The Operational Plan, agreed by the Healthwatch South Tyneside Board, sets out a strategy which aims to increase engagement with local people about healthcare services. This will be achieved by raising awareness about our role, improving strategic links and better measuring the impact of our work, ensuring service commissioners and providers understand the priorities of our communities.
The plan is linked to the South Tyneside Partnership priorities:
- Promoting independence and enablement
- Healthier people
- Safer, stronger families
Our operational priorities are:
- Involving local people in the debate around future and existing health and social care provision to make sure their voices are heard and health and social care planners know what matters to people most. We also must ensure we report back to local people
- Developing improved ways of working to ensure that the correct data is being gathered, understood and reported back to the Board and wider forums to measure impact and inform both operational performance, the wide use of resources and future decision making
- Raising the profile to increase the awareness of Healthwatch South Tyneside, recognising that we are best placed to make sure local people’s views are at the heart of decision making at all levels
- Improving the links with key strategic partners across South Tyneside to make sure that Healthwatch South Tyneside is fully engaged in strategic health and social care developments
- Making better use of the internet/social media outlets as well as more traditional methods of information dissemination and engagement, particularly when trying to involve young people.