Annual Business Plan 2026/7

Healthwatch City of London Business Plan 2026/7 (read the full report by clicking on the link below) covers our objectives for the year and the local objectives we aim to deliver, these are as follows: 

1. Deliver 10 patient panels to inform service users about Health and Social care topics that are important to them and impact on day to day lives. Responding to the requests of local people.  
2. Continued engagement with Portsoken residents building upon the relationships built this year with the Bengali community and to increase engagement with the Latin American Community. Supporting the work to address health inequalities
3. Work with City Advice to provide support for City Workers. Understand the issues facing the hidden worker community, working with the provider to help signpost to City Workers who can help.   Give insights to the CoL on the impacts of funding changes.
4. Scrutiny of Adult Social Care. Undertake a mystery shop to better understand residents’ experiences of contacting Adult Social Care for support. Scrutinise the CQC report in relation to safeguarding. Support the development of user faced responses and initiatives

5. Projects - 

    a) Understand emergency pathways. The process used to assess, and direct patients with urgent health needs to the appropriate care setting. Especially looking at pathways for patients with pre-existing conditions such as cancer or heart problems.

   B) Waiting list management – research how waiting lists are cleansed by health providers, where decisions are made, how patients are informed and appeal process and the impact on local users 

   C) Social prescribing in the City - undertake a project to understand the use of social prescribing in the City, who provides it, how many people use it, how is it being used to support people who are on more than 10 different drugs a day. 

   D) Patient communication – building on our previous project on digital apps, to carry out a project which aims to understand more in depth about the effects of the shift from analog to digital in healthcare, the remaining scope for the use of traditional means of communication and patient satisfaction with the different forms of communication. 

6. Maintain, train and utilise a dedicated team of volunteers. To attend focus groups to give the City’s perspective, research and write reports for projects, help with HWCoL events and carry out enter and view visits.