News and reports

Research from the Kings Fund and Healthwatch England have both looked at finance and it's impact on health - but we wanted to find out the impact financial concerns and constraints have on people’s emotional wellbeing.

The latest Sexual Health Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) for Surrey highlights a need to improve engagement and understanding of sexual health & contraception needs in younger people. Against this backdrop and in discussion with Public Health, Healthwatch Surrey (who has been part of the Surrey Sexual Health Outreach Group since 2019) wanted to amplify the voice of under 25s in relation to sexual health services in Surrey.

Our latest Insight bulletin highlights the key themes we’ve been hearing about recently from local people. We also highlight our latest news and opportunities to get involved.

This report highlights our major impacts throughout our first quarter of 2025/26 (April to June 2025). This quarter 989 people shared their experiences with us. Our work covered a wide range of health and social care, including children’s eye care, mental health in prisons, sexual health, domestic abuse and patient transport to and from hospitals. The report also highlights the support provided to individuals through our Helpdesk and Independent Health Complaints Advocacy Service.

This report explores 6 students’ understanding and awareness of mental health services.

Amplifying the voices of people who face barriers to accessing support, and those at risk of health inequalities, we listened to the views, insights and opinions of those with learning disabilities, as well as their families and carers, across Surrey.

70 people with learning disabilities joined us at 5 focus groups and 32 parents and carers shared their experiences via an online survey.

Through May and June we asked parents of school age children about whether their children had sight (eye) tests and if there were any barriers to having these tests. 87 people responded to our survey or spoke to us at community events.

Primary care is an important point of contact for people to ask for help when experiencing domestic abuse, but little was known about this experience.

The aim of this research project was to explore whether general practice is meeting the needs of people who are experiencing domestic abuse within Surrey, and what improvements could be made to better meet these needs.

Our 2024 – 2025 annual report ‘Unlocking the power of people‑driven care’ highlights our impact throughout the year supported by our volunteers, with the lived experience of Surrey residents being the driver of our work.

Our short video also captures the key highlights.

This report provides insights into local people’s views on, and experiences of Public Health services across Surrey. It is based on what people have told us at our agenda free listening engagement events, and via our Helpdesk, Independent Health Complaints Advocacy service, Giving Carers a Voice engagement, Combating Drugs Partnership Public Involvement, online Feedback Centre, postal submissions and Healthwatch England’s website.

This report provides insights into local people’s views on, and experiences of health and social care services in Surrey Heath and Farnham. It is based on what people have told us at a series of engagement events in the area, as well as enquiries to our Helpdesk, between June 2024 and December 2024.

Ashmount is a 6 bed home for men with moderate to severe learning disability and autism. We visited Ashmount in March 2025 and spoke to family members to get their impressions of the service, both face to face and also using a survey that was emailed to the families who were happy for communication that way. We had feedback from 2 parents. No one living at Ashmount had capacity to speak to us and none of them communicated verbally.