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Shaping Community Health With You
Current Engagement Activity – Get involved and help us shape services
We want our Community Health services to be the very best they can be. To do that we have to shape our services around you – the patient. Which is why we’re working hard to listen, respond and co-design our services.
We are committed to listening to you to ensure our local communities receive the very best possible care and support, with services shaped by the needs of service users and patients.
Here’s some ways you can help us to do that. All answers collected are anonymous and should take less than 10 minutes to complete.
Surveys open now:
- Help us shape community health services by completing this survey to share your experiences and to get involved. Click here to open the ongoing opportunity to get involved.
- Living with a long-term health condition in rural Wiltshire? Voice It, Hear It (VIHI) want to hear about what is working well, the challenges people face, and what could make the biggest difference in the future. You can take part by:
- Completing our short anonymous survey
- Requesting a telephone conversation with a member of the VIHI team
- Asking for a paper questionnaire to be sent to you
- All responses can be anonymous, and you can share as much or as little information as you wish.
- Take part here
- To arrange a telephone conversation or request a paper copy, please email: voice@communityfirst.org.uk
Other opportunities to find out more and shape community services:
We are planning a series of community engagement opportunities all over Swindon, Wiltshire and Bath and North East Somerset. At these engagement opportunities, we’ll be in the community promoting BSW Community Health, and how you can make your own referrals into our services, and sharing how you can find out more.
Here’s how we’re doing it:
We understand that to improve Community Health services, we must listen to patients and partners, understand the challenges our communities face and co-design services together.
We are working with these people to help us achieve this together:
- Patients – to learn from your experiences and keep improving our services.
- Seldom heard groups – we know there are communities that have barriers to accessing community health services. We are going to them, and together identifying how we can improve access to our services.
- Health partners – Community Health works with and alongside many health partners like GP’s, Hospitals and the Integrated Commissioning Board. We’re working with colleagues from across these partners to improve the experiences of our patients by joining up our work more effectively.
- Local community – we’re strengthening our partnerships in local communities by working with Local Authorities, and partners in the voluntary, community, faith and social enterprise (VCFSE) organisations.
The first few months – Discovery: Learning What Works
Building on experience – HCRG Care Group has delivered Community Health services locally and around the country for many years. We’re constantly reflecting and learning from our work to drive improvements.
Strengthening partnerships – As well as building on our own knowledge and experience, we’ve worked with key local partners, including wider health partners like our local hospitals and GP practices, Local Authorities and our BSW Integrated Commissioning Board colleagues who have a wealth of expertise and local experience and expertise.
Working harder to prevent poorer health outcomes – one of our commitments in delivering Community Health is to do more to prevent negative health outcomes. One of the ways we’re doing that is developing our partnerships with the Voluntary, Community, Faith and Social Enterprise (VCFSE). HCRG Care Group has joined the local Voluntary and Community Sector Alliance partners across Wiltshire, Swindon and Bath and North East Somerset, and have actively worked with VCFSE partners to help us work with seldom heard communities.
We know we can’t do this alone and must work together effectively as a system: with a shared goal to improve people’s experiences of health services.
In September 2025 we shared a summary of our work for the first 6 months. To find out more, please read our report here.
Some examples of the stakeholders we have been working with
Events we have held
Minor Injuries Unit Survey
Thank you to everyone who took part in our Minor Injuries Unit (MIU) survey.
To help us better understand how people use MIUs across the region, we visited Chippenham, Paulton and Trowbridge Minor Injuries Units over six days in June 2026. An online survey was also available during this period.
Your feedback will help us to:
- Understand why people choose to attend MIUs
- Assess awareness of other local healthcare services
- Identify opportunities to improve care for local communities
What happens next?
We will be analysing the survey findings over the summer. A summary of the results and key themes will be published on this webpage once the analysis is complete.
Thank you for helping us improve services for patients and communities across the region.
