County Council takes key steps towards creating new LINk
Worcestershire County Council has appointed Shaw Trust to help provide residents with a brand new way of having a say and making a difference to health and social services in the county.The County Council has this month (April) signed a contract with the national charity to set up and help run the Worcestershire Local Involvement Network (LINk).
Each local authority in the country that provides social services is required by Government legislation to contract an organisation, known as a host, to set up and then run a LINk. Nationally, these hosts are expected to be in place by September this year.
Simon Adams, Head of Community Leadership at Worcestershire County Council, said: “We are delighted to have been able to appoint the Shaw Trust as the organisation to set up and support Worcestershire’s LINk because it has a wealth of experience for carrying out this role.
“Shaw Trust has a wealth of experience in carrying out this type of role. The new LINk will provide people with a stronger voice on how their health and social care services are delivered and build on our record of providing services that respond to what people want.
Mr Adams added: “The first steps towards establishing the LINk will be to recruit members and determine how it will run. It will then be a strong position to determine what Worcestershire’s priority health and social care issues are.”
Eddie Clarke, the County Council’s Director of Adult and Community Services, said: “From a social care perspective, this new arrangement will enable us to not just fulfil Government requirements, but work towards delivering services that are shaped by the people who use them. I welcome the establishment of the Worcestershire LINk and I am confident it will build on the excellent work of the PPI forums and other service user and carer groups across health and social care in the County”.
Lesley Knapton, Service Development Manager at Shaw Trust, which helps disabled and disadvantaged people achieve work and independence, said: “We are delighted that Worcestershire County Council has chosen our organisation to support the new LINk. Shaw Trust is all about enabling and empowering people to have a voice and to be heard - we do it every day with our clients in many parts of the country.
“Now we will be supporting the Worcestershire LINk we will be encouraging many more people to get involved in shaping the health services and the social care services they receive - either as patients, carers or users of services generally.”
Paul Bates, Chief Executive of the Worcestershire Primary Care Trust (PCT) said: "The PPI forums set a very high standard for public involvement in shaping health services. We need to build on their work and we look forward to working with this new organisation which will be able to provide us with effective information about what communities want from their health service."
The Worcestershire LINk will involve a wide range of people, groups and organisations from across the county.
Run by local individuals and groups with support from Shaw Trust, LINks are aimed at finding out what people want and to monitor local services. It is up to members of the community, with the support of its host, to decide how they want their LINk to be run and what issues they want to focus on.
LINks have powers to be able to enter certain health and social care premises and assess services, require information from service commissioners and providers, collect views of service users and expect responses when recommendations are made to committees and organisations about how things can be improved.
Individuals, groups and organisations interested in signing up to the link should visit http://www.communityvoicesonline.org. People wanting to find out more should call Carrie Chappell at the Shaw Trust on 07779 030554 or email carrie.chappell@shaw-trust.org.uk