Barnet LINk & Barnet Healthwatch THE WAY AHEAD

WHAT IS A LINK?  Group of individuals & community groups acting together as an independent Local Involvement Network to improve health & social care services.  Barnet LINk is supported by a small ‘Host’ staff team in CommUNITY Barnet, funded by the London Borough of Barnet.

WHAT DOES A LINK DO?  Find out what local people like or dislike about local health & social care services.  Feed in the information to those who plan & run the services  Form recommendations for better services that reflect the local needs  Follow up on recommendations.

DOES A LINK HAVE ANY TEETH? LINks have legal rights:  To information from health & social care providers/planners with right to response  To ‘enter & view’ facilities to view services with right to response to recommendations  To make reports & recommendations based on findings with right to response.  To refer issues of concern to Barnet scrutiny committee with right to response

‘ENTER & VIEW’ Visits to health/adult social care premises to:  Find out service users’ views & experiences  Check out standards of care & environment  Recommend improvements

CHANGES AHEAD – GOVERNMENT PLANS  Change the LINK into Local Healthwatch  Set up Healthwatch England  All Local Healthwatches to work with & be advised by Healthwatch England  Systematic monitoring of Local Healthwatch findings to influence national planning of services  Healthwatch England to act nationally on what Local Healthwatch finds out & speak out for patients at government level

LOCAL HEALTHWATCH AS LINK + Local Healthwatch will have all the roles & powers of LINk plus new roles:  Advising local people about services & their choices (NHS Constitution)  Reporting on their local findings to Healthwatch England (HWE)  Recommending special investigations by national health & social care Regulator (Care Quality Commission) if needed

FROM BARNET LINK TO BARNET HEALTHWATCH Action plan to get ready for Healthwatch  Training on Enter & View  Work on 2 issues (1 each health/social care) with new & existing members  LINk Governance review  Publicise the LINk  Work with GPs & others on NHS reforms

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?  LINK will set up 2 Task & Finish Groups  1 for each of 2 top issues  Groups will - be supported by CommUNITY Barnet - meet every few weeks - finish in 3-6 months depending on topic :

The Task 1. Find out views & experiences of service users/patients 2. Visit the service 3. Find out how Barnet service performs compared to rest of the country 4. Prepare a Report from findings & recommend improvements 5. Follow up with service provider who must respond to recommendations.

TYPES OF HEALTH SERVICES 1  ‘PRIMARY CARE’ GPs, Dentists, Pharmacists Opticians  ‘COMMUNITY SERVICES’ District Nurses, Health Visitors, Midwives, Dieticians, Speech Therapists, Physiotherapists, Family Planning, Wheelchair Services, Drug & Alcohol services  ‘HOSPITAL SERVICES’ local district hospitals covering all types of care inc. maternity & specialist hospitals e.g. Great Ormond St. ‘

TYPES OF HEALTH SERVICES 2  AMBULANCE SERVICES’ emergency ambulance services (London Ambulance Service) & Patient Transport services.  ‘MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES’ community mental health teams, primary care mental health workers, crisis services, psychiatrists, psychologists,, outreach workers & care of people admitted to mental health units  ‘LEARNING DISABILITY SERVICES’ health support & health treatment for people with learning disability (e.g. autism)

SOCIAL CARE For vulnerable people e.g. Young People, Older people, carers, people with a physical disability, learning disability, dementia, eating disorder, other mental health problem or who People who misuse drug or alcohol

TYPES OF SOCIAL CARE  CARE HOMES  PAID CARERS AND SUPPORT AT HOME  CARER SUPPORT (Respite care at home or outside the home)  DAY CENTRES

GROUP WORK  What do you think needs improving in Barnet’s NHS?  What do you think needs investigating in Barnet’s NHS?  What do you think needs improving in Barnet’s social care?  What do you think needs investigating in Barnet’s social care?

INVITATION TO YOU….