In recent months, we’ve been listening to your experiences across Birmingham and Solihull, and turning what you tell us into real improvements in health and care.
With the independence of patient voice under threat, your feedback matters more than ever.
Listening in the Community
Over recent months, we’ve heard from you at a wide range of community events. These included hospital visits, a Pride Picnic, dementia carers events, care homes and warm hubs, alongside many others.
Each conversation helped us understand what’s working well and what needs to change in local health and social care.
Hearing from so many people across Birmingham and Solihull – from varied backgrounds, communities, and parts of the city and borough – has shaped our priorities and guided where we focus our work next.
Our fantastic volunteers attended 27 of our community engagement events across Birmingham and Solihull during this quarter, increasing our capacity and helping us to hear from more of you.
Supporting Individuals
Our Information and Signposting service supported 561 of you this quarter – by phone, emails and in person – helping people navigate the health and social care system and find the right support quickly.
Through this service, we’ve signposted people to the right place to get the help and support they need, whether that’s health and social care services or through the voluntary and community sector.
Case study:
A parent of a child with Autism and ADHD contacted us after waiting two years for intervention support. We shared our impact report on ADHD and Autism services – created with the help of local parents – which includes resources for families in similar situations.
Turning Insight into Action
Your feedback has informed our recent work, including:
Urgent Treatment Centres
People told us they often aren’t sure what their local Urgent Treatment Centre can offer, or when to use them. We explored how easy UTCs are to access, how clearly they’re signposted, and what people experience when they arrive. We heard concerns about waiting times, communication, and clarity around services, alongside examples of positive staff interactions. We’ve shared these findings with local NHS services to help improve information, consistency and access across UTCs.
Solihull Care Homes
Residents, relatives, and staff in care homes across Solihull told us what good care looks like. They emphasised the importance of meaningful communication, consistent staffing, and feeling included in decisions about care. We also heard where improvements are still needed, particularly around updates for families and staffing pressures. These findings are helping inform local care home improvement work and shape how providers support both residents and loved ones.
SEND Services
Parents and carers shared challenges around long waits, unclear pathways, and the emotional strain of trying to secure the right support. We’ve highlighted areas where families feel let down but also where good practice exists and can be built on. We worked closely with Pathways and local parent groups to ensure the report reflects real lived experiences. The findings are being used to support ongoing work to make SEND services more consistent and accessible.
Continuing to hear
This quarter, we’re continuing to gather people’s experiences on a number of important topics:
Digital access: understanding where barriers exist and how digital exclusion affects access to care.
Screening: We’re hearing from people about their experiences of antenatal and newborn screening, diabetic eye screening, abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) screening, and breast, cervical and bowel cancer screening. If you have attended any of these services, please fill out our survey.
Learning disabilities: listening to people’s experiences of accessing care and support to find out how easy it is to access health and social care support, and what gets in the way. If you, or someone you know, has a learning disability, please tell us about your recent experiences by contacting us.
We also pick up emerging themes from the day-to-day experiences people share with us.
Working Together
Alongside our community work, we continue to work with local health and social care teams. Here are some recent highlights:
We ensure that decision-makers hear about your experiences . For example, in our local authority area, we take information to a number of boards and committees, these include Birmingham Place Committee, Birmingham Health and Wellbeing Board and Birmingham Safeguarding Adults Board.
We’ve been working with the Birmingham & Solihull Integrated Care Board to train nurses to help patients use our Feedback Centre.
We’re working closely with Midland Mencap to continue to develop and improve ways that people with learning disabilities can share their experiences of health and social care.
We are now sending monthly, rather than quarterly, data reports to commissioners and the CQC, ensuring people’s experiences reach decision-makers sooner.
The Care Quality Commission interviewed us to share what you have told us about adult social care services as part of the Birmingham City Council and Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council Adult Social Care Assessment. This is to ensure that your experiences are at the heart of their assessment process.
We submitted our response to Phase 3 of the Residential Care Centre consultation, which was included in the cabinet meeting decision papers. This shows how your feedback helps shape real changes to services – Healthwatch Birmingham & Solihull’s response to Phase 3 of the Residential Care Centre consultation.
In the Press
We’ve been raising awareness on Unity FM, highlighting ways for people to share their feedback with us, the power of our volunteers and how to volunteer with us. We also highlighted the impact of the loss of independent patient voice as part of the NHS-10 Year Plan.
We’ve also been using our platform to highlight why independent patient voice matters – ensuring local experiences are reflected in national and regional press.
Our Chair, Richard Burden, spoke to BBC Midlands Today about the CQC’s report into the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, reinforcing that “every patient deserves to have care that is safe and timely.” He also highlighted the long waits and repeated appointment cancellations people continue to tell us about. Read more: Birmingham’s QE Hospital services rated ‘requires improvement’ – BBC News.
Our Vice Chair, Dr Janet Bailey, appeared on Midlands Today and BBC News to respond to the latest findings at University Hospitals Birmingham. She described the progress as “very encouraging,” noting that “we want to praise any progress we see and celebrate that.” Read more: Leadership improves at ‘toxic’ Birmingham hospitals trust – BBC News.
Save Independent Voice
The national petition continues to gain support, reflecting how strongly people feel about protecting their independent voice. We now have over 10,000 signatures.
If you haven’t already, you can add your name and help us continue this vital work.
Sign the petition
Thank you
Every conversation, survey response and story you share with us builds the picture of what is happening locally, making health and care better for everyone.