Healthwatch Soft Market Test

Healthwatch's purpose is to ensure that the views of the public shape the health and care services they need. This means that Healthwatch Sheffield are required to be: • Independent in purpose - amplifying the voice and experiences of the most pressing and difficult issues in health and social care. • Independent in voice - speaking up on behalf of sometimes unpopular causes or groups who are marginalised and/or face disadvantages or discrimination. • Independent in action - designing and delivering activities that best meet the needs of the people they serve. Healthwatch Sheffield is due to come to the end of its current contractual period in September 2024 and Sheffield City Council is looking to ensure we maintain the statutory activities delivered alongside local priorities: • Promote and support the involvement of people in the commissioning, provision, and scrutiny of local care services. • Enable people to monitor the standard of provision of local care services and whether and how local care services could and ought to be improved. • Obtain the views of people regarding their need for, and experiences of, local care services and importantly make these views known to those responsible for commissioning, providing, managing, or scrutinising local care services and to Healthwatch England. • Make reports and recommendations about how local care services could or ought to be improved. These should be directed to commissioners and providers of care services and people responsible for managing or scrutinising local care services and shared with Healthwatch England. • Provide advice and information about access to local care services so people can make choices about local care services. • Formulate views on the standard of provision and whether and how the local care services could and ought to be improved and sharing these views with Healthwatch England.