Contract for the future development of People’s Voice and Healthwatch Kent

Kent County Council Adult Social Care and Health is looking to develop their People’s Voice and Local Healthwatch Service with the aim to promote and empower Kent Citizens to have a voice in influencing, developing and shaping health care services in Kent. This includes ensuring the voices and views of older people, physically challenged people and people who are experiencing mental illness are heard and considered. The key requirements for local authorities are to make provision for the following statutory Local Healthwatch activities: • Promoting and supporting the involvement of people in the commissioning, the provision, and scrutiny of local care services. • Enabling people to monitor the standard of provision of local care services and whether and how local care services could and ought to be improved. • Obtaining the views of people regarding their need for, and experiences of, local care services and importantly to make these views known to those responsible for commissioning, providing, managing, or scrutinising local care services and to Healthwatch England. • Making reports and recommendations about how local care services could or ought to be improved. • Providing advice and information about access to local care services so people can make choices about local care services. • Formulating views on the standard of provision and whether and how the local care services could and ought to be improved and sharing these views with Healthwatch England. • Making recommendations to Healthwatch England to advise the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to conduct special reviews or investigations (or, where the circumstances justify doing so, making recommendations direct to CQC); and to make recommendations to Healthwatch England to publish reports about issues. • Providing Healthwatch England with the intelligence and insight it needs to enable it to perform effectively. Specifically we are interested in organisations that can :- • Enhance collaborative working to support the vision of Healthwatch England. • Review the range, quality and accessibility of User Forums. • Create opportunities so that people are able and willing to participate. This will include a good understanding of the population and those that are more likely to participate and those who are less likely to and develop plans to mitigate this. • Explore new ways to hear people’s voices – rotating the involvement of Experts by Lived Experience and reviewing what can be done to encourage others to contribute. • Undertake local asset mapping with people who use services, and inform a future model for effective collection and amplification of People’s Voice. • Review and define the future vision and identify what additionality this service could deliver. • Focus on outcomes and enable local innovations to build on existing good practice. The Provider will need to work collaboratively with a full range of organisations, agencies and groups in Kent’s communities to ensure effective partnerships are developed The Provider will need to develop an open-minded and effective working relationship with all Adults living in Kent with a focus on those experiencing barriers or challenges with day to day life, eg adults with learning disabilities, physical disabilities, autism, sensory impairments, mental health issues, older people and carers. The Provider will need to support a broader reach through virtual, social, and technological networks. Interested parties should email sharon.wilcock@kent.gov.uk - we will contact you to discuss