Healthwatch jobs
Are you passionate about patient and public engagement, effecting system change, and improving services? Are you confident to lead engagement and research, and tell the story of the findings to decision-makers? Are you a great project manager, who is excited by the opportunity to lead the delivery of a user-led Healthwatch? If so, we’d love to work with you in order to improve the experiences of people using health and social care services in Barnet.
This is an exciting opportunity for someone with lived experience of disability (which could include a long term condition or mental health issue) to lead a small team in the delivery of Barnet’s statutory Healthwatch function.
As Manager, you will have a fundamental role in leading staff and volunteers, and ensuring users, patients and external stakeholders are involved in shaping the future of healthcare services in the Borough. Local people are at the heart of everything we do, and you will lead and guide the team to ensure that patients and users are heard, their experiences shared, and their voices amplified, creating change and improving services for all.
In return for your commitment to the cause, you will become part of a friendly and supportive team, working within a focused but flexible culture, where diversity is valued and you can bring your whole self to work. You’ll be based in our Colindale office, and able to attend meetings across Barnet, but with extensive opportunities for home working.
About Healthwatch
The Health and Social Care Act 2012 required each local authority area to set up a Healthwatch organisation. Healthwatch gives give people a powerful voice both locally and nationally. At a local level, Healthwatch Barnet works to help people get the best from their health and social care services, whether it's improving them today, or helping to shape them for tomorrow. Healthwatch Barnet is about local voices being able to influence the delivery and design of their services, not just for the people who use them, but anyone who might need to use them in future.
Healthwatch Barnet transferred to Inclusion Barnet on 1st April 2020. It is commissioned by the London Borough of Barnet to provide the following 6 key functions:
- Gather views and understand the experiences of patients and the public.
- Make people’s views known.
- Promote and support the involvement of people in the commissioning and provision of local care services and how they are scrutinised.
- Recommend investigation or special review of services via Healthwatch England or directly to the Care Quality Commission (CQC).
- Provide advice and information (signposting) about access to services and support for making informed choices
- Making the views and experiences of local people known to Healthwatch England (and to other local Healthwatch organisations) and providing a steer to help it carry out its role as national champion.
About Inclusion Barnet
Inclusion Barnet is a thriving peer-led charity based in North West London. We are a friendly, supportive and inclusive team. We believe in the power of experience and this is demonstrated by all our services being led, developed and delivered by people with lived experience of disability, including mental health issues and long-term conditions. We believe that learning to use our lived experience for social change is a skill. We have become experts in harnessing the lived experience of our staff, members, volunteers and people who use our services to design and deliver higher quality, more person-centred services. We believe that this benefits both disabled people and society more widely.
Please submit a brief covering letter with your CV outlining how your skills match the job description and person specification. This post is only open to people with lived experience of disability. A DBS check will be required. In your covering letter, please ensure that you explain you would draw on insights from your own lived experience of disability to deliver the role.
Using our lived experience of disability to create more inclusive services and communities

The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
About Local Voice and Healthwatch
Local Voice is an independent charity delivering Healthwatch services in Waltham Forest and Newham. Healthwatch gives local people a strong voice in shaping health and social care. We gather community insights, identify what is and isn’t working, support improvement, and represent people’s experiences to decision-makers.
About the role
We are looking for an experienced and organised Operations Manager to oversee the day-to-day delivery of Healthwatch Waltham Forest and Healthwatch Newham. You will manage operational activity, support staff and volunteers, maintain strong governance processes, and ensure that insight gathered from local people leads to meaningful improvements.
You will work closely with the Chief Executive and Advisory Groups in each borough and help shape annual work programmes based on evidence, engagement, and co-production.
What we are looking for
- Experience managing projects, teams, and budgets
- Strong organisational and problem-solving skills
- Ability to build relationships with statutory, voluntary and community partners
- Understanding of Healthwatch, community engagement, or health and social care
- Commitment to equity, diversity, and high-quality community insight
Full details are in the Job Description and Person Specification.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
About The Advocacy Project
We help people speak up and make decisions about their health, wellbeing and social care. We’re here to make sure people who are vulnerable because of their circumstance can understand their rights, make effective choices about their lives and voice their concerns.
Some of the ways we do this include:
- advocacy services that make sure people can express their wishes when decisions are being made about their care or wellbeing
- user involvement projects that help organisations improve what they offer by listening to people who use their services
- local Healthwatch services, which act as health and social care champions for the areas they serve and give people a direct channel to share their feedback
- innovative Personal Health Budget projects that allow people to access items and services to improve their wellbeing.
