Healthwatch Essex

Healthwatch Essex

At a glance

Causes

  • Health and well being / research and care
  • Learning disabilities / difficulties
  • Mental health
  • Social care
  • Voluntary sector support

Other details

Geographical remit: 
Local

Objectives

Healthwatch Essex is an award-winning charity that aims to be ‘an independent voice for the people of Essex, helping to shape and improve local health and social care services’. As a young and innovative organisation, with powers and responsibilities set in law, we have a vital role to play in helping to change the future of health and social care. We will do this by making sure that the voice and lived experience of all people in Essex is taken account of by the people who commission and deliver local NHS and social care services. We are a team of around fifteen professionals, who, alongside a thriving network of volunteers, undertake work that includes engaging the public in innovative and effective ways (such as through films, podcasts and engagement projects) as well as carrying out high-quality social research. We also provide a telephone- and web-based Information Service to help the public access and understand the NHS and social care services. Above all, we aim to influence the decisions made by local health and social care authorities. Our success depends on building constructive partnerships with the NHS, local councils, and voluntary and community organisations. Our ambition is to be an effective agent of local change, and to reflect the highest standards of national and international best practice. We also anticipate future growth as an organisation, and have recently created a new trading subsidiary, HWE Insights, to help us to do this. The charity was created as a result of the Health and Social Care Act 2012, and the Government’s aim of ‘putting patients and the public first’ through strengthening their collective voice. The Act created a national network of local Healthwatch organisations, as well as a national umbrella organisation, Healthwatch England. The Act also gives local Healthwatch organisations certain powers in law to carry out their role, as well as certain obligations. Following a governance review, and constitutional changes that took effect from 1st April 2016, we are seeking to appoint new members to the Board of Trustees. If you think you’ve got what it takes to be involved, and can offer clear oversight and direction, we’d love to hear from you.

Activities

It is the responsibility of the Board of Trustees (whose members can be known variously as Charity Trustees or Directors ) to make sure that Healthwatch Essex (HWE) is solvent, well-run, and meeting the needs for which it has been set up. In particular, the Board must make sure that the day-to-day operational decisions and activities of HWE comply with both the relevant legislation (such as the Companies Acts and Charities Acts, as well as the Health and Social Care Act 2012) and that they advance HWE’s own charitable purpose and objects

No current opportunities

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