Lucy Nicholson reflects on last year's conference

We asked Chief Executive at Healthwatch, Lucy Nicholson who did attend on the day, to reflect on the conference.

Healthwatch Luton is the independent champion for people who use health and care services across Luton. We make sure that:

• those who run the services put people at the heart of their care
• we have the statutory (legal) role to represent views of Luton residents
• your voices are heard in the planning, designing and delivery of health and care

I attended on behalf of Healthwatch Luton the Marmot conference, and thought it was a great update to partners on where we are now as a system.

There were great displays of the diverse programmes progressing across the town supporting health inequalities, and we were spoken to by a range of innovative and motivational speakers about how we communicate to our residents and the impact this has.

The highlight being around ‘Frameworks’ and their insight into how language can be impactful and shape progress; which we hope to support ongoing.

There was a vast range of organisations attending and posters were displayed from many partners on how they impacted on health inequalities in Luton.

The event was led by an exceptionally professional and motivated Public Health team, supporting so many programmes across the system.

Having Felicity Cox open and Sally Cartwright close added weight to the importance of this work, and hopefully further events such as these will be planned for more stakeholders in the future.