Healthwatch Together is the partnership of four local Healthwatch organisations working together across Lancashire and South Cumbria: Blackpool, Blackburn with Darwen, Cumbria and Lancashire.

Local Healthwatch bodies are independent organisations set up to champion the views of local people in relation to health and social care. Their goal is to make the services we all use better, and to work together to make that possible.

We will work with Healthwatch to establish a public involvement panel representative of our diverse communities, which demonstrates our ambition for involving local people in our governance. The panel will work alongside our non-executive members, patient representatives and those representing protected characteristic groups.

Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care Board (ICB) and Healthwatch Together have developed a partnership agreement which sets out how they will work together to ensure local people have a voice in NHS decision-making.  

The formal agreement sets out the commitment to work together to ensure the views and needs of local people and communities will help shape local NHS services and the important role Healthwatch has in championing local voices. The partnership aims to ultimately improve the health and wellbeing of the people of Lancashire and South Cumbria.

The purpose of this partnership is to emphasise the importance of public and patient involvement between NHS in Lancashire and South Cumbria and the five local Healthwatch organisations - Healthwatch Blackburn with Darwen, Healthwatch Blackpool, Healthwatch Cumberland, Healthwatch Lancashire and Healthwatch Westmorland and Furness  - working under the umbrella of Healthwatch Together.