the Children

and Young Peoples Board to enable

Healthwatch to have an overview of

children’s services

This year we have sought to raise

awareness of Healthwatch and have been

seeking to build working relationships

with commissioners and providers, we are

still looking to develop particular work

activities in this area of the services to

improve the experiences of children,

young people and their families.

As part of our networking role, we have

made a link to the Youth Mayor and

members of the Youth Parliament and

Ealing Youth Action. These two groups in

Ealing have been very active in engaging

with hundreds of young people on health

related issues through schools. Their

work is informing the work of children’s

health and social care commisioners

As a Healthwatch we welcomed their

commitment and have taken a role in

promoting their work

Our work in focus


25

Our work in focus: Somali Health and Well Being Report

Somali Health and Well Being

Report

Ealing is the 4th most diverse borough

in London, as a Healthwatch we were

aware we had a gap in our knowledge

and contact with the Somali

Community.

Healthwatch Ealing conducted outreach

events for Somalis living in Ealing

community via Horn of Africa Disability

and Elders Association (HADEA) drop-in

session. Somali organisations have long

made the case for health and social

care needs of the community.

Through Healthwatch an opportunity

arose, for the first time, to make a

case for the entire community's health

and social care needs and wants –

specifically for the benefit and

attention of major decision makers.

Members of the community told us

there were not enough Somali

community groups to care for them in

the community.This was particularly

noted by those for whom English was

not their first language and were not

familiar with the NHS and social care

support services delivered in the

borough

Working collaboratively with Somali

support organisations, Healthwatch

Ealing undertook this project to identify

how and whether the issue raised

had an impact on the access of the

Somali community to health and social

care services in Ealing.

The aim of this work is to share our

findings with service providers and

commissioners of health and social

care services.

To enable commissioners and providers,

to increase their understanding of the

needs and experiences of the Somali

community, which we hope will inform

their policy and planning, to reduce

inequalities amongst ethnic minority

groups such as the Somali community.

Highlights of the Findings

From our survey and gathering feedback,

we have found that people need support

in accessing services and identifying how

to use the NHS and social care services.

Casework feedback has highlighted

instances of organisations running as

‘self-help’ groups. Many of these groups

support Somalis through translation,

writing letters of complaint, attending

medical / council appointments with

clients, all without receiving external

funding.


26

“We have deaf or hard of

hearing Somali, mainly

women using our services.

Often there is a

communication gap between

the women and the signers

they are assigned for medical

appointments. These signers

are ‘high-level’ signers. But

the women have often not

attended school in either

their birth country or the UK

so they cannot read, write or

understand English. So access

to these high level

interpreters is not useful to a

group that cannot understand

BSL. There needs to be

greater funding of BSL lessons

to support these groups that

cannot sign using BSL.”

Support Worker, Ealing.

We need more funding. We,

all Somali groups that have

remained, collectively see

thousands of Somalis a

month. The demand is great

but our resources are

limited. The council and such

like bodies are not taking us

seriously. For us to provide

the best service possible for

our community, we need

more financial help from the

council. They too should be

concerned about solutions to

better meeting the needs of

the Somali community in

Ealing.

Somali Support Worker, Southall

Overarching Reccomentations

Healthwatch Ealing recommends

this report informs the work of the

Health and Wellbeing Board with

particular reference to addressing

inequalities for the Somali

community

Healthwatch Ealing calls on Ealing

CCG, Ealing Council and NHS

England London to engage with

Somali residents and Somali

support services to discuss the

recommendations in this report to

ensure they are at the heart of

decision making processes around

improving provision to the Somali

community in Ealing.

Healthwatch Ealing in the

coming year will monitor

progress of commissioners in LB

Ealing and Ealing CCG in their

effort to engage with the Somali

community, to improve the experiences

of health and social care services for this

community.

Our plans for next year

Future priorities

Healthwatch Ealing has become an

independent organisation as of 1 April

2016. The existing Board is taking the

organisation through its initial months

with a new board in place by August 2016

following the organisation’s AGM.

The local authority has commissioned

Healthwatch for one year and identified

specific outputs and outcome in our core

areas of work.

Ealing, as part of the North West London

Health economy, is continuing to be part

of one of one of the most far ranging

reconfigurations of services in the

country. This year will see the closure of

Ealing Hospital's in patient paediatric

service and the further submissions of the

Shaping a Healthier Future proposals on

the future of Ealing Hospital and local

out of hospital health hubs.

All areas in the country, including North

West London, are currently developing

Sustainability and Transformation Plans

with their local authority partners for the

next 5 years. This process has been very

top down and appears to Healthwatch to

have been rushed and developed with

very little input from patients and the

public who will be served by these plans.

The above areas are a key focus for

Healthwatch Ealing and will to be

followed and monitored carefully

In addition Healthwatch Ealing has tasked

the Members Operation Group (MOG) to

work with our members to develop

specific local focus priorities for 2016/17.

This work started with an open meeting

for members in March 2016. The MOG

has analysed the results and identified 4

work areas:

Access to GP's

Social Care needs in particularly domiciliary care

Local Mental Health Services

Hospital services specifically discharge and UCC

Within these areas initial work plans have

been identified and work has started.

