Community health services

Tender description

Local Healthwatch will be the independent consumer champion for patients and users of health and social care services. Local Healthwatch will be membership based and aim to empower and represent the diverse communities in each borough enabling commissioners to rely on it as a key facilitator of user engagement in the relevant service areas. It will provide intelligence — including evidence from people's views and experiences — to influence the policy, planning, commissioning and delivery of publicly funded health and social care with a view to ensuring that the needs of service users are met. Local Healthwatch will have a reputation for being a robust and credible participant in the local health and social care economy by demonstrating that it has the appropriate level of skills, experience and competencies required to deliver its statutory functions to the required standards. It will gain the trust of the general public as well as other health and social care stakeholder groups by being responsive and acting promptly and effectively when things go wrong. It will operate effectively and efficiently so that the councils can demonstrate value for money against agreed outcomes. The service will ensure there are individual governance and specific arrangements in each borough to guarantee that the service is locally accountable and reflects independent local views and concerns.