Healthwatch Somerset
Project case study
Making health and care better for young people
Healthwatch Somerset gave young people the opportunity to directly influence improvements in the health and social care services they use.
Between January and July 2021, we recruited and trained a group of young volunteers aged 12-18 to become Young Listeners. They designed and delivered a peer-to-peer engagement project to explore the issues that are important to young people.
In August and September 2021, they met and ‘listened’ to 65 young people from across Somerset. They heard about the barriers and challenges young people face when seeking care and support, and the changes they want to see to make services work better for young people.
In November 2021, they reported their findings to Somerset’s health and care decision makers and made recommendations for how to improve services for young people.
Read the report
Young Listeners Project: Sharing young people’s feedback
PDF 1MB, November 2021
“The insight from this report shows just how important is to ensure children and young people are at the centre of the work we do and that we really listen to their experiences and observations. Our services need to properly meet the needs of children and young people, not the organisations and this can only be achieved by working with and listening to them.”
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We have an excellent track record for delivering independent, cost effective and impactful Healthwatch services for local authorities across England.