‘Your Voice Counts: Celebrating 10 years of Healthwatch’ – Feedback from the Healthwatch East Sussex Annual Event 2023

It was great to see so many people in attendance at our 2023 Annual Event. We were joined by members of the public and our colleagues from statutory and voluntary organisations.

Our Speakers

Our five guest speakers responded to our theme of “Your Voice Counts: Celebrating 10 years of Healthwatch”:

• Sarah Russell – Assistant Director, Adult Social Care & Health, East Sussex County Council
• Lou Carter – Assistant Director, Communications, Planning & Performance, Children’s Services, East Sussex County Council.
• Richard Milner – Chief of Staff, East Sussex NHS Healthcare Trust
• Jennifer Twist – Chief Executive, Care for the Carers
• Louise Ansari – Chief Executive of Healthwatch England.

Copies of the speaker presentations can be downloaded here.

Discussion groups

Following the speakers presentation we hosted discussion groups including attendees from a range of organisations and locations. They were tasked with developing responses to each of the following questions:

Q1. How can we ensure public and patient voice is at the heart of local decision-making [in health and care]?

Q2. How well do health and care services ‘listen’ to local people and service users?

Q3. What practical suggestions do you have to encourage and enable people to share their health and care experiences?

Q4. What three issues should HWES prioritise in our work for the next 12 months?

A brief summary of the themes raised and recommendations proposed across all of the table discussions is set out in the attached report.

Next steps

We will share the presentations and discussion insight with event attendees and local partners, and use the content as part of our prioritisation process and in informing our day-to-day work.