Healthwatch Lambeth is your health and social care champion. We listen to what people like about services and what could be improved. We share those views with NHS leaders and care providers to make change happen.

It's been a busy month at Healthwatch Lambeth since our last newsletter! We were delighted to have a stall at the Lambeth County Show, joining our partners in Lambeth Together, and this was a great opportunity for our team to meet residents from across the borough alongside our partners and tell them more about our work. 

Our team have also been really busy, working on our PCN engagement project, hospital discharge report, and running focus groups for our project looking at health inequalities. It's great to be out in the borough meeting residents from Lambeth in relation to all this work. 

We've also published our annual report this month which you can read on our website. 

Thank you again for your ongoing support, 

Mairéad Healy

CEO Healthwatch Lambeth

It's that time of year again, as we publish our annual report for 2022/23, highlighting our impact on services in Lambeth over the past year. Over 500 people shared their experiences of health and social care services with us through projects, outreach activities, information helpline services and events designed to raise awareness of issues and improve care. We also published two reports that showcase the changes people would like to see.

As our reports shows, after highlighting the difficulties of applying for Continuing Healthcare/Funded Nursing, commissioners addressed some of our recommendations in their improvement plans, which has made it easier for the public to understand and navigate the system. We also teamed up with the Refugee Council to run an online NHS information workshop for Ukrainians newly arrived to the UK, which helped them better understand - and also access - the health system here. 

This February, we conducted our first Enter & View visit since the Covid-19 pandemic. The Tree House, a short-term supported living service for people with mental ill health, aims to prepare them for their return to the community after a stay in hospital. We spoke to both staff and residents at the service and found an overall high degree of satisfaction with the level of care received, with key issues being delayed move-on to home or other services, and difficulties accessing GPs. Our report following the visit includes our recommendations for improvements and you can read it on our website. 

Lambeth Council wants to understand where and how you want to get your contraception, to make this an easy and smooth process for all.

Take part in the consultation to help the council learn more about contraception use in the borough and how it can improve access. 

In recent weeks, we have been busy progressing our Maternity Services project. The project aims to engage with Lambeth women and birthing people from different backgrounds, communities, and neighbourhoods, especially those from seldom-heard groups and communities, and hear their experiences of local maternity services. To do this, we are partnering with local Lambeth voluntary and community groups and organisations who work with, and support, these communities. 

We are delighted to announce we have now secured all five of our Voluntary and Care Sector partners for this project – The Motherhood Group, Indoamerican Migrant Refugee Association (IRMO), Mummy's Day Out, Disability Advice Service Lambeth (DASL), and Homestart Lambeth. The first focus groups took place on Friday 7 July with Mummy's Day Out and IRMO, and more are planned for July and August. 1-2-1 interviews are also being arranged and organised with DASL service users. The overall aim is to improve maternity services for all, making them more accessible, inclusive and high quality. We will provide regular updates on the project in future newsletters.

As well as the above projects, we continue to scope mental health projects, engaging with groups including Lambeth Parent Forum and The Sanctuary members. We would also like to gather initial thoughts from Lambeth residents who use SLAM mental health service and/or are in the care of their GP after using those services. Please email Anna D’Agostino at anna.dagostino@healthwatchlambeth.org.uk for more information about the project and how you can get involved.