Healthwatch Isle of Wight

A strong voice for local people on health and social care issues.

We want to build an organisation that people value and use.

Tell us your views.

June 2012 1 Introduction

What is Healthwatch and why do we want to involve you in its development?

In March 2012, the government introduced a new law (the Health & Social Care Act 2012) requiring each local authority area to set up a new organisation called Healthwatch by April 2013.

Healthwatch will help provide information and advice to Islanders about health and social care services, direct people to services (so they understand the choice of care available) and involve people in improving and shaping the services on which they rely. It will continue many of the roles formerly carried out both by the Local Involvement Network (LINk) which ceases to exist on 31 March next year and, before that, the Island’s community health council.

Healthwatch will effectively act as a ‘consumer champion’, making the views and experiences of the local community known to the people making decisions about these services, both locally and nationally. The Isle of Wight Council is required to make sure it has a local Healthwatch organisation in place by April 2013 and we will receive funding from the government to enable us to do that.

Some of the functions and roles that Healthwatch will need to perform have been set out in law but the government has also said that it wants local authorities to be able to make some of its own choices about how local Healthwatch is set up so the new organisation meets the Island’s particular needs..

Before we start looking for someone to set up local Healthwatch we want to get your views on how we can make sure the organisation is something that people on the Island both want to use and value. This document explains what Healthwatch Isle of Wight must do and invites your suggestions as to how this important organisation should be developed.

Isle of Wight Council Healthwatch Consultation Page 2 2 Why do we need Healthwatch?

Many changes are being made to the way health and social care services are being provided both locally and nationally. The government wants the public to have information, advice and support so people can choose and access health and social care services.

It is also keen that people have the means and opportunity to make their views, experiences and concerns about these services known so that they can influence how services are developed and improved at both a local and national level. In summary, it wants to create a “strong voice for local people”.

“Our plans for Healthwatch will provide people with a single point of contact. They can put people in touch with the right advocacy organisation, or help them find information about the choices they have; they can support people to speak out and they can give those who want to get more involved, the opportunity to do so.”

Lord Howe, Healthwatch Transition Plan, March 2011.

The government has recognised that there have been a number of different arrangements over recent years for involving people and giving them a voice in publicly funded health and social care services. However these have, to varying degrees, all encountered problems. In some areas for example, people simply weren’t aware of these organisations, in others they have failed to involve all sections of the communities while others have struggled to be an effective voice for the community. The government hopes to learn from the past, build on what has worked well and address many of these shortcomings to ensure Healthwatch can be a success.

As a first step, in October this year, the government will set up Healthwatch England which will work at a national level. This will be a statutory committee of the Care Quality Commission (CQC) - the organisation that checks whether hospitals and healthcare services, dental and GP practices, care homes and care services are meeting government standards.

It will work to ensure the views and experiences of people who use health and social care services across the country are able to influence national policy, advice and guidance. It will do this by gathering much of its information from local Healthwatch organisations across the country, meaning that your voice, through Healthwatch Isle of Wight, will potentially be able to shape national decisions about health and care service policies, plans and regulations.

Isle of Wight Council Healthwatch Consultation Page 3 3 Our vision for Healthwatch Isle of Wight and what it might achieve?

Our vision is that Healthwatch Isle of Wight will become the organisation that involves Islanders in local and national health and social care issues. It will become the single point of contact for anyone in the Island community who needs information and advice about health and social care services, including children and young people. It will also help individuals to help themselves and, where they need additional help, to understand and make use of the increased choices of support available.

Our vision is that this will become a strong, recognised, trusted and credible organisation. An organisation that anyone in the community can feel confident approaching to share their views, concerns and both positive and negative experiences, knowing that the organisation will actively help to those who make decisions about health and social care services aware of their views. We want Healthwatch to demonstrate to people that, by speaking up, they can make a difference.

Our vision is that on occasions when things go wrong, that people who need extra support to make their complaint known, receive that help and that their voice is heard and acted upon.

