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.
We were approached by the organisers of Norfolk Crucial Crew, a multi-agency education programme that works with Year Six pupils across the county to promote personal safety and essential life skills, and invited to take part in several of their events during the 2024/25 academic year.
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) and asked them to provide a written response about which factors mattered to them when using these services.
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%.
Crucial Crew provided a fantastic opportunity for us to gather feedback from an underrepresented group. The knowledge we have gained can allow us to shape future engagement and suggest changes to local leaders to improve the experiences of healthcare for children going forward.
