Frequently Asked Questions

Please see below some frequently asked questions and responses.  Below these there are links to documents containing information about the structure and functions of the NHS as well as a glossary of frequently used terms for the NHS and social care services which we hope will be of help and/or interest to you.

What is a Local Involvement Network (known as LINk)?
Local Involvement Networks were set up to make sure that local people, groups and organisations can bring together their knowledge and experiences of health and social care services.

The role of LINk is to:

• Obtain the views of people about their need for experiences of local health and social care services
• Give people a chance to suggest ideas to care professionals that may help improve services
• Look into specific issues of concern to the community, make recommendations to the people who plan and run services
• Ask for information about services and get answers within a specified amount of time
• Enter and view services, when necessary, to see if they are working well
• Promote the involvement of individuals and groups in the commissioning, provision and scrutiny of local care services
• Refer issues to the local council overview and scrutiny committee.

What is enter and view?
Enter and view is one of the ways that the LINk can find out how services are run.  It involves observing the delivery of health and social care services and collecting the views of people who directly use those services to see if they are working well.  Volunteers who are authorised by the LINk following appropriate training and a criminal records bureau check can become an authorised visitor and undertake enter and view activity.  LINk authorised visitors can enter and view any health and adult social care service that is funded through public money.  This includes:

• NHS Trusts
• Hospitals
• GP surgeries
• Dentist surgeries
• Pharmacies
• Adult social care day centres
• Residential and nursing homes.

Who can be involved in the LINk?
Anyone and everyone:  all different groups and all types of individuals that make up the local population and will include:

• user led organisations
• local voluntary and community sector organisations
• individual people

How can I get involved?
You can register with the LINk by completing a registration form.  You can do this by completing the form on the website at the Get Involved section, by contacting the LINk staff on 01785 887990 or by email at enquiries@staffordshirelink.staffs.com  The staff can offer help if you need support to do this.  By completing a registration form, your details will be entered on to the LINk database of participants and you will receive the regular LINk Bulletin which provides information on LINk activities, how you can get involved with LINk at events, training and consultations and also provides details of LINk meetings.

The LINk also has several volunteer roles available and more information can be provided to you by the LINk staff.

Who supports the LINk?
The LINk has a small dedicated Support Team who are:

Jackie Owen, Interim Director.
Sue Baknak, Co-ordinator.
Katie Farrier-Ray, Administrator.
Bernard Bester, LINk Development Worker.
Hester Parsons, LINk Development Worker.

The Support Team are based at:  Unit 30 Stafford Business Village, Dyson Way, Staffordshire Technology Park, Stafford.  ST18 0TW.  The Team can be contacted by telephone on 01785 887990 or email at enquiries@staffordshirelink.staffs.com

The Support Team operating hours are from 9.00am to 5.00pm Monday to Friday and an answerphone is available on 01785 887990.

What area does Staffordshire LINk cover?
Each local authority area has its own LINk and the Staffordshire LINk covers 8 districts of Staffordshire:

• Cannock
• East Staffordshire
• Lichfield
• Newcastle-under-Lyme
• South Staffordshire
• Stafford
• Staffordshire Moorlands
• Tamworth

How is the LINk funded?
Under the legislation that established LINks (Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007), local authorities have been given £84 million in funding to support LINk activities between 2008-2011.  Each local authority is allocated a sum of money (as part of its overall funding and not ring-fenced) to facilitate a LINk and it is up to each local authority to decide how much of that allocation is given to support their local LINk.  The funding for LINks nationally has been extended to 31st March 2012 as LINks move towards the introduction of HealthWatch in April 2012.

I’ve heard that HealthWatch will replace LINks -what is it?
Thte Government has introduced the White Paper ‘Equity and excellence:  Liberating the NHS’ which sets out its vision for transforming health and social care.

The Vision
Putting Patients First:  “We will put patients at the heart of the NHS, through an information revolution and greater choice and control”.
Improving healthcare outcomes:  “To achieve our ambition for world-class healthcare outcomes, the service must be focused on outcomes and the quality standards that deliver them.  The Government’s objectives are to reduce mortality and morbidity, increase safety, and improve patient experience and outcomes for all”.
Autonomy, accountability and democratic legitimacy:  “The Government’s reforms will empower professionals and providers, giving them more autonomy and, in return, making them more accountable for the results they achieve, accountable to patients through choice and accountable to the public at local level”.
A stronger consumer voice:  Across England, many people already give up their time – via Local Involvement Networks (LINks) & Patient Participation Groups – to help shape local health and social care services.  To build on this work and to give consumers a stronger voice, the White Paper proposes to establish HealthWatch England as the national independent champion for thealth and social care consumers.  We also plan to build on the current role of LINks by turning them into local HealthWatch – a ‘citizen’s advice bureau’ for health and social cre.  Legislation to establish HealthWatch is likely to be introduced as part of the forthcoming Health Bill.  We expect HealthWatch to be up and running by 2012.

