Wolsingham Show 2023
Wolsingham Show is England's oldest and County Durham's biggest agricultural show. Included in the weekend were things such as show jumping, birds of prey, dog shows, live music, vintage vehicles, alpacas, trader stands to name just a few.
In the show's 243rd year, Healthwatch County Durham decided we would go along to engage with the community. It was a full weekend event and the staff team and 2 of our volunteers dedicated their time weekend's to engage with the public.
Over the 2 days, we managed to speak to around 250 people.
People got involved by:
- Filling out surveys, - 62 people filled out surveys which included where people would like us to focus our Enter and View programme next, the Hospital Discharge survey and our Mental Health Services Survey, a short survey to find out what people would like to be referred to in these services.
- Giving us feedback about various aspects of local service provision and some people signed up to receive our monthly e-bulletin.
- We also had activities on the day for people to get involved in such as 'pick a stick' to win a Healthwatch item and colouring in and a lucky dip for the children!
One of the traders on the day told us that "My daughter has said the lovely Healthwatch County Durham staff on Saturday had been the best thing at the Wolsingham Show"
We also had feedback from another member of the public who said our "service was much needed to independently monitor and improve services"
Our Engagement and Inclusion Lead, Tony Bentley, is currently working on how to engage with those harder to reach communities and the farming community is on that list. In partnership with UTASS, he put together a video to play on the Saturday (see below) and made some new contacts, which he is looking forward to following up and working closer with this community in the coming months. We will be able to keep you updated on this as it progresses.
Overall, we had a really successful and enjoyable time at Wolsingham Show and we are very thankful to everyone who gave us feedback and took the time to share their experiences and have a conversation with us.
We have put together a video of all the photos we took, which you will find below. There are some good ones, take a look!
