Healthwatch Croydon Annual Meeting 2026: Highlights from the Evening
The evening brought together residents, community organisations, local leaders and health and care partners to reflect on our work during 2025–26 and hear directly from local people about neighbourhood health and care services in Croydon.
Connecting with our community
The evening began with refreshments and a Community Fair, with stalls from BME Forum, Connect to Work, Kids SENDIAS, Croydon Talking Therapies, Sister Circle and Croydon Vision.
The fair gave residents an opportunity to meet local organisations, find out about available services and support, and make new connections.
Looking back at our year
Our Chair, Edwina Morris, welcomed attendees and reflected on Healthwatch Croydon's work during 2025–26, including how we have listened to residents and used their experiences to help influence local health and care services.
Your views on neighbourhood health and care
Our Deputy Chair, Sandra Dodgson, facilitated discussions giving residents the opportunity to share what they would like neighbourhood health and care services in Croydon to look like.
Residents discussed four key questions. Below is a snapshot of the emerging themes from their feedback::
1. Residents at the heart of neighbourhood health and care
Residents highlighted the importance of being involved in designing and shaping services, alongside better engagement with seldom-heard communities and stronger partnerships with voluntary and community organisations.
2. Living well at home for longer
Prevention, early intervention and more support closer to home were important themes. Residents also highlighted the need for support that considers physical, mental, social and emotional wellbeing.
3. Access to neighbourhood health and care services
Residents raised issues including awareness of services, waiting times, opening hours, referral pathways, transport and physical accessibility. Services need to be easier to find, reach and access when people need them.
4. Coordinated support for long-term conditions
Residents highlighted the need for better coordination between health, social care and voluntary organisations, improved communication and information sharing, earlier intervention and more personalised support.
Question Time
The evening also gave residents the opportunity to put questions to senior local health, care and community leaders.
The panel included Matthew Kershaw, Chief Executive, Croydon Health Services NHS Trust & Place Based Leader for Health; Annette McPartland, Corporate Director for Adult Social and Health at Croydon Council; Jonathan Northfield, Service Director Croydon-BDP at SLaM; and Ima Miah, Chief Executive Officer of Asian Resource Centre of Croydon.
What happens next?
The themes highlighted above are initial emerging themes from the discussions at our Annual Meeting.
Healthwatch Croydon will review the feedback in more detail and share a full report on what we heard from residents at a later date.
Thank you
Thank you to everyone who attended and contributed to the evening – our residents, community organisations, panellists, partners, Board members and volunteers.
Your participation and willingness to share your views helped make our Annual Meeting a valuable opportunity to listen, connect and learn.
