Our vision

We are working towards a society in which people’s health and social care needs are heard, understood and met.

Achieving this vision will mean that:

• People shape health and social care delivery
• People influence the services they receive personally
• People hold services to account

Our mission

We are the consumer champion for health and social care.

We achieve this by:

• Listening hard to people, especially the most vulnerable, to understand their experiences and what matters most to them

• Influencing those who have the power to change services so that they better meet people’s needs now and into the future

• Empowering and informing people to get the most from their health and social care services and encouraging other organisations to do the same 

• Working with the Healthwatch network to champion service improvement and to empower local people

Our values

All of our work is informed by our values:

Inclusive

• We start with people first.
• We work for children, young people and adults.
• We cover all health and social care services.
• We work for everyone, not just those who shout the loudest

Influential

• We set the agenda and make change happen.
• We are responsive. We take what we learn and translate it into action.
• We are innovative and creative. We know that we can't fix things by sticking to the status quo.
• We work with the network of local Healthwatch to make an impact both locally and nationally.

Independent

We are independent and act on behalf of all consumers.

• We listen to consumers and speak loudly on their behalf.
• We challenge those in power to design and deliver better health and social care services.
• We like to highlight what works well but are are not afraid to point out when things have gone wrong.

Credible

• We value knowledge.
• We seek out data and intelligence to challenge assumptions with facts.
• We celebrate and share good practice in health and social care.
• We hold ourselves to the highest standards.

Collaborative

• We keep the debate positive and we get things done.
• We work in partnership with the public, health and social care sectors and the voluntary and community sector.
• We learn from people's experiences and from specialists and experts. We build on what is already known and collaborate in developing and sharing new insights.

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