PRESS RELEASE July 23
2012
Healthwatch must be the peoples’ independent, powerful, public
watchdog in health and social care
A report by
NALM analysing the results of FOIs sent to 152 Local Authorities in England
The survey
showed many local are authorities are doing excellent work in collaboration
with Local Involvement Networks (LINks) to establish Healthwatch, but that only
58% of local authorities were able to confirm that resources were in place for
LINks to continue their work until abolished in March 31st 2013.
Government
policy that LINks should go through a transition to Local Healthwatch whenever
possible was not evidenced by the survey, which showed that whilst 51% of local
authorities were working closely with the LINk to establish Local Healthwatch,
there were few examples of genuine transition – notable exceptions were
Islington and Hertfordshire. There was little evidence of plans for LINk legacy
to be carried forward to LHW and little evidence of public participation from
children and young people in the development of LHW. Leading edge examples of
public participation were found in Suffolk and Plymouth
Evidence of local
authorities unlawfully taking over the running of LINks (Swindon) or attempting
to control the LHW were also revealed, e.g. one local authority is consulting
the public on what priorities LHW will have before it even exists.
Malcolm Alexander, Chair
of NALM said: "our survey shows great progress in some parts of the
country. But, Healthwatch must be an independent of the system it monitors and
a powerful public watchdog in health and social care. It is a complete waste of
time and money to establish a system of public involvement that is toothless
and beholden to the local authority that funds it. We need Healthwatch to be
democratic, led by its members, with ring-fenced funding and able to monitor
and lead the development of local needs-led services. Local Healthwatch must be
able to blow the whistle when services are failing local people. We have made
10 recommendations to Ministers and local authorities".
RECOMMENDATIONS
1) A renewed
government and local authority commitment to the transition of LINKs into Local
Healthwatch (LHW)
2) Use of
grant-in-aid by local authorities to enable genuine transition from LINks to
LHW
3) Active
public engagement of the community to ensure inclusive and diverse approaches
to involving people in the development of the LHW.
4) Involvement
of children and young people in the development of LHW.
5) Ensure that
LINks continue to monitor and influence health and social care with local
people until abolition on March 31st 2013.
6) Ensure LINks
legacy carries over to LHW to avoid the loss of experience and knowledge – new
organisations usually take two years to establish.
7) Training for
all LINks members in all areas, to ensure that the usual mass migration of
volunteers that accompanies the abolition of community organisations is
stopped.
8) Support for
LINk members on Health and Wellbeing Board to that they can carry their
experience forward to LHW.
9) LHW should
include advice and information services and the Independent advocacy service as
an integrated model. Subcontracting bits of LHW will be inefficient, expensive
and a waste of time and resources.
10) Healthwatch England
NOTES FOR EDITORS:
Malcolm
Alexander is Chair of the National Association of LINks Members. He can be
contacted on: 0208 809 6551 or 07817505193
- NALM2008@aol.com
Ruth
Marsden is the Vice Chair of the National Association of LINks Members. She can
be contacted on: 01482 849 980 or 07807519933 or ruth@myford.karoo.co.uk
Local
Involvement Networks (LINks) were set up by statute in 2008 to give citizens a stronger
voice in how health and social care services are delivered.
NALM is the national
organisation of Local Involvement Network members and was formed on April 1st
2009. NALM aims to stimulate more powerful approaches to public and user
involvement and build a major grass roots movement of LINks and LINks’ members
which can influence government policy.
The Health and Social Care
Act 2012 abolishes LINk and replaces them by Local Healthwatch in 2013. Many of
the duties of LINks and LHW will be similar.
The Local Government and
Public Involvement in Health Act 2008 established Local Involvement Networks
(LINks) to promote and support the involvement of people in the commissioning,
provision and scrutiny of local NHS and care services. They do this by monitoring
services and obtaining the views of people about their experiences of care and making reports and recommendations about
how services should be improved, to persons responsible for commissioning,
providing, managing or scrutinising local care services.
Note of the development of Healthwatch
Local HealthWatch will take on extra duties such as providing
information and signposting to the public who need help with understanding how
the NHS and social services structures work, and potentially supplying advocacy
for those who need help complaining to the NHS about poor treatment.
LINks are made up of volunteers, supported by a small
professional team. They have responsibility for scrutinising all health and
social care services in a local authority area.
They are tasked, by statute, with providing the voice of those who use
our health and social care services.
It is intended that Local HealthWatch be the voice of the user and
patient, and a guardian of patient safety. LINks and Local HealthWatch should
be the first line of defence against another Mid-Staffs, they have a right to
inspect services.
