Enter & View
Our statutory power to Enter & View
Enter & View is a statutory power conferred upon Healthwatch by the Health and Social Care Act 2012. It allows our authorised Enter & View Representatives to enter and view any publicly funded health and social care services in the borough, to collect the views of service users at the point of delivery, and to collect the views of carers and relatives of service users. These visits can be agreed in advance with the service we are visiting, or can be unannounced spot checks.
Healthwatch Waltham Forest can legally conduct an Enter & View visit with any of the following organisations or individuals:
NHS Trusts
NHS Foundation Trusts
Local Authorities
A person providing primary medical services (e.g. GPs)
A person providing primary dental services (i.e. dentists)
A person providing ophthalmic services (i.e. opticians)
A person providing pharmaceutical services (e.g. community pharmacists)
A person who owns or controls premises where ophthalmic and pharmaceutical services are provided
Bodies or institutions that are contracted by the Local Authority or the NHS to provide health or care services (e.g. adult social care homes and day-care centres)
It is important to remember that Enter & View is an engagement tool, not an inspection. The aim of Enter & View is to put together a picture of what people think of the care they are receiving.
Who can carry out an Enter & View visit?
Enter & View visits are carried out by trained Enter and View Authorised representatives. An Enter & View Authorised representative is a very specific and skilled volunteer role within Healthwatch, which requires additional training and a time commitment over the course of 12 months. Our Enter & View representatives are fully DBS checked and required to complete essential training. Additional training may be required. Below is a list of courses that may be included:
Enter & View
Equality and Diversity
Confidentiality
Data Protection
Dementia Training
Adult Safeguarding
It would be beneficial for individuals seeking to be an Enter & View Authorised Representative to have prior health & social care work experience or lived experience within the field.
What happens during and after a visit?
After an Enter & View visit has been completed, our authorised representatives will go away and write a report based on the evidence they have collected. This report will go into detail about what they saw during the visit, what people they spoke to said, and any other information that they feel is relevant. It will finish by making a series of recommendations for improvements, if there are any, as well as offering any commendations for good performance.
We provide a draft copy of our report to the service provider within 20 working days of our visit, in case they wish to raise any concerns – or make any changes which could potentially be reflected in the report.
Once the service provider has had a chance to respond, a finalised version will be published and made available for download on our website.