Part 14E+WPatient and public involvement in health and social care

[F1Local arrangements]E+W

221Health services and social servicesF2...E+W

(1)Each local authority must make contractual arrangements for the purpose of ensuring that there are means by which the activities specified in subsection (2) for the local authority's area can be carried on in the area.

(2)The activities for a local authority's area are—

(a)promoting, and supporting, the involvement of [F3local] people in the commissioning, provision and scrutiny of local care services;

(b)enabling [F3local] people to monitor for the purposes of their consideration of matters mentioned in subsection (3), and to review for those purposes, the commissioning and provision of local care services;

(c)obtaining the views of [F3local] people about their needs for, and their experiences of, local care services; F4...

(d)making—

(i)views such as are mentioned in paragraph (c) known, and

(ii)reports and recommendations about how local care services could or ought to be improved,

to persons responsible for commissioning, providing, managing or scrutinising local care services [F5and to the Healthwatch England committee of the Care Quality Commission.].

[F6(e)providing advice and information about access to local care services and about choices that may be made with respect to aspects of those services;

(f)reaching views on the matters mentioned in subsection (3) and making those views known to the Healthwatch England committee of the Care Quality Commission;

(g)making recommendations to that committee to advise the Commission about special reviews or investigations to conduct (or, where the circumstances justify doing so, making such recommendations direct to the Commission);

(h)making recommendations to that committee to publish reports under section 45C(3) of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 about particular matters; and

(i)giving that committee such assistance as it may require to enable it to carry out its functions effectively, efficiently and economically.]

(3)The matters referred to in subsection (2)(b) [F7and (f)] are—

(a)the standard of provision of local care services;

(b)whether, and how, local care services could be improved;

(c)whether, and how, local care services ought to be improved.

[F8(3A)A person to whom views are made known or reports or recommendations are made under subsection (2)(d) must, in exercising any function relating to care services, have regard to the views, reports or recommendations.]

[F9(3B)Each local authority must ensure that only one set of arrangements under subsection (1) in relation to its area is in force at any one time.]

(4)The Secretary of State may by regulations amend this section for the purpose of adding to the activities for the time being specified in subsection (2).

(5)Before making regulations under this section, the Secretary of State must consult such persons as the Secretary of State considers appropriate.

(6)In this section—

• “care services” means—

  (a)

  services provided as part of the health service in England; or

  (b)

  services provided as part of the social services functions of a local authority;

• “local care services”, in relation to a local authority, means—

  (a)

  care services provided in the authority's area; and

  (b)

  care services provided, in any place, for people from the area;

• [F10“local people”, in relation to a local authority, means—

  (a)

  people who live in the local authority's area,

  (b)

  people to whom care services are being or may be provided in that area,

  (c)

  people from that area to whom care services are being provided in any place, and

  who are (taken together) representative of the people mentioned in paragraphs (a) to (c);]

• “the health service” has the same meaning as in the National Health Service Act 2006 (c. 41);

• “social services functions”, in relation to a local authority, has the same meaning as in the Local Authority Social Services Act 1970 (c. 42).