Local Healthwatch are independent statutory organisations that represent the views and experiences of patients, carers, and the public. We engage with local residents to ensure their voices are heard in health services and help improve care standards. In the London Boroughs of Ealing, Hillingdon, Lewisham, and Kensington & Chelsea, Local Healthwatch are working together to better understand the experiences of unpaid carers.
Across our boroughs, thousands of people provide unpaid care and support to a family member, friend, neighbour, or loved one. Carers play a vital role in helping people to live independently, maintain their wellbeing, and remain connected to their communities. Yet caring can also have a significant impact on a person's physical health, emotional wellbeing, finances, employment, and social life.
Through this project, we want to listen to carers' stories – your stories – in a safe and supportive way, learn about the challenges you face, and hear what is working well. Most importantly, we want you to tell us what support would make the greatest difference to your lives.
Your voice is essential because as carers you are experts by experience. You often navigate multiple health, social care, and community services on behalf of those you support and yourselves as their supporters, giving you unique insight into how services work in practice. Your experiences can help identify barriers, highlight good practice, and shape improvements that make support for both your loved one and yourself more accessible, responsive, and joined-up.
By bringing together experiences from across the four boroughs, we hope to build a clearer picture of your needs and priorities, helping local decision-makers, service providers, and community organisations better understand how they can recognise, value, and support you as carers.
By taking this survey you have the option to be entered into a draw for a £10 gift voucher.
To understand how your information will be used, please read the ‘How we use this information’ section at the end of the questionnaire. To complete the questionnaire please agree to Healthwatch Ealing processing your information in line with General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR).
All your answers will be anonymised. This means that anything that might identify you in any comments you make will be removed before sharing with service providers or publishing in reports. For more information, you can find the privacy policy on our website.