The new board will need to ratify and

develop a new longer term plan for the

organisation.

Our people


30

Decision making

We are governed by a Board of Trustes.

The Trustees for the year ended 31st

March 2016 is made up of the following:

Mr. John McNeill- Chair

Ms. Carmel Cahill – Vice Chair

Mrs. Satpal Chana

Mrs. Lesley Dodd(stepped down

January 2015)

Mr. Francesco Fruzza

Ms Pamela King

Mr. Alan Murray MBE

Ms. Martino Smits

Mr. Inder S. Uppal MBE

When Healthwatch Ealing was established

in there was an arrangement whereby

Healthwatch Ealing was subisdary of

Hestia until March 2016

This year we continued to be a subsidiary

of Hestia which acted as the company

member of Healthwatch Ealing. As part

of this arrangement the staff were

employed by Hestia with whom

Healthwatch has Service Level

Agreements in relation to Governance,

Finance, Human Resources, Information

Technology, Facilities and Fundraising.

The Board take responsibility for the

governance, ensuring complianace with

the Charity Commisson and the Local

Authority contract, as well as financial

probity.The Board sets the direction of

the organisation, monitoring our impact

and progress and getting improvements in

the quality of health and social care

services.

A major focus for the Board has had to be

on the steps to become fully independent

by the end of March 2016.

To ensure Healthwatch members

involvement in this important process,

the Board established a sub-committee,

the Transition Planning Group, composed

of board members and active members,to

support the transition to independence.

The Board felt it was important to have

the involvement of active members in

shaping the future governance of the

organisation.

The agendas and minutes of the

Transition Planning Group were published

on the website, for public scrutinity and

comment.

All Healthwatch Ealing members were

given the opportunity to give their

feedback on the proposed draft Articles

of Association before they were finalised.

The Board also had to address and plan

for the impact of a substantial reduction

in core funding 2015-17 from the local

authority.

This funding cut will impact more in the

coming year 2016-17. As a result of this,

the Board and the Director had to

restructure the staffing complement and

look at what the Healthwatch will be

able to deliver on less staff time and

resources to support the expected

activities of a Healthwatch


31

How we involve the public and

volunteers

Healthwatch Ealing seeks to engage with

its members and the public through:-

Circulating a biweekly e-bulletin -

Flash from Healthwatch Ealing

Circulating quartely Newsletters

Through our website

Social networking sites via Facebook

and Twitter

Public meetings

Outreach presence at a variety of

events and venues throughout the

year

Members Operational Group

This year, as part of seeking to improve

the involvement of members, a sub

committte, the Members Operational

Group was reactiviated.

The purpose of this group is to advise the

Board on matters relating to

membership, external representation,

links with other organisations, outreach,

and public relations and campaigning.

This group is open to all Healthwatch

Ealing members. The group is chaired by

a Board member to ensure that there is

a direct communication channel to the

Board. The group have been devising

structures to enable the organisation to

use members’ skills and interests within

the context of more limited staff and

financial resources.

This group is leading on shaping the

priorities for Healthwatch Ealing’s

activates in the next year.

The Members Operational Group

recognise the funding reductions means

there is a need for increasing member

involvement in a range of activities.

One way in which we have gathered

information to inform the work and

direction of Healthwatch has been

through public meetings.

This year we have had two public

meetings to engage with residents about

what they see as priroriites for

Healthwatch Ealing.

These meetings were also opportunities

for active members to share how they

have been working on behalf of the

community through Healthwatch.

Individuals within Members Operational

group, are experienced and committed

volunteers who represent Healthwatch on

a number of strategic developments

concerning health and social care.

They are also Healthwatch Ealing

ambassadors at outreach events and

engage with community organisations.

The group has been developing ways of

building stronger relationships with a

wider range of community organisations

across the borough to build stronger

partnership and networks.


32

Our Membership


33

Our finances

INCOME £

Funding received from local authority to deliver local Healthwatch statutory activities

160,300

Additional income 36,618

Total income 196,918

EXPENDITURE

Operational costs 17,939

Staffing costs 149,047

Office costs 86,966

Total expenditure (This includes independence transition funding from the reserves)

253,952

Balance brought forward (57,034)

Contact us

Get in touch

Address: Healthwatch Ealing

Lido Centre

63 Mattock Lane

London W13 9LA

Phone number: 0208 280 2276

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.healthwatchealing.co.uk

We will be making this annual report publicly available by 30th June 2016 by publishing it on

our website and circulating it to Healthwatch England, CQC, NHS England, Clinical

Commissioning Group/s, Overview and Scrutiny Committee/s, and our local authority.

We confirm that we are using the Healthwatch Trademark (which covers the logo and

Healthwatch brand) when undertaking work on our statutory activities as covered by the

licence agreement.

© Copyright Healthwatch Ealing June 2016

annual report 2015/2016 - ealing ccg...angela weyers, hamdi issa, nadia ramjhun, katrina lucero,...

Documents