Events we have held
- Wednesday 11th March 2026 – 10:00am – 12:00pm, North Swindon Library Library
- Wednesday 11th March 2026 – 2:00pm – 4:00pm, Swindon Central Library
- Wednesday 11th March 2026 – 2:00pm – 4:00pm, Trowbridge Rugby Club
- Tuesday 17th March 2026 – 11:00am – 2:00pm, Bath University ‘Be Well’ event
- Tuesday 17th March 2026 – 1:00pm – 4:00pm, Chippenham Community Hospital and MIU
- Friday 27th March 2026 – 11:00am – 1:00pm, Asda Trowbridge
- Friday 27th March 2026 – 2:00pm – 3:00pm, Trowbridge County Hall
In January, we held a number of brand engagement events:
- Monday 5th January 2026 – 10:00am – 12:00pm, Swindon Central Library
- Monday 5th January 2026 – 11:00am – 12:00pm, Live Well Swindon hub, Sanford House
- Monday 5th January 2026 – 1:00pm – 4:00pm, North Swindon Library
- Tuesday 6th January 2026 – 9:00am – 12:00pm, Bath Sport and Leisure Centre
- Tuesday 6th January 2026 – 9:30am – 12:00pm, Chippenham Community Hospital
- Tuesday 6th January 2026 – 1:00pm – 4:00pm, Asda Trowbridge
- Wednesday 7th January 2026 – 2:00pm – 4:00pm, St Martin’s Hospital, Bath
Designing Services through Engagement: Listening to you and bringing ideas to life to deliver the stepped care model
September 2025
In September 2025, we held 28 engagement events with our system partners and voluntary sector organisations, and the public to begin developing the stepped care model.
Developing The Digital Front Door
Co designing to shape our services around you – working with Parent and Carer Forums, Wiltshire Youth Pioneers and the Wessex Local Medical Committee to co-design a new referral form into Community Health Services so that its accessible to all our patients, including young people and partners like GP’s.
We visited and heard from our voluntary sector partners who help people to stay independent and avoid homelessness. We heard how we can work in partnership to help people access services, and how a digital front door can help people find the support they need.
Phase One of Developing a Service Identity
We recently asked people across Bath and North East Somerset, Swindon, and Wiltshire to share their views on local community health services – and over community members and colleagues responded. We have met with an older person’s community group and a visually impaired group in Keynsham to gain their views and to shape an identity that is accessible to all. This insight is helping us shape a new identity for community health services. To find out more about bringing a new identity to life, please click here.
Developing the Single Point of Access, Integrated Neighbourhood Teams, and reviewing care pathways
We have run several workshops with our system partners, including our hospitals, local hospices, voluntary sector network events, education partners, including universities, special schools and community health teams, to identify ways to work collaboratively to deliver a new way of working.
October 2025
In October 2025, we held 36 engagement events with our system partners, and voluntary sector organisations, developing the stepped care model.
Developing the Single Point of Access, Integrated Neighbourhood Teams, and reviewing care pathways
A focus on Frailty
We held several engagement sessions with Age UK, The Carers Centre, Stoke Association and The Alzheimer’s Association to help shape how our community health teams work together in areas closer to where people live and work, enabling patients to tell their story once, and make every contact count.
We have met with service users at the Carers Centre and at Age UK as part of our patient involvement in needs-led care planning, which is helping to shape our services, for example, in developing a ‘What matters to me’ approach to personalised care.
Children and Young Peoples Services
We continued the journey of transforming Children and Young People’s services through workshops with our partners, including Local Authority, hospitals, and community health teams, as well as young people working with partner organisations like Off The Record BANES, and parents working with Wiltshire Parent Carer Council to review specialist services such as sleep pathways, looked after children and children’s health hubs.
Connecting with communities
Throughout October, we engaged with service users and the public through several organisations. In Swindon, we met with the Drug and Alcohol Services and attended the Swindon Seniors Forum AGM. In Wiltshire, we attended the Salisbury Livestock Market, and in Bath an North East Somerset, we worked with service users at Off the Record BANES groups – with the In Care and Care Experienced Council and SPACE group, to look at how we can make community health services more accessible and to shape our digital front door.