We want Healthwatch Isle of Wight to build strong relationships with other organisations and networks on the Island to avoid duplicating services, make the most of expertise already available in our voluntary, public and private sectors and of the valued but limited time of volunteers in our community.

Healthwatch Isle of Wight must make a valued contribution, based on local knowledge to helping those making decisions about commissioning and providing health and social care services better understand the needs of the community, and help shape priorities and strategies to meet these needs.

The ultimate test for Healthwatch, over time, will be whether people know it exists, understand what it does, know how to use it and have confidence it will make sure that their voices are heard and represented.

We’re interested in your views about:

• The vision – have we got it right? Is anything missing?

• Will it meet local needs? And if not, what would you like to see Healthwatch achieving?

• Is it something you would value and use? Or even want to be a part of?

Isle of Wight Council Healthwatch Consultation Page 4 4 What will Healthwatch Isle of Wight do?

The government has set out some clear roles and functions that Healthwatch Isle of Wight will legally need to provide (More information about these functions can also be found in appendices 1-3 at the end of this document):

i) Information, advice and signposting, helping you make choices

• Be a single point of contact to provide information and advice to any individual member of the public about accessing health and social care services

• Enable people to take more control over their own health, treatment and care by helping them to understand, and make use of, increased choices available to them

ii) Involve the whole community in helping to improve, influence and shape health and social care services for local people

• Gather evidence, views and experiences of local people and make these known to Healthwatch England, helping it to carry out its role

• Be able to enter and view premises where health and social care services are provided and report on its findings and make recommendations to Healthwatch England to advise the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to carry out special reviews or investigations into areas of concern (Healthwatch Isle of Wight can also go directly to CQC if they have an urgent concern)

• Promote and support the involvement of people in the monitoring, commissioning and provision of local health and care services

• Obtain the views of people about their needs for and experiences of local health and social care services and make those views known to those involved in commissioning, providing and scrutinising these services locally. Healthwatch will be duty bound to be widely representative of the whole community including children and young people and those not always heard

• Make reports and recommendations about how those services could or should be improved and attend meetings of the Isle of Wight Health & Wellbeing Board to represent the voice of the community to inform strategic decisions being made about health and social care services for the Isle of Wight

iii) Support people who need help to make a complaint about NHS services*

• Provide, or at the very least, signpost people to advocacy support services for people who wish to complain about NHS services and need some help to do so. By advocacy we mean support to take action to help people say what they want, secure their rights, represent their interests and obtain services they need.

*This is specifically for complaints against NHS services which are currently provided through a central government contract and transfers to the responsibility of local authorities from April 2013. Advocacy support to make complaints about social care services is already carried out through independent local advocacy organisations via the local authority.

Isle of Wight Council Healthwatch Consultation Page 5 5 How will Healthwatch Isle of Wight carry out these functions?

During this summer, the Isle of Wight Council will begin to find an organisation that will take on the responsibilities and functions of local Healthwatch for the Island. The government has already indicated, through the new law, that this organisation must be set up as a social enterprise, a not-for-profit organisation i.e. a business that re-invests any money it makes into benefiting the community.

As a corporate body it will have its own independent legal status and be able to employ staff as well as enlist the support of volunteers. The new organisation must also not be any of the following organisations: a local authority; a National Health Service Trust; an NHS Foundation Trust; a Primary Care Trust or a Strategic Health Authority - so that it can independently represent the community.

The Department of Health has also indicated that the funding for the start up costs of local Healthwatch, together with funding for the various functions it will be expected to carry out, will be made available to local councils in 2012-13. These sums will be transferred to local authorities who are expected to ensure that local Healthwatch is “adequately funded and able to operate effectively”.

The precise amounts available to the Isle of Wight Council for Heathwatch Isle of Wight will not be known until the later this year, but Government has indicated the Island will receive around £170k-190k per year.

The government has also indicated that Healthwatch must: • carry out its functions in an independent and inclusive way, so that the whole community, particularly those whose voice might not otherwise be heard, can be involved in shaping and improving health and social care services; • promote and ensure that people are treated equally and without discrimination with particular regard to peoples’ age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation; • respond to formal requests for information in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act and apply certain standards in the way that it operates; • produce a publicly available annual report for each financial year setting out what it has achieved and how it has spent its public funding ensuring value for money.

