6 February 2013

Ben Smith, Voluntary Action LeicesterShire

Healthwatch Leicester & Leicestershire

Healthwatch – What is it?

• Healthwatch will be the new consumer

champion for both health and social care

services

• It will exist in two distinct forms:

– Local Healthwatch

– Healthwatch England

Local Healthwatch – What is it?

• The Health and Social Care Act 2012 sets

out that local Healthwatch’s will be

established in April 2013

• Local Healthwatch will give citizens and

communities a stronger voice to influence

and challenge how health and social care

services are provided within their locality

Local Healthwatch – What will it do?

Build on existing LINk functions :

Community involvement and engagement

Local intelligence on commissioned services and identifying issues and gaps

Reporting on local issues and collective views

Working with hard to reach communities

Access to existing networks and partnerships

Local Healthwatch – What will it do?

New functions :

Signposting and information on health and social care services

Help people to access and make choices about care

Equality & Diversity monitoring

Escalate issues nationally through Healthwatch England

Healthwatch England

• Healthwatch England will provide leadership,

guidance and support to local Healthwatch

organisations

• Healthwatch England will be able to escalate

concerns about health and social care services

raised by local Healthwatch to the Care Quality

Commission (CQC)

• There will be a requirement for the CQC to respond

to advice from Healthwatch England

Why is Local Healthwatch Important?

• Healthwatch is being established to give local

communities a bigger say in how health and

social care services are planned, commissioned,

delivered and monitored

• We want to ensure that Heathwatch is able to

effectively involve children and young people

from the start.

How can we engage with CYP Volunteers?

We need your help to engage with children and young people across Leicester and Leicestershire. We want to see :

•Local Healthwatch effectively involving children and young people in their work, including those who are most disadvantaged •Local Healthwatch having access to the capacity and skills to work with children and young people •Children and young people being well represented in local Healthwatch •Local Healthwatch representatives sitting on Health and Well-being boards being sufficiently knowledgeable to champion local children and young people's views

Over to you . . .