Healthwatch Dorset Annual Report 2025/26: Speaking up for better care
In our latest annual report, Speaking up for better care, we highlight some of the ways we used your feedback to help NHS and social care decision-makers prioritise the issues that matter most to local people to help make care better.
We published four reports last year about Hospital at Home, emergency services, stop smoking offers and accessible care for our diverse communities. We shared their findings with the NHS and councils which has already led to improvements in information and signage, support for carers and stop smoking initiatives.
Our 71 volunteers have given an amazing 790 hours to support ongoing work in 2025/26. Thanks to their dedication, we better understand what is working and what needs improving in our local area. This year the volunteers have carried out interviews and visits, ran promotions, designed projects and helped our team write reports. Grace, an undergraduate studying psychology at Bournemouth University, told us:
“Volunteering with Healthwatch Dorset offers me a wide range of projects and opportunities that provide incredible experience for volunteers as well as supporting health care services. The team have ensured my role in this has fit comfortably around my degree by allowing for flexibility around high stress periods and options to work remotely.”
Last July, the government announced plans to abolish Healthwatch in 2027 and move their functions within local health and care services. In light of this we are working hard to urge decision-makers to ensure that there remains a strong, independent mechanism for public feedback in the future.
"Since its set up in 2013, Healthwatch Dorset has played a vital role in speaking up on behalf of local people, particularly those who face barriers to getting the support, information and care they need. Their independence is essential in scrutinising health and social care services and holding providers to account. Proposals to abolish the independent Healthwatch network are really troubling, we need to protect them and build on their success."
Healthwatch Dorset projects for 2026/27
The legal duty of Healthwatch is to listen and make sure your voice shapes the care you receive currently remains unchanged. In 2026/27, we will continue to engage with communities across the county and make sure those in power hear your views. Our three priority projects for this year are:
- Access to Primary Care with a focus on the impact of new GP contracts.
- Working with Mid Dorset Primary Care Network on Women’s Health.
- Young people’s projects looking at Special Educational Needs (SEND), women’s health, young people’s hospital experiences, breast cancer awareness and NHS communication.
Announcing the annual report, Viv Aird, Chair of the Healthwatch Dorset Board, said:
"Thank you to everyone who has supported and contributed to our work, including those who have acted on our recommendations, and to all of you who have so generously shared your experiences with us in order to help to make services across Dorset better."