The government is currently consulting a variety of groups to determine any other regulations that local Healthwatch must follow and will let local authorities know about these in due course. If you have any views about how Healthwatch Isle of Wight could work on the Island, we’re interested to hear them.

Isle of Wight Council Healthwatch Consultation Page 6 6 How can you tell us your views?

We want to make sure that we have listened to any views that you might have about Healthwatch so we can build this into our plans. In the Appendices attached to this document we’ve indicated some of the things we’d like your views on, based around the different functions of Healthwatch.

We’ve also assessed the impact we feel that local Healthwatch may have on local people in the community (see Appendix 4). Have we got that right? Is there anything you disagree with or would change?

Is there anything else you’d like to tell us about local Healthwatch and how you’d like to see it working on the Island? Have you any concerns about how this might work, or things you would want us to avoid if possible? Or anything you think may be an opportunity for Healthwatch Isle of Wight to address?

There are a number of ways in which you can tell us your thoughts and views:

1. You can complete our questionnaire online by visiting www.surveymonkey.com/s/6Q6K32M

2. You can fill in a paper version of our questionnaire, available in libraries, help centres, GP surgeries and children’s centres.

3. You can write to us with your thoughts by email to [email protected] or by post to Healthwatch Consultation, Consultation team, Floor 5, County Hall, Isle of Wight. PO30 1UD

Please let us have your thoughts and views no later than 16 July 2012

Isle of Wight Council Healthwatch Consultation Page 7 7 What happens next?

We’ll be listening to your thoughts and views over the next four weeks making a note of your feedback and comments. We will then summarise these into a report which we will publish on our website.

We will then begin our commissioning process which takes around 25 weeks to complete. A key part of this process will involve preparing an outline specification for local Healthwatch which sets out any requirements expected of anyone bidding to become the local Healthwatch organisation.

The feedback that you give us through this consultation will help inform that process and will help us ensure that we set out to commission something that fulfil the aims and visions for local Healthwatch as a strong voice for local people on health and social care issues.

To keep in touch with news and information about Healthwatch Isle of Wight visit our website: www.iwight.com/healthwatch

Isle of Wight Council Healthwatch Consultation Page 8 Appendix 1

Providing, information, advice and signposting

With the changes being made to health and social care services, people will have a greater choice of where and how they can access support and care.

Healthwatch Isle of Wight will need to play an important role in helping people find out the information and advice they need so that they know what choices are available and can make an informed decision about their care.

This information should be up to date, relevant, impartial and reliable so that people have the confidence to approach Healthwatch for information and advice. It should also be easy to access for anyone in the community who needs it.

We believe that people also need the confidence that those giving the advice have a good, in-depth knowledge of health and social care services available to Islanders and can deal with any enquiries sensitively and professionally.

Unlike the Local Involvement Network (LINk), which was required to only focus on issues that were raised collectively, Healthwatch will be required to deal with individual queries about health and social care issues.

Healthwatch will also take on responsibility for signposting people to information about health and social care services. This is one of the range of services currently provided by the NHS Patient Advice and Liaison Services (PALS) (which is known on the Isle of Wight as the Quality Team). Currently, there are a number of organisations on the Island that provide information and advice. Some provide a range of services directly themselves (eg the council and the NHS Trusts), others offer more specialist information eg voluntary support groups. Healthwatch Isle of Wight will need to understand what’s available and provide direct information and advice where it is possible or alternatively signpost people to the right organisations.

We’re interested to understand your views about:

• Whether you know where to go for information and advice about health and social care services at the moment?

• Who or where you go to currently?

• Whether you find this useful or not? What works? What needs improving?

• Whether you feel there are any gaps in the information and advice available?

• What you’d like to see in place?

• How and when you’d ideally like to be able to receive information and advice? (eg a telephone line, an office base where you could go and have a chat, a website where you could find and print off information you need?)