Our services are independent, confidential, and free to those receiving them. Together, our teams are standing up for essential rights and supporting people to have a say on the issues that matter to them.
About the role
The post-holder will provide independent advocacy in various settings, including in the community, people’s homes, and hospital settings including mental health wards. You’ll raise awareness of advocacy, including for people from minority ethnic communities. You’ll work as part of a team of independent advocates, reporting to the Advocacy Service Manager.
You will work as part of the Ealing advocacy team. You may also need to carry out your role in other London boroughs.
Under the Health and Social Care Act 2008, the post holder will be required to visit CQC registered care homes and would be subject to government requirements.
Key responsibilities
- Provide advocacy for eligible people under Mental Health Act 2007, the Health and Social Care Act 2012, Mental Capacity Act 2005 and under the Care Act 2014.
- Provide a one-to-one advocacy service for people and undertake case work, evidencing and uploading case notes and data in a timely manner.
- Provide instructed and non-instructed advocacy, where appropriate.
- Provide information, support or signpost clients in order to inform or empower individuals on any issues about their treatment under the relevant legislation.
- Act as duty advocate for our Single Point of Access referral line on a rota basis.
- Meet case-working standards, monitoring system requirements and the goals for our service, making sure everyone needing advocacy is referred into the service in the right way.
- Work within the location-specific engagement protocols, security, confidentiality and safeguarding policies (in addition to the Advocacy Best Practice Handbook).
- Actively promote self-advocacy throughout all work with patients, where practical.
- Raise awareness of independent advocacy and referring pathways to eligible people and referring agencies.
- Keep your knowledge of legislation and policy up-to-date, including the mental health act, mental capacity act, care act, and local / national policy.
- Keep up to date with developments and good practice in independent advocacy (including different advocacy models).
- Develop good working relationships with key staff within health and social care services.
- Be an active member of the advocacy service, contributing to service planning and providing cover for other colleagues when needed.
General responsibilities
- Participate in team meetings and training.
- Participate in personal, team and organisational development.
- Contribute to monitoring reports.
- Keep to our policies, including health & safety, and risk regulations.
- Work to our mission, vision, and values.
- Carry out other projects and tasks as needed.
Person specification
We welcome applications from people with transferrable skills and qualities, and people with diverse employment histories and personal backgrounds.
Essential qualities and attributes:
- Understanding of the role and responsibilities of an advocate.
- Understanding of issues faced by people with mental health conditions, physical health conditions and learning disabilities.
- Ability to listen and build trust, to encourage people to express their own views and to represent clients’ self-defined interests.
- Excellent interpersonal and communication skills (written and verbal). Good at working with a wide variety of people including commissioners, service users and colleagues.
- IT literate, including working knowledge of Microsoft packages (Excel, Word, Outlook).
- Commitment to working within The Advocacy Project code of conduct, equality and safeguarding policies.
- Ability to work as part of a team and on your own initiative, to plan and prioritise your own workload.
- Willingness to promote The Advocacy Project and its services in line with our mission, vision and values.
- Commitment to ongoing professional development.
Desirable knowledge, experience and qualifications:
- Experience of delivering different forms of advocacy (instructed and non-instructed; IMHA, ICAA, IMCA, IHCA,) within a statutory advocacy service.
- Knowledge of the Mental Health Act / Mental Capacity Act / Care Act and other statutory legislation as it applies to advocacy.
- Knowledge of mental health sections and social care services, including current issues in policy and practice.
- Understanding of the Accessible Information Standard.
- Advocacy qualification.
Benefits of working for us
We’re committed to providing an empowering, flexible and supportive working environment for all our staff.
Our employee benefits include 30 days annual leave (including up to 3 days between Christmas and New Year), participation in a pension scheme with 6% employer contribution, access to a free confidential counselling service, and an interest-free travel/bike loan.
All our staff are supported to learn and develop in a variety of ways, including a monthly lecture series where we invite sector experts to talk to our staff on topical issues.
We are a Disability Confident and Mindful Employer.
We help people speak up and make decisions about their health, wellbeing and social care.



The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
The Research Manager at Healthwatch Hounslow will be an experienced manager of community-focused projects or programmes.
You will be comfortable with all aspects of research – from scoping, to desk research, to fieldwork, to analysis and writing reports. You will be a clear and confident communicator, whether producing concise, engaging content such as reports, or resenting/speaking in meetings or at events.
