Examination of Witnesses

Part of Health and Social Care(Re-Committed) Bill – in a Public Bill Committee at 5:15 pm on 28 June 2011.

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Jeremy Taylor: I am not sure that it matters where HealthWatch England sits. What matters is whether it has clout, credibility, independence and sufficient resources. One could have a big debate about whether it should sit as a separate body or as part of the CQC. Colleagues may have different views. My view and the view expressed in the forum is that HealthWatch England will be an important part of the architecture for the patient voice, so we should welcome it.

We would like to see it set up quickly—I hope that you are listening to this, Paul Burstow, because according to current plans the NHS commissioning board will be up and running in shadow form from this October, but HealthWatch England will not be in action until October 2012. Why the delay? Why not get on with it? Even within the CQC, that body has the potential to set the tone and leadership for the emerging local healthwatch bodies. Timing is important, and there is something about everybody’s duty to deal with and involve HealthWatch England. The Bill, as amended, gives me greater assurance that people will have to treat HealthWatch England as an important player.

Overall, there are still some concerns about whether the healthwatch system will be powerful enough when compared to the local involvement networks. LINKs have suffered from scarce resources, not many staff and not a great deal of clout; as a result, they have been patchy. Some have been very good and have started to get off the ground and do some fantastic stuff, others have not. It would be a tragedy if healthwatch ended up being incredibly patchy. We have an opportunity to get something that works well everywhere.