Healthwatch East Sussex Annual Report 2025-26: Speaking up for better care
It highlights how we have listened to the voices of the public, patients and partners and used people’s feedback, experiences and preferences to help shape health and social care in East Sussex, and across Sussex.
We’ve engaged with a diverse range of individuals and communities living in different areas of East Sussex over the last year and shared what you’ve told us with health and care commissioners and providers to support them in making care better for you.
We wish to thank the more than 3,000 people in East Sussex who’ve taken the time to tell us their story.
Activity and Achievements
During 2025-26 we:
- undertook visits to community pharmacy settings and emergency and temporary accommodation in Hastings to engage local people, understand their experiences and share them with decision-makers
- directly supported 630 people with their health and care enquiries through our Information & Signposting service, including users of food banks and other community initiatives
- worked with Healthwatch in Brighton & Hove and West Sussex to gather people’s experiences of Non-Emergency Patient Transport Services (NEPTS) and other services via our regular digital polls
- undertook our Listening Tour in Rother District and Eastbourne Borough to gather experiences and views from 268 local people and shared these to influence local services
- published 29 reports detailing insight and recommendations that were shared with decision-makers to inform health and care service development on themes including women's and girls' experiences of health and care and children's experiences of hospital care
- shared advice, guidance and information via our website, social media and bulletins to raise awareness of health and care issues
- drew on 69 days of Healthwatch volunteer time in the development and delivery of projects and activities such as Patient Led Assessments of the Care Environment (PLACE)
- shared our insight and key messages through a diverse range of local, regional and national partnerships and boards, including the East Sussex Health and Wellbeing Board and Sussex Health and Care Assembly
- raised awareness of challenges people face in accessing primary care, especially GPs and NHS dentistry, as well as acute and community services, including mental health
Comment from our Chief Executive, Vicki Harrison-Carr
“Throughout 2025-26, we continued to maximise what we hear from local people; evolving our face-to-face and digital activities in a wide variety of contexts and on a broad range of topics.
These initiatives, alongside our core activities and Information & Signposting service, have enabled us to ensure people’s experiences of health and care are robustly captured and effectively shared with those commissioning or delivering services.
As health and care services continue to evolve and change over the next year, we will continue to emphasise the importance of people’s feedback and patient’s experiences when making decisions about their future.
As well as expressing gratitude to our dedicated cohort of volunteers, we want to thank everyone who has shared their views and experiences with us over the last year. We will continue to work hard in delivering our role as the independent patient champion in 2026-27.”
Priorities for 2026-27
Our comprehensive and exciting programme of work for 2026-27 is already well underway, and is focused on delivering our four annual priorities:
- Listen and engage with people wherever they are
- Understand the impact of pressures on health and care services
- Embed a focus on equality and diversity in our projects and increase the voice of less heard communities
- We will contribute to discussions about the future of public and patient voice
Who we share our report with
Our Healthwatch annual report has been submitted to Healthwatch England, alongside reports from all local Healthwatch in England. We also share our report with East Sussex County Council as the commissioners of the local Healthwatch service, and with a wide range of our statutory and voluntary sector partners across East Sussex.
Electronic copies of the report are available via the link below, and hard copies are available on request.
For media enquiries about Healthwatch East Sussex, please contact Vicki Harrison-Carr, Chief Executive, on 07794 100 291 or via vicki.harrison-carr@escv.org.uk