We are looking for someone who understands and has experience of creatively engaging diverse groups and communities – particularly seldom heard and underserved groups. Ideally you will be familiar with and an advocate for the principles and practices of co-production and public involvement.
The Research Manager will enjoy engaging with a wide variety of people – from hearing residents’ views and experiences of services, to influencing senior commissioners or providers of health services to make changes and improvements.
You will have a keen interest in Health and Social Care; and a passion to ensure that local people in the community are heard, and health inequalities are addressed.
To apply, please email a copy of your CV and a personal statement of no more than two sides of A4 detailing your suitability for the role.
Deadline for applications is 9.00am on Monday 15th December 2025. Shortlisted candidates will be invited for interview, with interviews being held week commencing 15th December 2025.
We translate the insights and needs of people into actions to improve public services, leading to reduced inequalities and improved outcomes.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
We are looking for an enthusiastic Volunteer Officer to plan and deliver our new Volunteer Strategy. This role involves leading and coordinating our voluntary role holders across different roles and integrating with the wider work of the team.
We want someone who is passionate about volunteers and who will rise to the challenge set by our Chief Officer for all our work to have a clear fingerprint of volunteers demonstrated. The post holder will have latitude to develop a modern, exciting, and vibrant volunteer base and will work across the team to embed new roles which enable us to spread our reach further into the District.
We work closely with the local health and social care system to use our volunteer’s skills and lived experience to support Patient Safety Walkabouts and Patient Led Assessments of Care Environments (PLACE). We also have the power and responsibility to deliver Enter and View visits as a Local Healthwatch organisation. The Volunteer Officer will coordinate and oversee these activities to continue our successful partnership approach.
We are committed to providing social value to the local population, we do this through our opportunities which include volunteering, collaborating, work experience, and placements.
Purpose
To have responsibility for the Healthwatch Wakefield Volunteer Strategy. To lead on recruitment, co-ordination, and support of a diverse range of volunteers for Healthwatch Wakefield; including a ‘buddy’ system to help overcome barriers to involvement. To facilitate and maintain an activity and training record, and report on volunteer contributions on a regular basis. To remain up to date with relevant legislation and good practice in volunteering. To review and develop the roles available for volunteers in Healthwatch, working collaboratively with volunteers, contributors and the team.
Main duties and responsibilities
- Promote and deliver volunteering opportunities
- Recruit, induct, support and develop volunteers
- Lead Enter and View visit planning and coordinate patient safety activities
- Provide leadership for the volunteer programme
Person specification
Essential Criteria:
- Experience of supporting and supervising volunteers, including recruitment and induction.
- Experience of producing systems and procedures for volunteers.
- Experience of delivering and co-ordinating training.
- Experience of working with a diverse range of communities.
- Experience of working in partnership and with external stakeholders.
- Experience of report writing.
- Communication, facilitating, and liaison skills.
- Ability to confidently build and maintain professional relationships.
- Ability to work as part of a team and to collaborate with others.
- Good planning and organisational skills, including ability to prioritise workload.
- Able to work effectively under pressure and to deadlines.
- Able to produce succinct, articulate and well-formatted documents and reports.
- Ability to understand, interpret and analyse basic financial information
- Competence in IT skills and internet use.
Desirable Criteria:
- Experience of developing a volunteer policy.
- Experience of working with volunteers within a health or social care setting.
- Experience of managing a project budget.
- Knowledge of the third sector in Wakefield District and the environment within which it works.
- Knowledge of health and social care structures.
Your local health and social care champion
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
Actively Interviewing
This organisation is scheduling interviews as applications come in. They're ready to hire as soon as they find the right person. Don't miss your opportunity, apply now!
This is a unique opportunity to take ownership of a creative, varied and meaningful communications portfolio within a small, supportive charity. You’ll lead on digital content, social media, and storytelling — working closely with NHS, local authority, and community partners to ensure people’s experiences are heard and acted upon. If you’re looking for a role where your work has real purpose, where you can grow your skills and where new ideas are genuinely welcomed, we’d love to hear from you.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
Actively Interviewing
This organisation is scheduling interviews as applications come in. They're ready to hire as soon as they find the right person. Don't miss your opportunity, apply now!
This is an opportunity to lead a varied and meaningful engagement and volunteering portfolio within a small, supportive charity. You’ll support and develop volunteers, build relationships with community partners, and coordinate public engagement activities to ensure that people’s voices shape local health and care services. If you’re looking for a role where your work has real purpose, where you can grow your skills and where new ideas are genuinely welcomed, we’d love to hear from you.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.

