Raising the voice of seldom heard communities to shape access equipment services

Advice and Information - 1 September 2023

We continue our support of the NHS and Kent County Council in hearing from the public to codesign the future of their Integrated Community Equipment Services (ICES).

ICES aims to maximise independence of Kent residents and enable them to carry out everyday activities at home. This may include the provision of equipment such as:

  • Profiling beds
  • Pressure care
  • Walking aids

It also includes the purchase, delivery, repair/servicing and installation, collection and recycling of equipment for adults and children.

They are recommissioning the service in April 2024 and have been carrying out a consultation but wanted additional support to ensure as many experiences as possible were included in the redesign.

Visits in the community

This project is still live, having spoken to Carers Support East Kent and reached out to the Caribbean, Roma, Nigerian and Nepalese community.

Caribbean community
This month we attended the Windrush commemoration event hosted by North Kent Caribbean group. For a write up of our initial listening visit to this community during Windrush month, and to access a related resource, click here.

Further listening is planned to this community to focus on their awareness and experience of the ICES service.

Gypsy Roma Traveller community
Healthwatch Kent have been planning visits to multiple Kent sites with the Gypsy Roma Traveller Network. The first of these sites will occur in the next month to support the ICES project but will expand to consider wider health inequalities potentially faced by the community. More will be shared about opportunities to volunteer and support this effort in September.

Additional visit

On July 6th we visited the Nepalese Community Centre in Folkestone once more, this time with a member of the NHS and a Senior Occupational Therapist. This builds on our listening to the views of just under 60 people, with 22 experiences heard of those finding everyday tasks challenging without access equipment support.

We will share more as the project closes.

Providing a platform for marginalised groups

This isn't the first time we've worked with the Nepalese community, and we were shortlisted for a national award last year for helping their experiences of digital exclusion be heard.
 

To hear more of our nationally recognised work with seldom heard voices