Healthwatch Wakefield

Healthwatch Wakefield is a statutory service which influences and shapes the improvement of Health and Social Care services in Wakefield district or accessed by Wakefield district residents. It follows national standards set by Healthwatch England and is designed to empower local people to influence services.

It promotes greater patient and public involvement by actively encouraging participation from residents, particularly seldom heard and under-represented groups such as young people and those facing health inequalities, to ensure diverse voices are represented. Additionally, it strengthens the role of the public in the commissioning, delivery, and scrutiny of local services.

The service will also provide a Wakefield Independent Health Complaints Advocacy Service; a free, independent, and impartial service. The core purpose of the Independent Health Complaints Advocacy Service is to ensure that people who use local NHS services have access to the support they need to clarify and articulate their concerns, to navigate the complaints process and to pursue a resolution to the satisfaction of the people using services or the exhaustion of the process.

The Service will play no role in relation to matters where a complainant determines to resort to direct legal action other than appropriate signposting. The process undertaken for the procurement of the Healthwatch Wakefield service was an Open Competitive Light Touch Regime Procedure under CPR 2015.

The objective of the procurement process was to appoint a single supplier to provide the Healthwatch Wakefield Service. The Healthwatch Wakefield service will also signpost local people with any complaints they may wish to progress in relation to Social Care and/or an NHS service provision to the Wakefield Independent Health Complaints Advocacy Service, which will be provided under the umbrella of the Healthwatch Wakefield Service.

The contract will commence 1st October 2025 with an initial term of 3 years; therefore the expiry date will be 30 September 2028. The Council may extend the Contract by up to a further 7 years, making the final possible expiry date 30 September 2035