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Healthwatch: have your say about your local NHS services and care

Healthwatch has been created as part of the new NHS structure. Healthwatch is the new consumer champion, putting patients and public first and giving citizens more say and strengthening the collective voice of local people, giving them influence nationally.

Healthwatch launched on 1 April 2013; there are many ways for you to get involved and have your say about the services and care you receive from your local NHS.

How you can get involved

Sign up to be a part of your local Healthwatch to ensure that the views and experiences of people living with diabetes in your area are represented. Don’t leave it to chance that someone else might. If you want to ensure people with diabetes are represented, you should get involved.

To get involved, please contact the Diabetes Voices Team. We will then be able to check details for your local Healthwatch with our regional offices and provide you accurate information about how to get involved.

Contact the team on 020 7424 1008 or email diabetesvoices@diabetes.org.uk with the subject line ‘Local Healthwatch’.

Read on to find out more about how Healthwatch will work.

Healthwatch

Healthwatch will play a role on both a national and a local level.

Local Healthwatch

Local Healthwatch organisations will represent the views of people who use local services and will report concerns about the quality of healthcare to Healthwatch England.

There is a local Healthwatch covering every local authority area in England. Your local Healthwatch board will take over LINks's responsibilities of gathering and representing the community’s views to influence and improve health and social care and will ensure local communities have a greater say in decisions about services. Healthwatch will have greater responsibility and power than LINKs.

Your local Healthwatch organisation will:

have the power to enter and view services
influence how services are set up and commissioned by having a seat on the local health and wellbeing board
produce reports which influence the way services are designed and delivered
provide information, advice and support about local services
pass information and recommendations to Healthwatch England and the Care Quality Commission.

Therefore, it is very important that the views of people living with diabetes are represented on all Local Healthwatch boards across England.

Healthwatch England

The role of Healthwatch England is to give a national voice to the key issues that affect people who use health and care service. They will use evidence based on real experiences to highlight national issues and trends and raise these at the highest levels.

Healthwatch England will gather and analyse information provided by local Healthwatch organisations and others to identify key issues and trends and will make sure the voices of people who use health and social care services are heard by the Secretary of State for Health, the Care Quality Commission, the NHS Commissioning Board, Monitor and every local authority in England.

Further information

To see how Healthwatch feeds in to the new NHS commissioning structure see the NHS system overview (PDF).

You can find out more about the local Healthwatch by reading ‘Local Healthwatch: A strong voice for people – the policy explained' (PDF).