2024 - 2025 projects

Connect Health deliver a musculoskeletal (MSK) service in South Tyneside. They wanted to move venues. The ICB asked them to engage with patients before deciding if the move could go ahead.  This was to make sure we understood any impacts or concerns.  

A survey was given to patients in clinic August - October 2024. It was also promoted by text. Two face-to-face sessions were also held.

303 people responded to the survey.

• A third of respondents said they had concerns about a potential move. Over half said they did not have concerns.
• The most common themes relating to concerns were:
• parking
• distance
• difficulty of public transport
• length of journey
• quality of the facility
• walking impacts.

The ICB asked Connect Health to do the following:

• Find out parking at different times of the week and day at the new venue then tell patients
• Model public transport journeys and tell patients how to get to the new venue
• Be more flexible with patients and appointments for a three month bedding-in period. 

The move was then allowed to go ahead and patients were informed. 

Read the full report. 

Thank you to the 3800 people who shared their views about NHS dentistry in the North East and North Cumbria. Healthwatch have reported what you told us.

We have used people's feedback to shape how we plan to protect and stabilise NHS dentistry in our region. You can read our plan for oral health.

Thanks to the 98 people who shared their views in the patient survey about safer prescribing of valproate and topiramate. You told us your experiences of staff explaining the risks of these medicines, how involved you felt in decision making and what would support you more. We will share our findings here when the report is finished. We will use the findings to improve conversations between patients and staff about these medicines.

Thanks to the 98 people who shared their views in the patient survey about safer prescribing of valproate and topiramate. You told us your experiences of staff explaining the risks of these medicines, how involved you felt in decision making and what would support you more. Read the report. We will use the findings to improve conversations between patients and staff about these medicines.

Thanks to the 410 people who gave us their views on support for children and young people with SEND and their families in Northumberland. These findings are being written into a report. The findings are now being used to influence the next SEND strategy in Northumberland. To make sure our work is based on what families tell us is important.

Thanks to everyone who gave us their views on pre and post diagnosis autism support services in Tees Valley. These findings have been summarised into a final report. These findings are now being used to influence the development of a new pre and post autism diagnosis support service in Tees Valley. Where there have been specific comments about assessment, rather than pre/post autism diagnosis support services, these comments will be forwarded on to the appropriate assessment team.

We published our first plan about the way we involve people in 2022. In 2024, we wanted to hear more views on the plan before refreshing it. Healthwatch spoke to lots of different groups and then reported the feedback to us in a report. You can open the report here. We heard that people:

• agreed with the content but wanted clearer language,
• wanted to see a clear plan on how we will deliver, and
• suggested different principles.

In response, we have:

• Shortened and simplified the document.
• Created new principles. These are:
  • meaningful involvement
  • removing barriers
  • listening to feedback
• Made it clear what processes and systems support us to deliver. Also how these systems keep us to account.
• Developed an action plan. This will show what we will do and how we will measure progress.

Thank you to everyone who has filled in a survey or got in touch.

If you would like to talk about the plan or have any queries please email necsu.icb.involvement@nhs.net.

During August, September and October, we asked parents/carers and professional referrers about their experience of Speech and Language Therapy in Tees Valley. Thank you to everyone who told us their views. We had over 600 responses to our surveys. That information has been written up into a final report which summarises the key findings from this involvement exercise. You can read the findings here.

These findings are now being considered and used to inform the development of a new Speech and Language Therapy contract in Tees Valley.  We will give updates on what will happen next soon.

This survey and engagement has now concluded.  A report of the results and findings will be published in due course.

This survey and engagement has now concluded.  A report of the results and findings will be published in due course.

Getting help is about early mental health support for children and young people. We listened to children, young people, parents, carers and stakeholders. They told us what is working well and what can be improved.

You can find out more about what people told us in our report and presentation:

Tees Valley getting help - engagement findings report

Tees Valley getting help - engagement findings presentation

This survey and engagement has now concluded.  A report of the results and findings will be published in due course.

Thanks to everyone who gave us their views on pre and post diagnosis autism support services in Tees Valley. These findings have been summarised into a final report. These findings are now being used to influence the development of a new pre and post autism diagnosis support service in Tees Valley. Where there have been specific comments about assessment, rather than pre/post autism diagnosis support services, these comments will be forwarded on to the appropriate assessment team.

We worked with other organisations, people with learning disabilities, their families and carers in South Tyneside. The work aimed to:

• learn about what people need from a short breaks service
• learn what short break services are like for them
• co-design a new service

Some families tried out different short break services. They shared what they liked and what could be improved. There was also a survey to gather more views. All of this feedback was used in co-design sessions, where families staff and the voluntary sector worked together. They agreed on five core principles. These were:

• Communication and trust with staff
• Person-centred care (support that fits each person's needs)
• Safety and security
• Flexibility
• Service integration (services working well together)

People also said there were 12 key things they wanted in a short break service. These were sorted into high, medium and low priority. Following the engagement, families stayed involved to help shape the new service and check they were happy with the plans. Find out more in the short breaks project report.

We wanted to learn what children, young people, parents, carers and staff think about mental health support in Sunderland to help make services better. 249 people took part in October 2024. People shared lots of helpful ideas. This included the following:

• Waiting times: People said waiting times were too long. This could be worse for children who needed long‑term support or who were neurodivergent. People said support while waiting would help.
• Different needs: Children have different needs, especially around trauma and neurodivergence. Some children don’t meet the rules for getting help. Support for mental health, neurodevelopmental and cognitive needs can be disjointed and hard to navigate. People want clear routes to help. They also want services to work better together.
• Flexible support: People want support that fits each child. This could be working with someone over a longer time frame or giving help earlier. It could also be different methods such as online to face to face.

An update in January 2026 shows that lots has been happening to respond to what we heard. A new Neighbourhood Mental Health Model is being created for Sunderland and South Tyneside. This will mean one joined-up neighbourhood approach, a focus on primary care and clearer ongoing support. This will help:

• Make support easier to find and improve access to help
• Help people get help earlier
• Give children support that continues as their needs change
• Reduce the number of times people are moved between services, or discharged and re-referred
• Improve access for groups who often find it hardest to get support

Other work includes:

• Mental health support being rolled out across all Sunderland schools. Two new teams are now in place, and everything will be fully up and running by January 2027.
• All Sunderland schools can now use the Stronger Schools platform. This is a tool to help staff get advice about how best to support pupils.
• Two wellbeing hubs offer support and guidance for local people of all ages.
• A new LGBTQ+ young people’s mental health service starts on 1 April 2026. Youthwatch helped procure the service.
• A service to support for children affected by sudden death is now in place.
• A crisis text line is live and is working well for neurodivergent young people.
• Work is taking place with Sunderland College to strengthen the mental health support available through primary care

You can read more about what we heard in our involvement report.