The development of Local Healthwatch in Kent Part one: key findings

It was felt that a proper understanding of all the diverse groups in Kent should
inform K LHW’s engagement strategy. Working in partnership with specialist
community and voluntary sector groups was identified as an essential way for
K LHW to reach all the different groups in Kent. They will need a varied set of
approaches as one approach will not suit all groups and will cause barriers to
engagement for some. Therefore K LHW will need to develop or adapt tools
to work with and get feedback on their success in this area.
K LHW should be held to account by Kent CC as ‘commissioner’ for its
impact in this area. To be credible K LHW needs to demonstrate a wide
participation of diverse groups.
There was a general view that people living in residential and nursing homes
were particularly vulnerable and unable to access other forms of service user
engagement in the community. K LHW would need to find ways to build
relationships with this group in their residential settings to champion their needs.
LINks work with young people has started to identify some key issues when
working with these groups:
• The importance of directly involving children and young people
• The experience that many health services are designed primarily with adult
patients in mind
• Understanding what makes a ‘young person friendly’ service
• Learning from young people initiatives, networks and groups across Kent
There also emerged from the participation work a sense that health and social
care consumers in Kent have at least four dimensions to their experience and
that K LHW would need to be able to work at each of these levels. These
dimensions were:
• The diversity and identity of individuals and their families – recognising that
people often have a number of different identity characteristics including
factors such as gender, ethnicity, sexuality and disability
• The local community where they live – which would also include the rural
and urban differences
• The services and providers that they access – which may be located in different
parts of Kent from where they live or may even be across county boundaries
• The health and social care conditions they may share with other individuals
in Kent – for example, long term conditions, being a cancer patient, carer
roles or having a young child
Participants identified opportunities for K LHW to support the personalisation
agenda by raising awareness and supporting individuals to become active
consumers.
Part one: key findings 23