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West Berkshire Council, our local authority, has launched a six-week consultation on the future of Adult Social Care, and residents, carers, families, and people with lived experience are being encouraged to take part. Adult Social Care supports many people across our communities, including older residents, disabled people, unpaid carers, and young people moving into adult services. The new strategy sets out six priorities that will help shape how support is delivered in the

Last year, the local authority carried out a full review of its Adult Social Care webpages. This included working in co-production with people with learning disabilities, carers, and stroke survivors, alongside a public survey to understand how people use the information available online. As a result of this feedback, a number of improvements were made to make the webpages more accessible and easier to navigate. What’s changed? Updates included: Adding pictures and icons Simp

A recent report, Care on Hold by Re-engage, explores how changes to GP access are affecting people. particularly older adults, at a time when digital routes are becoming increasingly central to how services are delivered. Alongside this national picture, Healthwatch West Berkshire has been working with wider Berkshire partners on a detailed understanding of digital exclusion across the county. Taken together, these two pieces of work highlight an important and growing issue:

The NHS App is continuing to evolve, with a new update this April making it easier for patients to check and manage hospital appointments in one place. This change is part of a wider shift towards more digital access across the NHS — but what does it actually mean for people, and what should we be paying attention to locally? What’s changed? Patients can now view hospital and specialist appointments directly in the NHS App, alongside GP appointments, prescriptions, and test

The refreshed Women’s Health Strategy for England sets out national priorities to improve how women access and experience health and care. It highlights the importance of listening to women, improving access to services like contraception and menopause support, and making care easier to navigate—especially closer to home. What this means for West Berkshire At Healthwatch West Berkshire, we’ve already spent time listening to local women about their experiences. You told us wha

This April, the NHS organisations that plan and pay for health services across Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire have come together as NHS Thames Valley Integrated Care Board (ICB). The new ICB will support around 2.5 million residents across the Thames Valley. Importantly, there is no change to how you access NHS services. “Patients and the public will continue to access care and services in exactly the same way as before.” NHS Thames Valley ICB Why is this happeni

Millions of older people across England can now get vital protection against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), a common but potentially serious virus that can cause lung infections such as bronchitis and pneumonia. The NHS has expanded its RSV vaccination programme to include all adults aged 80 and over, as well as everyone living in a care home for older adults – making around 3 million more people eligible. Although RSV often causes mild symptoms, it can be dangerous for o

But what about social care in West Berkshire? New findings from The King's Fund show that public satisfaction with the National Health Service has dropped to its lowest level on record. Only 1 in 5 people (21%) say they are satisfied with how the NHS is running, with long waits, staffing pressures and access challenges continuing to impact people’s experiences. But there’s another part of the system that people feel even more concerned about, and it often gets less attentio

A new national plan – the Neighbourhood Health Framework has recently been published, and sets out how health and care services could be reorganised around local communities. Rather than focusing on individual services like GP practices or hospitals, the aim is to build a “neighbourhood” model of care , where support is planned and delivered around the needs of local people. What’s changing? At the heart of the framework is a shift in how services work together. It focuses o

What does it mean for you? Plans for the future of NHS buildings could see hospitals becoming smaller and more specialised, with more care delivered in local communities instead. A senior official from the Department of Health and Social Care recently outlined how new hospitals should be designed to provide only the services that truly need to happen in a hospital setting, with everything else moving closer to where people live. This approach sits within the government’s wid

The government has published new, evidence-informed guidance to help parents and carers of children under 5 navigate screen time. With digital screens now a normal part of family life, this guidance offers practical advice to support informed choices to help little brains develop healthy screen habits. T he guidance recommends: • For under 2s - avoid screen time, other than shared activities like video calls with family or looking through photos together. For 2–5s: try to kee

On 26 February 2026, the Independent National Maternity and Neonatal Investigation published an interim report revealing deeply concerning findings about maternity and neonatal care across England. The investigation, led by Baroness Valerie Amos, has heard evidence from over 8,000 people and more than 400 families to date, and continues to gather input. What the Report Highlights The interim report makes clear that England’s maternity and neonatal system is struggling. Key th

Thank you to everyone who took part in our Poll and commented on our various media platforms about AI recording your GP Appointments. The results are showing that at the moment you're not quite comfortable with it, and need more information about how it works, and the benefits for everyone. We have now received a reply from , Dr Nick Broughton FRCPsych, Chief Executive NHS Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West ICB & NHS Frimley ICB National Priority Programme Direct

NHS England has launched a new “landmark” campaign encouraging people experiencing six common anxiety-related conditions to seek help through NHS Talking Therapies. Around one in five adults in England – an estimated 9.4 million people – are living with a common mental health condition. Yet many are not accessing support. A recent NHS-commissioned survey of over 2,000 adults found: 58% delay seeking help , believing their condition is “not serious enough” 1 in 5 people don’t

In November and December 2025, Healthwatch West Berkshire was asked by MP Lee Dillon to map how residents give feedback about local health and social care services. Our objective was simple: To understand how easy it is for residents to raise concerns, share experiences or make complaints. What We Found We identified over 140 separate feedback pathways across West Berkshire. While this suggests choice, the reality is a fragmented system with no clear “front door.” Feedback ro

In September 2025, the NHS England introduced Jess’s Rule , a new patient-safety initiative designed to reduce missed or delayed diagnoses in general practice. The rule is named after Jessica Brady, who tragically died from cancer in 2020 after visiting her GP more than 20 times with ongoing symptoms before receiving a diagnosis. Her family campaigned for change to help prevent similar cases in the future. Jess’s Rule encourages a simple approach: “Three strikes and rethink

Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust has refreshed its five-year strategy (2025–2030), setting out how it plans to improve patient care and lead local health transformation. The updated strategy was shaped by input from 2,400 patients, community members, staff, volunteers and partners and it aligns with the NHS’s 10-Year Health Plan and places a strong emphasis on innovation and modern healthcare delivery. Key priorities include: Empowering patients to take an active role in

Your Questions Answered Women's Health in West Berkshire Update What’s happening with the Women’s Health Strategy? Healthwatch West Berkshire continues to monitor progress on women’s health and the development of the Women’s Health Strategy for our area. This work is ongoing, but progress has slowed due to wider organisational changes currently taking place within Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West Integrated Care Board (BOB ICB). Has Healthwatch asked for an upd

Important Safety Information The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) is reminding everyone to check the contents of their home and workplace first aid kits. A type of bacteria called Burkholderia stabilis , which occurs naturally in the environment, has been linked to serious infections in people exposed through non-sterile alcohol-free wipes that were previously on the market. Although most healthy people face a very low risk, a total of 59 confirmed cases of infection linked

New AI note-taking tools being backed by the NHS could help doctors and nurses spend significantly more time with their patients, potentially up to a quarter more during appointments. These tools, known as ambient voice technologies , listen to clinician–patient conversations and create real-time transcriptions and clinical summaries, reducing the need for manual note-taking. NHS England is now encouraging organisations to use a new national registry of 19 approved supplier