The Government has said that Local HealthWatch, will now start in April 2013 rather than October 2012. The reason given is that this will make the start date the same as the date of other changes and give HealthWatch England, which will begin its role in October 2012, time to provide leadership support.
A small amount of funding has also been announced to support the work of HealthWatch pathfinders, as well as some transition money for local HealthWatch work in 2012-13. To read the Department of Health’s announcement in full visit: www.dh.gov.uk/prod_consum_dh/groups/dh_digitalassets/documents/digitalasset/dh_132020.pdf
The national HealthWatch Team has launched a short online survey to get feedback on some key messages about HealthWatch - about what it will do, how it will do it and why. Go to the survey
You can feed into the development of HealthWatch England membership regulations. This consultation asks questions on the key issues in relation to the membership of HealthWatch England:
HealthWatch England is to be established in October 2012 and will be a statutory committee of the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and it is intended that the Chair of HealthWatch England will be a member of the CQC Board.
The deadline for the consultation is Friday 2 March. Go to the full consultation to give your views.
