The development of Local Healthwatch in Kent Part one: key findings

Introduction and aims
A local Healthwatch for Kent will be established in October 2012 subject
to the successful passage of the Health and Social Care Bill 1 . It will be the
independent consumer champion across Kent to promote better outcomes in
health and social care. The organisation will have a number of key functions
including acting as a point of contact for individuals, community groups and
voluntary organisations. It will promote the views of local people to influence
commissioning and will have a seat on the Health and Wellbeing Board
where key decisions will be taken. K LHW will gather views and experiences
of people using services in Kent to influence national health and social care
services through Healthwatch England (HWE).
As part of the transition from LINks to K LHW this report describes a
statement of readiness assessment to capture the views and insights of a
wide range of stakeholders to inform the development process.
The project is sponsored by Kent County Council and the Department of
Health, and supported by NHS Kent and Medway. It has been designed and
delivered by the Centre for Public Scrutiny. The Centre is an independent
charity that is recognised as a leader for promoting transparent, inclusive
and accountable healthcare and social care and for co-ordinating practical
national and local support to embed these principles in the implementation
of the health reforms. The Centre for Public Scrutiny has experience
of supporting the development of LINks across England and brings an
independent perspective to the statement of readiness. It has recently
published research on the development of Healthwatch titled ‘Smoothing the
Way: Developing local HealthWatch through lessons from Local Involvement
Networks’ (2011).
The assessment is designed to support Kent County Council’s role as set
out in the Health and Social Care Bill for local authorities to commission
arrangements for local Healthwatch organisations in partnership with local
stakeholders. The statement of readiness report describes the readiness of all
statutory and other stakeholders in Kent and is informed by exploring four key
questions:
• What should local K LHW do?
• What kind of organisation does K LHW need to be?
• What environment needs to be created for K LHW to flourish?
• What commissioning and procurement process will secure effective and
efficient K LHW arrangements?
1 As at November 2011 the Health and Social Care Bill was subject to Parliamentary approval
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The development of Local Healthwatch in Kent: assessing readiness for Local Healthwatch