Empowering Voices: Our Project Celebrated Nationally After Residents Drive Change in Social Care!

Our project gets highly commended at a national award after residents speak-up about social care access

The team at Healthwatch Barking and Dagenham has been highly commended at a national award ceremony for their work in improving the care of local people.

The Healthwatch Impact Awards recognise outstanding examples of people sharing their experiences to improve care for their community.

Up against 17 other shortlisted projects from across England, Healthwatch Barking and Dagenham took home top honours for their work to improve social care offer for the South Asian residents.

Following the Healthwatch report, the Safeguarding Adults Board worked to improve engagement with the South Asian community by building relationships with faith leaders and visiting local places of worship. Steps were also taken to improve access to social care information, including adding clearer translation options to council website and creating Urdu and Bengali leaflets. Insights from the report influenced service design, particularly for homecare and direct payments, and informed a new Learning Disability and Autism Strategy. These efforts have had a positive impact: safeguarding awareness among Asian residents improved significantly, more people now find social care information easier to access, and culturally appropriate care is being successfully delivered where needed.

Commenting on the news, Manisha Modhvadia, manager of Healthwatch Barking and Dagenham, said:

“The team are obviously chuffed but ultimately this award belongs to everyone in Barking and Dagenham who got involved in our project to improve social care for the South Asian community.”

“I hope this encourages more people in Barking and Dagenham to come forward to share their experiences of health and social care. This project shows what’s possible when the community speaks up and health and care services listen.”

Praising the team at Healthwatch Barking and Dagenham, Chief Executive of Healthwatch England, Louise Ansari, said:

“Every year, we are consistently impressed by the quality of entries for our Impact Award, and this year is no different.

“However, this project really stood out because it shows exactly why listening to local people and acting on their views is key to helping unlock better health and social care services. Congratulations to everyone involved.”

To read more about the annual Healthwatch Impact Awards, visit: Impact award: Outstanding work leads to first-ever joint win | Healthwatch