Engagement Report Q&A - May 2023 Boston Community Group

Healthwatch Lincolnshire has an ongoing engagement program including listening to the concerns raised by seldom heard groups such as those from deprived areas, people living with disabilities and minority ethnic groups. One of the ways that we gather experiences of health and care is to do face to face sessions with groups. Our recent Cost of Living Survey, for example, highlighted the fact that people living with disabilities and long term health conditions are struggling accessing health and care as a direct result of the financial constraints that they find themselves in.

The purpose of the engagement activity was to:

• Gather feedback from the members of the group
• Find out about their concerns and issues and positive experiences
• Raise awareness of Healthwatch Lincolnshire as a source of information and signposting
• Ensure we meet our statutory duties set out in our Healthwatch contract to listen to people’s experiences of health and social care so that we as an organisation can influence the providers and commissioners of health and social care services to hear the voice of the people that their decisions will affect.

Boston is an area that can be described as a market town with many deprived wards within its boundary and has a number of surrounding villages. There is a large number of people living with long term health conditions and disabilities. There are also a number of challenges in the Boston Town Centre itself due to the lack of cohension of the diverse community in this area.

As part of our ongoing engagement with different communities, Oonagh Quinn our Healthwatch Involvement Officer was invited to the first meeting of a newly established Group supporting people living with disabilities in the Boston area. After the disbandment of the Boston Disability Forum, a few of the original members of that group have got together and are now in the progress of setting up a new group. The group had a number of representatives from other existing groups who support both adults and parents of disabled children. Throughout the discussions with the group, they raised a number of issues which have been highlighted in this report.

A download link to the report is below. If you need the report in another format or would like to discuss anything, please email info@healthwatchlincolnshire.co.uk or call 01205 820 892.