What will local HealthWatch do?
Local HealthWatch will be the local consumer champion across health and social care.
Existing powers
Local HealthWatch will:

• retain LINks’ existing responsibilities to promote patient and public involvement, and to seek views on services which can be fed back into local commissioning;
• have continued rights to enter and view provider services, and;
• continue to be able to comment on changes to local services.
• Like LINks, they are likely to continue to take an interest in the NHS Constitution.

New role
The White Paper proposes giving local HealthWatch additional functions and funding, for providing complaints advocacy services and for supporting individuals to exercise choice.  In particular, they will support people who lack the means or capacity to make choices.  Local HealthWatch will be able to report concerns about the quality of local health and social care services to HealthWatch England.  Local HealthWatch will be able to do this independently of their local authority and HealthWatch England will be able to recommend that the Care Quality Commission takes action.  A HealthWatch member will also sit on the new Health and Wellbeing Boards so the community has a say in local decisions.

HealthWatch England
Under current proposals, HealthWatch England will be set up as an independent arm of the Care Quality Commission, with a specific remit to represent at a natinoal level people using health and social care services.  This will give people a real influence over the way services are planned and delivered.

An independent part of Care Quality Commission (CQC)
CQC is the regulator for health and social care services in England, which aims to ensure better care is provided for everyone.  We are proposing to make HealthWatch England part of CQC because this will build on their existing use of patient experience information to regulate care and makes good economic sense in today’s financial climate.  Building on what already exists will enable HealthWatch to become established more quickly, so that it can provide national support and leadership to LINks, as they evolve into local HealthWatch and beyond.

What is the Engaging Communities Staffordshire Project?
Engaging Communities Staffordshire is a project and proposal for a new organisation to support the voice of the community in health and social care.  The Engaging Communities project came about because local leaders of health and social care services wanted to be absolutely sure that people were being involved in the way services are being set up and provided.  They wanted to make sure that peoples’ views would be collected in a single place so that they could understand what is most important to people and to make sure the people responsible for health and social care services could understand what services are like from the perspective of the people of Staffordshire.  The project aims to add value to what is currently in place such as community groups, support groups, GP practice groups and membership schemes and to make sure trends and themes can be spotted across organisations so that prompt responses can be put in place as soon as they become apparent.  Although a number of organisations are involved in the project, once it is set up the new organisation would be completely independent.

The new organisation is being proposed to support the voice of the community in health and social care and to find an effective way for the people of Staffordshire to be involved in the services that people provide for their health and social care needs; to reduce the likelihood of peole being asked the same or similar questions by different organisations and to enable better decisions to be made by health and social care organisations based on the experiences and views of the people of Staffordshire; and to involve people in ways that are both efficient and effective.

For more information, visit http://staffordshire.gov.uk/health/engaging communities or email at engagingcommunities@staffordshire.gov.uk

What is a Quality Account?
A Quality Account is an annual report to the public from providers of NHS healthcare services about the quality of their services.   The purpose of the Quality Account is to encourage boards and leaders of healthcare organisations to assess quality across all of the healthcare services they offer, and encourage them to engage in the wider processes of continuous quality improvement.  Providers are asked to consider three aspects of quality – patient experience, safety and clinical effectiveness.  The visible product of this process – the Quality Account – is a document aimed at local, public readership.  This both reinforces transparency and helps persuade stakeholders that the organisation is committed to quality and improvement.  Quality Accounts therefore go above and beyond regulatory requirements, which focus on essential standards.  If designed well, the accounts should assure commissioners, patients and the public that healthcare providers are regularly scrutinising each and every one of their services, concentrating on those that need the most attention.

Without some form of scrutiny, service users and members of the public may have no trust in what they are reading.  Year round stakeholder engagement during the process of producing a Quality Account and the opportunity for local scrutiny is seen as an important feature to ensure that Quality Accounts are locally meaningful and reflect local priorities.  The role of LINks in Quality Accounts forms part of this local scrutiny.

Questions about the NHS structure and scrutiny

A separate document has been produced covering questions about the NHS structure and scrutiny as well as a glossary of frequently used terms in respect of the NHS.  Please click here to download it.

Adult Social Care Services
A glossary of frequently used terms in respect of adult social care services will be available to download shortly.