Keen Welcomes Stronger Links Between Communites And Health Services, UK

Main Category: Public Health
Article Date: 01 Nov 2007 - 4:00 PDT

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The Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Bill received Royal Assent yesterday, heralding a fresh approach to giving people a say in their local health services.

As of April, existing Patient and Public Involvement Forums and their co-ordinating body, the Commission for Patient and Public Involvement in Health (CPPIH) will be replaced with 150 Local Involvement Networks (LINks). The legislation also updates and strengthens the duty on NHS bodies to involve and consult local communities about changes to services.

Backed up by £84 million over three years, LINks will make it easier for communities to influence key decisions about local health servivces and hold those services to account. Run by local people, each LINk will cover all the publically funded health and social care services in a local authority area - irrespective of who provides them. LINks will:

- aim to represent everyone in the community - not just existing activists but also those not currently being heard;

- have the power to investigate issues of concern, demand information, enter and view services, make reports and recommendations, and refer issues to local councillors; and

- provide a one-stop-shop for the community to engage with care professionals and vice versa.

In addition, the legislation changes the existing duty to consult by clarifying the notion of a 'significant' change to services, so that NHS bodies know when they should consult. It also gives PCTs a new statutory duty to respond to local people, explaining the activities they are undertaking as a result of patient and public feedback on their services.

Health minister Ann Keen said:

"We know that input from the people who use them leads to better services. Building on the work of Patients' Forums, these changes are aimed at promoting open and transparent communication between communities and the health service. By increasing the NHS's accountability to local people, we want to develop people's trust and confidence that their opinions will be heard.

"If more people are going to get involved in shaping services, the process must be convenient and result in real changes. LINks will be run by local people who will be asking their communities about their views on local health services, investigating specific issues and using their powers to hold services to account. People will be able to influence key decisions about how care services are planned and run."

Councillor David Rogers, Chair of the Local Government Association's Community Well-being Board, said:

"This announcement is a needed and necessary step towards ensuring local health services are publically accountable. Local Involvement Networks can offer a more integrated approach to health and social care provided sufficient support and effective scrutiny arrangements are in place.

"This additional funding will give councils the green light to continue to commission the work already happening across the country to build the foundations for first class patient and public involvement in health and social care".

Maggie Alexander, Director of Policy and Campaigns and Breakthrough Breast Cancer said:

"Breakthrough Breast Cancer believes that patient and public involvement in shaping NHS services is vitally important. Members of Breakthrough's Campaigns & Advocacy Network have shown what a real difference they can make when they are involved in local healthcare decisions.

"We hope that LINks will help the NHS engage patients and the public more in shaping local health services so that what is provided accurately reflects the needs and wishes of those it is trying to help. Only then will we move closer to a service that is genuinely patient-led - helping everyone get the best out of their NHS."

Chris Brace, Director of Campaigns for the disability network RADAR, said:

"Understanding and incorporating real information about peoples' needs and expectations must be at the forefront of all policies and practices in health and social care services. The Patient Forums have made great strides towards this, and the LINks principles of extending the consultation process ever-wider must be the right way forward.

"We know that there are areas where some people are still left behind. The key to LINks achieving real improvement must be working with networks of voluntary organisations to place power and influence where they belong - in the hands of people with direct experience of using health and social services."

Bill Freeman, Director of Development at the National Association for Voluntary and Community Action (NAVCA) said:

"We welcome this announcement and strongly support the emphasis on improving local community involvement and accountability over the direction of health and social care services. Local third sector organisations have a strong track record of supporting people in their communities to have a voice and we will be encouraging them to help LINks engage with all members of the community, especially those that are seldom heard in policy making and service design."

- Since 2003, one of the main tools the NHS has used to listen to patients has been Patients' Forums. Although Forums - with one attached to each health trust - have done much to help improve front-line services, they have also suffered from limitations that have stopped them being as effective as they could be. For example, Patients' Forums currently have no remit over social care services run by local authorities.

- In July last year, the Department of Health published A stronger local voice: A framework for creating a stronger voice in the development of health and social services. This set out proposals for replacing Patients' Forums with LINks. http://www.dh.gov.uk

- There will be one LINk per local authority area - 150 in total. The Government is making £84million available to support the national programme for the establishment of LINks. Most of this funding will go to local authorities. The funding that each area receives will depend on factors such as population and deprivation. Details will be announced shortly.

- The Act also introduces a new requirement for PCTs and local authorities to produce a Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) which will describe the future health and wellbeing needs of their local populations and will help local authorities and PCTs decide how best to meet those needs/provide those services through their next local area agreements.

http://www.dh.gov.uk