November 2025
In November 2025, we held 38 engagement sessions with our system partners, voluntary sector organisations, and the public – developing the stepped care model.
Developing the Single Point of Access, Integrated Neighbourhood Teams, and reviewing care pathways
Co designing to shape our services around you
We have worked with the voluntary sector organisations to design together a self-referral form to improve access to services. We met with service users at the Salvation Army and several homelessness services to hear about what matters to them and shape the referral form – to get the right support at the right time.
We have met with a wide range of voluntary sector organisations, – with over 47 organisations, over several events across the Swindon, Wiltshire and Bath and North East Somerset – getting involved, attending workshops, co-designing the referral processes, looking at what neighbourhood health means and sharing experiences.
Shaping all age care pathways
We have been shaping Children and Young People’s Care pathways. From designing the digital front door self-referral form with Children and Young People, and hearing from our hospital and community health staff about useful resources that can support parents and carers, through to reviewing children’s specialist services, such as specialist sleep support.
We have held two workshops with a local Prison – with staff and prisoners to help shape our ADHD and Autism services. We have heard from 75 service users through our welcome calls during August to November – capturing themes and opportunities to hear about what will help you at our Digital Front Door.
We’re working together with key partners like our Hospices (Prospect, Dorothy House and Salisbury) as we continue to develop our End-of-Life and Palliative Care work. We ran a session with over 40 professionals from across the partnership, building on the existing work from the End of Life and Palliative Care Alliance.
We ran a workshop with 33 Care Homes to build collaboration, clarify access and co-design solutions – shaping how our community health teams and care homes work together.
Connecting with communities
We want to hear from our communities throughout this work and beyond. Across Wiltshire, we joined Salisbury City Council in their engagement event, bringing over 50 community partners together. We have met with parents and carers at Silverwood School, and at the Wiltshire Parent and Carer Forum SEND event in Devizes, hearing how the Single Point of Access can help those needing support through our care navigators. We have met with the Wiltshire Community Conversations teams – sharing experiences and insights about our communities and how we can work together to hear about what matter to them.
We have heard from the Public through attending several Local Area Boards and Forums across Bath and North East Somerset and Wiltshire giving valuable insight into how we can shape services to be local, accessible and how you can help us share the stepped care model approach.
Phase Two of developing a Service Identity
Your insights are helping us shape a new identity for community health services. Our survey remains open, and you have been telling us what community health means to you. Here’s some examples of what you’ve shared it means to you so far:
What’s happening next?
We are in the final phase of shaping our new service identity and name. Come along to one of our engagement events to hear more. You can find out when and where at the top of the page.
We are committed to listening and learning from you. We want to ensure our local communities receive the very best possible care and support, with services shaped by the needs of service users and patients. We will do this by providing further opportunities to find out more, feedback to us and co-design what works for you.
If you navigate to the top of this web page – you will find out more about how to get involved, and opportunities to meet us across Wiltshire, Swindon and Bath and North East Somerset.
We have now entered out ‘test and learn’ phase – we are testing what works and what doesn’t and using what we learn to shape services.
We will develop case studies from the engagement so far, to tell the story of engagement so far, and the changes this is bringing.
December 2025
Throughout December, we delivered 17 engagement events across our communities.
Several of these sessions brought together parents, carers, and voluntary sector organisations. Their insights played an important role in shaping our work on self‑referral routes, developing single care plans, and supporting smoother transitions into adult services.
A key focus this month was strengthening our work with Gypsy, Boater, Roma and Traveller communities, and hosting a series of events with a wide range of stakeholders to help shape our developing care pathways, including those related to neurodivergence.
These conversations helped us better understand the barriers people face when accessing community health services and explore practical solutions as we design our stepped care model.