We have been shortlisted for three national awards
We are thrilled to announce that Healthwatch Brighton and Hove CIC has been shortlisted for three national awards.
The annual Healthwatch Impact Award celebrates the difference our 4,500 staff and volunteers have made to health and care services using the feedback that people share with us. This is the 4th year we’ve been shortlisted (2016, 2020, 2021 and 2025) and our 6th project to be shortlisted.
With so many fantastic entries from across the Healthwatch network, it's a huge honour to have our work recognised in this way. Congratulations to all the Healthwatch teams and a massive shout-out to the entire network.
We're also delighted to say that one of our entries has also been shortlisted in the Institute of Customer Service's 'UK Customer Satisfaction Awards, 2025' in the Best Customer Service Partnership category. This recognises our work with University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust and our joint work with Healthwatch West Sussex.
Our nominations
Healthwatch network awards
There are 153 Healthwatch teams in England and just 18 projects are in the running for the national Healthwatch Impact Award, including Healthwatch Brighton and Hove – twice.
Separately, one of our projects has been shortlisted for another national award - the Institute of Customer Service's 'UK Customer Satisfaction Awards, 2025' in the Best Customer Service Partnership category.
Our first and second nomination recognises our work to improve communications.
- Firstly, we worked with University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust to develop a patient-led customer satisfaction programme bespoke for our hospitals called ‘Welcome Standards’. Staff are trained in these standards to ensure that patients, carers, friends and visitors receive the same level of welcome when they first arrive (at receptions). Together with Healthwatch West Sussex, we now mystery shop these standards in practice and provide continuous feedback to the trust and accredit those teams who are deemed to have met the standards in full. The program was developed from a patient charter that Healthwatch Brighton and Hove recommended the trust should create. It has taken a while for this to be embedded but we are pleased the trust has acted on our report’s findings.
- We're also delighted to say that this project has been shortlisted for a separate national award - the Institute of Customer Service's 'UK Customer Satisfaction Awards, 2025' in the Best Customer Service Partnership category.
- Secondly, the award recognises the follow-on work we did with NHS Sussex exploring outpatient transformation and the impacts that work has achieved, which includes steps to improve patient communications. For example, the NHS App is being improved to provide patients with appointment notifications & reminders and enable patients to respond and request changes to appointment date, and maps and links to hospital websites are now being included in patient letters, to simplify and provide visual aids.
Our third nomination recognises the work of Healthwatch in Sussex on improving Non-Emergency Patient Transport (NEPTS).
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This is a collaboration between Healthwatch Brighton and Hove, Healthwatch East Sussex and Healthwatch West Sussex. We collated feedback from 600 people to understand their experiences of using the service, what improvements they wanted to see and, crucially, to help us identify how to avoid past failings i.e. in 2016/7 an earlier NEPTS service collapsed, badly letting patients down. We worked closely with NHS commissioners to ensure our recommendations were integrated into the 2023 recommissioning of a new patient transport service. Our work was cited five times in the specification and presented at the city’s Health Overview Scrutiny Committee.
We were invited to join the panel who selected the new provider, and we are already working with them ahead of the service starting on 1st April 2025. Our work has helped to improve patient communications and provide clearer guidance around eligibility and better information on alternatives to NEPTS, as well as new technology which will, for the first time, enable patients to track where their vehicles are..
Commenting on the news, Louise Ansari, our Chief Executive, said:
“Getting shortlisted for this award is a huge achievement. It highlights how the views, experiences and ideas of local people are key to finding new ways to improve health and care services.”
Healthwatch Brighton and Hove CEO, Alan Boyd, said:
“Being shortlisted for three awards in one year is a proud moment for us, particularly as two of those awards recognise our partnership working. But the real recognition goes to everyone in the community who continuously supports our mission and our stakeholders. This is an achievement for everyone in Healthwatch Brighton and Hove, staff, volunteers and supporters.”
Got three minutes spare to share for better care?
These awards show what we can achieve when local people speak up, and those who run services listen.
If you have a spare moment this week, please share your care experiences with us, as positive change begins with your voice.
Whether good or bad, big or small, your feedback on health and care services is important.
We would like to hear your views. Sharing your experience won't take long but could make a real difference to your community.