• Are there particular sorts of information and advice that you think you might need?

Isle of Wight Council Healthwatch Consultation Page 9 Appendix 2

Involving the whole community in helping to improve, influence and shape health and social care services for local people

The changes being made to health and social care services across the country are all designed to ensure that care services are centred on patients and users. Local Healthwatch will be expected to gather people’s views on, and experiences of, the health and social care system, whether they are existing users of those services or not.

People don’t always know who they can tell about their experiences, their concerns or their compliments. They also don’t always know what difference it will make if they do speak up. Healthwatch will be expected to demonstrate how it is involving everyone in the community and how it is influencing the way in which services are delivered at a local and a national level.

Healthwatch Isle of Wight will be expected to be embedded and fully networked into the community and be truly representative of that community. In particular it will need to work with people and groups who have a difficult time getting their voice(s) heard.

Its place on the Health and Wellbeing Board (a forum for key leaders from the health and social care systems on the Isle of Wight), will give it a powerful opportunity to influence decisions that are being made about local services and national policies and decisions- through its links with Healthwatch England.

We’re interested in your views about:

• Whether you’re aware of the Local Involvement Network (LINk) and its work? What does it do well? And how can we build on that in this its final year and as we develop Healthwatch? What could it improve on?

• Whether you’re already involved with the LINk or another community group dealing with health and social care issues?

• What interested you to get involved? Or if not, what would make you potentially interested in something new? – tell us about your experiences, good or bad

• How can local Healthwatch make the most of existing community and voluntary groups and networks on the Island? Is there anything that works really well that you’d like to see being a part of this?

• How would you like Healthwatch Isle of Wight to involve you/gather your views? (eg attend meetings or a drop-in session, answer surveys, volunteer, post your views on a website, anything else?

• What would encourage you to tell Healthwatch about their experiences or views?

• What reassurances would you need?

Isle of Wight Council Healthwatch Consultation Page 10 Appendix 3

Supporting people who need help to make a complaint about NHS services

The government has also asked local authorities to take responsibility for commissioning independent advocacy services for people who want to make a complaint about NHS services. The Department of Health currently has a contract with an organisation called ICAS (Independent Complaints Advisory Service) to provide specialised advocacy to individuals who wish to make a complaint about their NHS health and social care.

Put simply, advocacy is about taking action to help people say what they want, secure their rights, represent their interests and obtain services they need. In particular, it is designed to help people who lack the means or capacity to make choices or make their views known.

The type of advocacy provided can range from support in formal letter and email writing to assistance and support during meetings and hearings (where a complaint is heard and a decision made). The ICAS service for all local authorities in the Southampton, Hampshire, Isle of Wight and Portsmouth (SHIP) areas is currently provided by SEAP (Support, Empower, Advocate, Promote) but this will come to an end at the end of March 2013 and Isle of Wight Council will need to decide how it commissions an advocacy service for the local community.

Local authorities can ask its Healthwatch organisation to deliver this service or choose another organisation to do this. It is important though that this organisation is able to act independently of the NHS and the council. We have not made any decisions yet about whether this should be part of the services Healthwatch provides and would, therefore, like to hear your views.

We think it’s important that this organisation is equipped to perform this role with good knowledge of local services and is able to develop and support the confidence and capacity of service users to challenge and improve services, whilst maintaining a professional, sensitive and impartial approach.

We’re interested in hearing your views about:

• Whether you or members of your family have had to use advocacy services?

• What services you used? And what your experiences of these services were, both good and bad?

• What you would like to be available, should you ever need to use it?

• Whether you think it could/should be part of Healthwatch or whether it should be a separate service?

Isle of Wight Council Healthwatch Consultation Page 11 Appendix 4

Equality Impact Assessment

You can view the Equality Impact Assessment by visiting:

www.iwight.com/azservices/documents/ 2710-EIA%20Final%20first%20stage%20v%208%20Jun%202012.pdf

Isle of Wight Council Healthwatch Consultation Page 12