Health: Local Healthwatch Organisations

Monday 11th June 2012 Lords Chamber

Question

14:44

Asked By

[Lord Collins of Highbury]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what progress is being made on establishing local Healthwatch organisations and what steps they will take to ensure that their commissioning and administrative costs are kept to a minimum.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health (Earl Howe)]

My Lords, 75 local Healthwatch pathfinders have generated learning for all local authorities to use. The Local Government Association is working with all local authorities, including holding a series of master classes, and the Government are undertaking targeted engagement on local Healthwatch regulations until mid-June. The Government have made £3.2 million available for start-up costs and information is being made available on commissioning and procurement options.

[Lord Collins of Highbury]

I thank the Minister for that response. Only one local Healthwatch organisation will be contracted in an individual local authority, but the body itself will be permitted to subcontract most if not all of its activities. What are the department’s estimates for the overall cost of multiple contracts, solicitors’ fees and all the other on-costs of commissioning? Can the Minister also explain how fragmenting local Healthwatch organisations in this way will provide the strong and co-ordinated voice for patients and their carers that we need for real local scrutiny and accountability?

[Earl Howe]

My Lords, the noble Lord is absolutely right to raise the question of the cost-effective commissioning of Healthwatch and I have no doubt, from the Local Government Association, that both the efficient and effective functioning of Healthwatch is something that is well within its sights. The noble Lord has raised a series of hypotheses which I think are somewhat extreme, of local Healthwatch organisations parcelling out their functions all over the place. Our aim is to have as locally inclusive a body as possible in each local Healthwatch area to enable Healthwatch to perform its functions as much by itself as with the aid of others. Indeed, the pathfinder events to which I have referred have been clear that there is a local appetite to do that.

[Lord Kakkar]

My Lords, how do Her Majesty’s Government propose to mobilise interest, enthusiasm and participation in local Healthwatch organisations by patients and members of the public?

[Earl Howe]

We are working with the Local Government Association and the Care Quality Commission to provide support for the implementation of local Healthwatch organisations. As I mentioned, the LGA is running a series of master classes for local authority commissioners. It has published 15 case studies taken from the 75 Healthwatch pathfinders, and a small number of Healthwatch experts will be available to help spread learning. As regards making the public aware, it will be very much for local authorities to decide what is appropriate in their particular areas in order to ensure that patients and the public are engaged in the important work of Healthwatch and understand what the statutory remit of local Healthwatch consists of, because that is the only way in which local Healthwatch will make its voice truly heard.

[Baroness Masham of Ilton]

My Lords, will local Healthwatch members be able to support members of the public if they go to a tribunal?

[Earl Howe]

One of the potential functions of local Healthwatch is to act as a support in terms of advocacy for local people and to signpost patients and the public to appropriate services. It is too early to say which local authorities will commission what services from local Healthwatch in an area, but the resources available to local Healthwatch have to be borne in mind in that context.

[Baroness Cumberlege]

My Lords, does my noble friend agree that in the light of the comparative studies that have been made between different health systems in developing countries, it is very disappointing that the National Health Service comes last out of seven when it comes to patient and public involvement? It does well on other factors but not on this one. Does my noble friend agree that although taxpayers’ money must always be very well spent, really strong patient and public involvement will ensure that healthcare is improved?

[Earl Howe]

My Lords, I firmly believe that, and that is why the NHS outcomes framework specifically includes a domain relating to patient experience. As we go forward, I think patients will come to realise that their voice really counts. It is about a culture change—I do not wish to wriggle out of that. This is not going to happen overnight, but it is very important that commissioners and providers in the health service are fully engaged with patients, and vice versa, to ensure that the patient’s voice—and indeed the patient’s needs—are right at the centre of commissioning and provision.

[Lord Brooke of Alverthorpe]

My Lords, on the same theme, if patients are to be at the centre of the new arrangements, and the Government are handing this over, at least for the time being, to local authorities to ensure that they are participating in the new structure, is the Minister content that this arrangement will truly ensure full patient involvement right across the whole country? When will there be a review of the arrangements if they are not working?

[Earl Howe]

My Lords, of course we want to see the system working properly. It will be part of the role of Healthwatch England to provide information and best practice advice to local Healthwatch to make sure that local authorities are commissioning both effectively and efficiently. In that sense, there will be national oversight of what happens. Inherently, with the reports that local Healthwatch organisations will have to produce annually on the way that they fulfil their role, there will be transparency on how effective they are being, not just in delivering services but in involving all sections of the community in what they do.