How do young people feel about healthcare services in Norfolk?
At Healthwatch Norfolk, we are committed to gathering feedback from people of all ages. However, between 2020 and 2024, fewer than 1% of our respondents were aged 15 or under. To address this gap, we made it a priority to seek out the views of children and ensure their experiences of health and social care services were represented.
How did we do this?
Norfolk Crucial Crew is a multi-agency education programme that works with Year Six pupils across the county, to promote personal safety and essential life skills. We were approached by the organisers of Crucial Crew and invited to take part in their engagement sessions in schools during the 2024/25 academic year.
This provided us with the perfect opportunity to gather feedback from an underrepresented group and assess their knowledge and experiences of healthcare settings in their communities.
During these sessions we delivered interactive presentations, including an engaging skit to help the children understand how to give feedback. We gave each child a short feedback activity to complete, based on five common services they may have used: hospitals, GP surgeries, dentists, opticians and pharmacies. We also asked them to provide a written response about which factors mattered most to them when using these services.
Our findings
Our findings showed that hospitals received the highest proportion of positive ratings at 75%, closely followed by opticians at 74%. Pharmacies received the lowest proportion of positive ratings, at 56%.
The written responses we received highlighted three key areas of importance for young people when accessing healthcare: being treated well, a good environment and ensuring understanding about the treatment they are receiving.
When it came to being treated well, the children told us they wanted to be seen by kind and friendly staff, to feel that they were listened to and to not experience pain during their assessment and treatment. A good environment encompassed shorter waiting times, access to activities that could keep them entertained and interested to reduce boredom and colourful, welcoming surroundings. Finally, we heard that avoiding complex language, ensuring information is explained properly to children and allowing them to have a trusted adult with them in appointments, would improve their understanding of the situation and reduce confusion and anxiety.
Crucial Crew provided a fantastic opportunity for us to gather feedback from a previously underrepresented group. The knowledge we have gained can allow us to shape future engagement with young people and suggest changes to local health leaders that can improve experiences of healthcare for children going forward.