We champion the voice of local people to shape, improve and get the best from NHS, health and social care services. We are independent and have statutory powers to make sure decision makers listen to the experiences of local people.

Prioritising helps us to focus our resources and be clear with the health and social care commissioners and services about what we plan to work on and where additional resources will be needed to enable us to provide insight and support.

Our core priorities, as the name suggests, are at the heart of what we do and tend to be fixed from year to year, but our thematic priorities are changeable, based on what we are hearing from local people and set as areas for us to focus our resources on.

We will have 3 thematic priorities for 2026 - Access to primary care, Involvement of people and Public health and adult social care. These have been chosen based on our existing work, as well as what we are hearing from local people, what we know about system priorities, where we feel there is a risk of people being less well-heard and at risk of health inequality and where we feel we can have most influence and impact.

Our updated work plan, detailing how we will work throughout the year has been reviewed by our Local Healthwatch Advisory Group and our overall Luminus Insight CIC Board and will be finalised by our Board in April 2026. 

A diagram of our core and thematic priorities. In the centre is an oval with the words Healthwatch Surrey priorities. From the oval are lines to each of the priorities with the 4 core priorities on the left and the 3 thematic priorities on the right. The core priorities are: Agenda free listening, Information and advice, Amplifying VCSE voice and Assess long term impact. The thematic priorities are: Access to primary care, Public health and adult social care, and Involvement of people.

Our core priorities are:

  • Agenda free listening and feeding back insight
  • Information and advice.

Our thematic priorities are:

  • Access to primary care
  • Public health and adult social care
  • Involvement of people.

In addition we also ensure that we:

  • Amplify voice within the VCSE (Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise) sector
  • Assess our long term impact.

Access to primary care

An icon of an entrance to a medical setting

Access to primary care (primary care includes GP practices, pharmacies, NHS dentists) is fundamental to people’s experiences of health and care.

Access to primary care

Public health and adult social care

Icon of 2 people standing with a roof over their head.

Public health and social care can improve the wellbeing of Surrey residents, by provision of social care support and information to improve health and reduce health inequalities.

Public health and adult social care

Involvement of people

Icons of people in different roles (one has a chef hat on, one is pointing to a white board, one is a nurse etc)

Involving local people in decision making and the design and changes of services will also ensure that services truly serve their local communities.

Involvement of people