You Said, We Did: July-September 2026 Case Studies

WorkWell feedback in action: In 2025, we worked as part of a partnership of 14 local Healthwatch to facilitate a focus group on the topic of WorkWell, prior to its launch. WorkWell is a new service that helps people with long-term health issues and/or disabilities to find job opportunities and/or remain in work.

For the programme to be effective, it was important that it reflected the needs and experiences of the people it was intended to support. Meaningful community engagement was needed to gather local perspectives and ensure the service was designed with users in mind.

The WorkWell programme has now launched in Gateshead. The focus group provided an opportunity for local people to influence the design of the service before implementation, ensuring community voices were considered as part of the development process.

Social prescriber signposting: After attending our first drop-in session at Big Local in Teams, Gateshead, we have started to establish a presence in the local community. As a result, we have been able to listen to people’s experiences of health and social care, and provide them with signposting information to support them in accessing services.

For example, we met with a local woman facing multiple issues including problems paying bills and travel limitations, with no idea of any services that might be able to help. Our team member spoke with her and walked her through the different options, also helping her take the first step to connect with a social prescriber.

Since then, we have returned to Big Local for regular drop-in sessions and heard from the same woman, who told us that she had successfully connected with a social prescriber and received support with multiple issues. She said that after our signposting help she “had hope again”, and encouraged other people at the drop-in to speak with us if they needed information.

You can read our most recent case studies here.