Our Strategic Plan 2023-26
Our strategic plan sets out what we want to do over the next three years, as identified by our board.
Health and social care are vital parts of many people’s day to day lives. Many of us are passionate about the NHS and social care because we, or a loved one, are using a service right now. At some point, though, it is likely that every one of us will need support or treatment.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic we were working in a period of major change in health and social care and their delivery mechanisms. The pandemic and the response to it have increased the challenges that relate to demographic, economic and environmental factors and we need to take all of these into consideration when developing our strategy and planning our work.
Healthwatch Northumberland voices people’s concerns and provides feedback to service providers and commissioners. By engaging directly with users of the service and their carers we collect vital data on how and why people us e services in their area.
The potential scope of our work is vast as it covers health and social care services for all adults, children and young people in Northumberland with particular reference to those who are most vulnerable or may be excluded. This means we must prioritise the issues we focus on.
We have three strategic aims which are the themes for our work over the lifetime of the strategy. Our work each year will be identified as meeting one or more of the aims.
Health
With the help of Healthwatch Northumberland, the views, knowledge and experiences of a health service users and carers, particularly those less often heard, are listened to, and have a positive influence on changes and developments in health services in Northumberland.
Social care
With the help of Healthwatch Northumberland, the views, knowledge and experiences of a social care service users and carers, particularly those less often heard, are listened to, and have a positive influence on changes and developments in social care services in Northumberland.
Promotion
Healthwatch Northumberland is used by people in the county as a trusted source of information and signposting to health and social care services. Service providers, commissioners and key stakeholders in Northumberland and the wider care system know, trust and actively engage with Healthwatch Northumberland.
The activities and projects we do will change each year and will be set out in an Operational Plan as Strategic Objectives. These provide the framework for specific activities in the Operational Plan and delivered through our core activities of Engagement and Insight, Communications, Volunteering and Strategic Influence.
