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Having your voice heard (including Advocacy)

Feedback about other Health and Care services

There are different types of Advocacy Services available in Cheshire West which depend upon what you need support with and what your circumstances are. You can refer yourself or a professional can make a referral on your behalf. More information can be found on the Voiceability website. 

Healthwatch

Healthwatch Cheshire West is an independent voice that helps shape and improve local health and social care services. Healthwatch makes sure that people's voices are heard, and it wants to hear about your views, needs and experiences, both positive and negative, to help people in Cheshire West get the best possible health and social care.

Healthwatch monitors local health and social care services, finding out what works well and challenging service providers to influence service delivery for the better.

Healthwatch also provides an NHS Independent Complaints and Advocacy Service for Cheshire, guiding you through what can be a complicated process in making a complaint against NHS services.

Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS)

PALS offers confidential advice, support and information on issues with healthcare matters. It provides a point of contact for patients, their families and their Carers. PALS can:

  • help you with health-related questions
  • help resolve concerns or problems when you're using the NHS
  • tell you how to get more involved in your own healthcare

You can contact PALS by asking your GP or hospital for details or by calling NHS 111 (dial 111).

Care Quality Commission (CQC)

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator of health and social care in England. It registers care providers and inspects and rates services. When things go wrong, the CQC can also take action to protect people who use services.

After an inspection of a care home or home care agency, the CQC publishes a report of what it found. Each provider gets an overall rating of outstanding, good, requires improvement or inadequate. The ratings mean you can easily see where a service is performing well, and where it needs to improve.

It's always a good idea to check inspection reports and ratings when choosing a care service. You can find reports and ratings on the CQC's website.

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