Connected Together CIC

First for Community Engagement

Recent Projects

Here are some examples of recent community engagement programmes we have been contracted to deliver.

Healthwatch North and West Northamptonshire Annual Report 2023-2024: The value of listening

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We are happy to announce that we have published our 2023-2024 Annual Report.

Our Annual Report is a showcase of the work we completed throughout the last financial year. Read about our year!

Highlights of 2023-2024:

We published 5 reports (all can be accessed here)

  • We were asked by Change Grow Live to engage with service users and gather a better understanding of their experiences
  • Young Healthwatch visited the Children’s services at NGH to give their views and impressions of the service
  • We visited the maternity departments of NGH and KGH to give our views and provide recommendations to the service
  • We partnered with West Northamptonshire Council to understand the experiences of individuals with respiratory conditions

How we’ve made a difference throughout the year:

  • We spoke with Change Grow Live service users and uncovered the barriers experienced and the benefits of treatment
  • We attended engagement events such as the Northampton Carnival where we heard the public’s views on local health and social care services
  • We worked with those experiencing respiratory difficulties in an area of deprivation in Northampton to better understand their experiences and the support they need to live their best life
HWNW Annual Report 2023-2024lDownload

Integrated Care Northamptonshire Engaging in Research Collaborative Project

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Healthwatch North and West Northamptonshire’s latest report is published, containing the results of the barriers to the public engaging in health and social care research.

Integrated Care Northamptonshire wanted to better understand what the barriers to health and social care research are within Northamptonshire and asked Healthwatch North and West Northamptonshire for collaboration on this topic.

To deliver this project, we engaged with the community through a survey and two focus groups which helped us gather key information.

The report below contains our key findings, recommendations that can be made to ICN and other community services, as well as the results of the survey and focus groups.

Read the report:

HWNW-ICB-Final-ESDownload

Read the easy read version:

HWNW-Easy-read-ICBDownload

NGH Ophthalmology Enter and View Report

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Healthwatch North and West Northamptonshire’s report on the Enter and View they conducted at Northampton General Hospital’s Ophthalmology Department has now been published.

In February, Healthwatch North and West Northamptonshire representatives visited Northampton General Hospital’s Ophthalmology Department. They conducted an Enter and View on the department, with the aim to review the services provided through the perspective of the patient. 

On the day of the visit, our representatives were joined by NGH’s Head of Patient Experience and Engagement as well as the Directorate Manager of the Ophthalmology Department. They went to the Ophthalmology Outpatients, Eye Casualty Unit, the Singlehurst Clinic and the Singlehurst Theatre Bubble. During the time at the department, they also got to speak with staff and patients – gaining insightful feedback from working in and being patients of the department. The information gained from the visit has been used to make recommendations to the department, as well as acknowledging areas where quality care was being provided.

HWNW-Ophthalmology-Enter-and-View-Report-Download

Patient Transport Report

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Healthwatch North and West Northamptonshire have now published their report on patient transport.

As a result of feedback received from the public, we were made aware of the issues regarding transportation to clinical appointments in Northamptonshire. Due to this feedback, we decided to conduct a survey in order to better understand the experiences individuals have had with patient transport. We are pleased to share that this report is now published and you can view our findings and recommendations towards the service providers below.

HWNW-Patient-Transport-Download

NHS Dentistry in Rutland in 2023: new report

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People told us that they feel that they have no choice but to attend private dental surgeries even though they cannot afford to do so.

Since our last report on Accessing NHS Dental Care in Rutland in 2022, some national reforms have been made, however the situation regarding access in Rutland remains the same. There are no NHS dentists with capacity to accept new adult patients for routine treatment and limited capacity for children. 

In Autumn 2023 we launched a new quick poll to get a snapshot of how people were finding dentistry services 18 months on from our original report. We heard from 123 people and the feedback again highlighted that the people of Rutland need more affordable, accessible dentistry services. 

The poll showed that 59% of respondents were unable to get an NHS dental appointment in the last 12 months.

NHS-Dentistry-in-Rutland-23Download

Respiratory Project Report

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Healthwatch North and West Northamptonshire partnered with West Northamptonshire Council to conduct research on the experiences of individuals with respiratory conditions and we are happy to announce that this report is now available.

The aim of this project was to address health inequalities and inequalities that surround respiratory care and outcomes. It also had the purpose of better understanding the experiences of those groups who are more vulnerable to health inequalities, respiratory conditions and other long-term conditions in the local communities.

The project was targeted to those within the N4 Local Area Partnership (LAP), which covers the local areas of Northampton as a result of WNC’S identification of this being an area which has respiratory diseases as a community priority for action. To facilitate this project, our organisation partnered with Northamptonshire Carers Breathing Space support group and Change Grow Live’s Substance to Solution Service. 

Read the full report below.

HWNW-WNC-Respiratory-ReportDownload