The recent reforms to the NHS in England are some of the biggest in history. You could hardly have missed the debate, but working out what it means for people using health services can be a little more difficult. That’s more than can be covered in one blog – but one of the biggest changes has been shifting decision making about what health and social care money gets spent on (i.e. commissioning) to a local level.
Not the sexiest of blog subjects, but if I didn’t lose you at the word ‘commissioning’, read on to see how you can help decide what health and care pounds get spent on in your local area...
Most of the NHS Reform changes have been quite controversial, and many were pretty unpopular. One exception is the creation of Health and Wellbeing Boards. These are new groups that every upper tier and unitary local authority should have put in place by 1 April. This means there will be about 152 of them across England.
Health and Wellbeing Boards bring together commissioners such as elected local councillors, GPs from the new Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs), and representatives from adult social care, children’s services and public health. But most importantly, their membership will also include patients and the public – as represented by local Healthwatch - a new consumer champion body (replacing the Local Involvement Networks LINKS).
The idea is that Health and Wellbeing Boards enable commissioners and patient representatives from a local area to jointly decide what local health and wellbeing issues should be prioritised. Together they will carry out a Joint Strategic Needs Assessment - a summary of the needs of the local population. They will then be tasked with agreeing a Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy, which will set the direction for how local budgets will be used to improve the population’s health and wellbeing.
This is a new way of commissioning health and care services, and potentially a very exciting one if it works (well exciting for policy geeks like me anyway).
Which means Macmillan is keen to ensure Health and Wellbeing Boards have cancer firmly on their agenda. In particular, the aspects of cancer care that aren’t often well provided for – i.e. supporting people to recover well, get back to work, hobbies or socialising, be financially secure, and generally return to normality.
So we’ll be working hard to make sure cancer stays on the agenda of Health and Wellbeing Boards. Given there are over 150 of them, this will be no easy feat! We’ll be doing this through engagement by our locally based Service Development Teams.
But you can have your say too. If you’re interested in letting your Health and Wellbeing Board know what they should prioritise in your local area, here are a few ways to consider getting involved.
Have you engaged with your local Health and Wellbeing Board? Are you already a member of your local Healthwatch group? Or is this something you would consider doing? We'd be interested to hear what your experience has been, or whether you have any tips for others considering getting involved.
