The BSW People and Communities Engagement Team regularly attends or supports a range of meetings with community groups, community organisations, Local Authority Committees and cross partnership groups focussing on supporting health and wellbeing of people and communities across Bath and North East Somerset Swindon and Wiltshire. The following examples highlight some of the groups, organisations and committees we attend to ensure we are listening to a wide range of diverse voices.

 

Local Authority Health Scrutiny Committees and Health and Wellbeing Boards

Senior BSW ICB leaders are members of Local Authority Children, Adults, Health and Wellbeing Policy Development and Scrutiny Panel and Health and Wellbeing Boards

Scrutiny committees examine the running and planning of local health services and require ICB leaders to give information about decisions we make. Health and Wellbeing Boards are statutory forums that brings together leaders from local government, the NHS, police, fire, and the voluntary sector to improve population health and reduce inequalities.

BSW ICB Voluntary Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) Alliance

Voluntary sector organisations play an important role in our local health and care system. There are over 2880 different VCSE groups all across the BSW area with a combined income of just over £1bn, many of which BSW Together works with. All of them help to provide invaluable support to our populations and our health and care services.

To ensure the voices of all of these organisations are heard and their experiences and views taken into account as we plan services, their views are represented by three Councils for Voluntary Services (CVSs), which are also sometimes referred to as infrastructure organisations.

In BSW the three CVSs, 3sG, Voluntary Action Swindon, Wessex Community Action and Community First, the Rural Community Council for Wiltshire and Swindon, are working with BSW Together to ensure that the right VCSE input is sought for decisions made on a locality level through their respective place based VCSE alliances.

We also regularly attend place based VCSE forums and meetings including Swindon and Wiltshire Connecting People Network, BaNES Ageing Well Network, the Wiltshire Get Connected Group, the BaNES Higher Education and Public Health group and many others.

Patient Participation Groups

There is a strong network of Patient Participation Groups operating across BSW. These  volunteer-led groups are made up of  patients, carers and GP practice staff who collaborate to improve local health services, strengthen the doctor-patient relationship, and ensure the patient voice is heard. They act as a bridge between patients and the practice, focusing on enhancing service quality, patient experience, and health education. We regularly attend PPG meetings to ask for help with specific engagement projects and find out more about member’s views on local services.

Healthwatch

Healthwatch is the independent champion for people who use health and social care services and works to understand the needs, experiences and concerns of people who use health and social care services and to speak out on their behalf.

We work with Healthwatch organisations in BaNES, Swindon and Wiltshire to mutually support and share engagement work, research gathering and surveys such as last year’s Big A&E survey. More recently Healthwatch produced a report on increasing the understanding and testing of high blood pressure in the local area.