Councils will be required to fund organisations to represent the interests of health and social care users and hold commissioners and providers to account, under government plans.
Local Involvement Networks (Links) will replace existing patient forums and, unlike their predecessors, can examine social care and will be tied to areas rather than health trusts.
Health minister Rosie Winterton said councils and primary care trusts would be expected to publish regular reports showing how they had responded to Links’ representations.
If they were dissatisfied with the response, Links could appeal to strategic health authorities and the Healthcare Commission.
She promised adequate resources for the new bodies but said funding to councils would not be ring-fenced.
The Links will be expected to work closely with council health scrutiny committees.
Councils required to fund local networks
More from Community Care
Related articles:
Featured jobs
Workforce Insights
- Working with perpetrators of domestic abuse: training social workers to have challenging conversations
- Extending support: the importance of reflective supervision beyond the ASYE
- ‘It’s hopeful work’: social work in an adults’ mental health team
- Podcast: supporting adults with learning disabilities and autism post-pandemic
- ‘There aren’t many roles where you get to take a child on holiday’: the benefits of residential care work
- Workforce Insights – showcasing a selection of the sector’s top recruiters
Community Care Inform
Latest stories
Finley Boden: professionals should have protected baby murdered by his parents, review finds
Regulator calls for consistency of support for NQSWs as DfE develops children’s early career framework
Leadership training programme launched for PSWs, AMHP leads and principal OTs in adults’ services
Kent ‘extremely close to capacity’ to care for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children
Comments are closed.