Make your voice heard

At Healthwatch we hear from people with physical disabilities all the time. We get calls from people needing to learn about what services and support are available to them, but we also hear from people who want to get involved in developing services for people with physical disabilities for the future.

In Kent, we already had platforms for older people and people with mental health or learning disabilities to raise their voice, but there was nothing for people with a physical disability.

Our History

In 2016, we teamed up with the Centre for Independent Living Kent (CILK) to develop a Kent-wide Forum for people with physical disabilities.

Over 100 organisations and individuals got involved with our launch event and we are proud that people with physical disabilities now have an emerging voice for the development and improvement of services. We currently have over 200 individual and organisational members of the Forum.

What we do

We are the voice of disabled people across the county, representing their views to decision makers.

The Forum works with and influences Councils, Providers and Clinical Commissioning Groups across Kent to ensure that services for disabled people are effectively shaped and scrutinised by the people who actually use them.  We represent the views of Forum members at a national level in Parliament.

Our membership is comprised of disabled people, their families, their carers and the organisations which represent them.

Kent Physical Disability is on Facebook too!

Want to join the online Physical Disability Forum Facebook Group too? Click the button below. If you want more information on the Facebook group, see the downloads at the bottom of the page.

Find out more

Facebook Guildines

Facebook Group Guidelines
Download (PDF 66 KB)

Across Kent & Medway, there are a range of Forums that work together to raise the voice of particular communities.

At Healthwatch, we work closely with them all, but particularly

  • the Older Peoples’ Forums,
  • the Local Mental Health Networks,
  • the Kent Physical Disability Forum
  • and the Kent & Medway Foodbank Forum

All of the Forums are actively welcoming new members and they would love to hear from you.

You can find details about how they are working to raise the voice of people and how to get in touch with them on www.kentvoice.com