National Report highlights role of Healthwatch in championing patient voice
The future of patient voice: learning from the Healthwatch model.
The Kings Fund has published its report on the ‘The future of patient voice’.
This reviews the role Healthwatch has played nationally and locally to gather the views of people using the health and care system in England and how this may inform the future.
Background
- Since 2013, Healthwatch has operated nationally and locally to gather the views of people using the health and care system in England. Its primary role has been to support improvements to services by reporting people’s experiences, which it has done by working with communities across England, collecting feedback on health and care services, and sharing this information with government bodies and local systems to inform policy and service development.
- On 27 June 2025, the government announced plans to close Healthwatch England and the network of 153 local Healthwatch organisations. In line with recommendations from the Dash review of patient safety, the government plans to transfer the strategic functions of Healthwatch England to the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), and the statutory functions of local Healthwatch organisations to NHS integrated care boards (ICBs) on health care and local authorities for views on adult social care.
- In light of these planned changes, this research explores what can be learned from the Healthwatch model, including what has worked well, what the challenges have been and how this can inform the government’s planned changes to how patient and service user experiences are collected and used. The King’s Fund reviewed existing evidence, conducted interviews and carried out two workshops with local and national stakeholders.
Key learning outlined in the report includes:
- Independence in patient voice enhances its credibility with communities and enables objective scrutiny
- Unsolicited feedback has enabled Healthwatch to identify emerging issues that matter to patients and service users which are not captured elsewhere
- Moving forwards, the health and care system’s capacity to hear, understand and act on people’s experiences should be strengthened
- Public sector workforce reductions raise concerns about their ability to engage communities meaningfully at scale
- Any future models linked to patient voice need to reflect the importance of partners listening together and acting on what is learnt
‘Acting on what you hear is essential, and this relies on leadership and organisational cultures that genuinely prioritise the experiences and perspectives of those who use services.’ (p31)
