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Consultation on the NHS changes now open

Submitted by Admin on August 14, 2010 - 12:13

The Department of Health is looking for your views on the proposed changes to the NHS. Have your say before October 11th.

Liberating the NHS: Increasing democratic legitimacy in health is the first step in the process of reforming the way the NHS is run. The consultation gives more detail on how the changes to the NHS will be put in place, and what people can expect from their new, decentralised health service.

In particular, it gives more detail on the proposed new health and wellbeing boards and on local leadership for health improvement, outlining how the transfer of responsibility for public health from primary care trusts to local authorities will take place.

The consultation is open until 11th October 2011 and the Department of Health would like your views on:

  • Integrated working. How should the Department for Health support integrated working? Do local agencies need greater freedoms in certain areas to help them integrate more effectively? Should local authorities’ support for joint working on health and wellbeing become a statutory requirement? Do you agree with the proposal to create a statutory health and wellbeing board? Or should it be left to local authorities to decide how best to take forward joint working arrangements?
  • Health and wellbeing boards (charged with promoting integration and partnership working between the NHS, social care, public health and other local services). What should their main functions be? What should their membership comprise? How do the proposals fit with the current duty to co-operate through children’s trusts? Will health and wellbeing boards require further support from other agencies or from central government, for example, information on best practice? How should they operate across different local authority areas, for example across London or Greater Manchester, to maximise efficiency?
  • Overview and scrutiny. As the aim is to encourage more local accountability, how should the new services be scrutinised to ensure minimal escalation of issues to a national level? What arrangements should the local authority put in place to ensure that there is effective scrutiny of the health and wellbeing board?
  • Health Watch (the proposed new care regulator tasked with strengthening the collective voice of patients and the public). How should the local Health Watch seek patients’ views? Should it take on a wider role in, for instance, supporting patients who need to make complaints about their treatment?

They also welcome any other questions, comments or ideas that you might have about the changes. For example, you may support the suggestion of the Association of Directors of Children’s Services that health and wellbeing boards should have a specific duty to consider the health needs of children. Or you may have views on how the Local Safeguarding Children Board should raise its concerns about children’s safety with the health and wellbeing board.

More information

View our detailed summary of the NHS White Paper

Read the NHS White Paper in full. Here you can also find links to the other three consultation papers.

View Liberating the NHS- the consultation document.

We would like to keep you up to date with all relevant developments in the new NHS. If there is anything you would like to know, or if you would like to discuss the changes, leave a comment in the forum, or email CAPT's Chief Executive Katrina Phillips.