The government's plans for health and care services

Today, the government published their health and care plans for the next two years, as part of The Queen's Speech. Health and social care is not an area of focus, but the following commitments were mentioned, either in the speech or the accompanying press release:

Consultation on social care reform

The Government plans to publish a consultation on social care reform. The consultation will set out options to improve the social care system and to put it on a more secure financial footing, supporting people, families and communities to prepare for old age. They want to address issues related to the quality of care and variation in practice.

Mental health reform

The Government wants to reform mental health legislation to make sure that mental health is prioritised in the NHS.

Patient Safety Bill

The government will introduce a draft Patient Safety Bill to set out a framework to help improve patient safety in the NHS. The Bill will bring forward proposals to establish the Health Service Safety Investigation Body in statute, giving it clear powers to conduct independent and impartial investigations into patient safety risks in the NHS in England.

What we will do

As a local Healthwatch, we aim to make your voice count at a national, as well as at a local level. Our role is about making sure services are shaped by people's needs. We listen to people's experiences of using local health and care services, and share these with the organisations who can make service change happen.

We will be interested to see how the proposed changes will be developed on a local basis, and we will use your stories to help influence where we can. 

For previous consultations, or on issues we have wanted to raise, we have:

• Promoted consultation opportunities to local people, especially those who are less likely to get involved in feeding back their opinions.
• Formally responded to consultations, using our local knowledge and understanding of services to help us do this.
• Talked to local MPs and prepared briefing papers for them about issues local people have raised with us, for example young people's mental health services. 
• Formally raised issues with Healthwatch England, our national body, so they can then raise them with the people who are responsible for national policy decisions. 

Get in touch if you want to share a story of care, or find out more about how we work to influence health and care services.  You can call our us on 0330 055 1285*, email us at enquiries@healthwatchcambridgeshire.co.uk or leave your feedback online. 

*This is a local rate call number.