Clause 19 - The commission for patient and public involvement in health
NHS Reform & Health Care Professions Bill
4:15 pm
Ms Hazel Blears (Parliamentary Under-Secretary (public health), Department of Health; Salford, Labour)
Three amendments refer to the functions of the commission and reporting arrangements. I do not think that they are necessary because sufficient powers exist, but that is not to say that the amendments are not important. Amendment No. 221 would give performance-management responsibility for the duty on the NHS to consult and involve the public. The commission's responsibility is to work with the local community and trusts to help them to deliver their responsibilities under section 11 of the 2001 Act. To ask them to help to deliver and to performance-manage would put the commission in an invidious position. The way in which the NHS carries out its duties in accordance with the rest of its organisational provisions needs to be performance-managed. We envisage that strategic health authorities will be the performance management bodies, and that they will ascertain how well the NHS is fulfilling a variety of its duties. However, it would be wrong for the Commission for Patient and Public Involvement in Health—