Participation Works

The Health and Social Care Bill entered its final stages in the House of Lords on 8 February. Several children and young people's organisations have come together to urge Peers to make sure that children and young people themselves have a voice in shaping the health service.

15 organisations, including the National Children's Bureau (NCB), the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health and the Participation Works partnership are backing amendments to the Bill to make explicit that new local HealthWatch organisations and HealthWatch England, which are being set up to give people a say on their local health and social care services, must engage specifically with children and young people and not just adults and older people as they have done previously.

In a joint briefing (below) the group highlights evidence of the exclusion of children and young people's voices in the NHS, including a report by NCB that found that Local Involvement Networks, the immediate predecessors to local HealthWatch, did not always understand that engaging with children was part of their official remit, and when they did, the young people had limited involvement in setting the organisation's agenda.

The group also calls on the government to take further proactive steps to ensure children and young people's involvement, including:

• Developing and disseminating guidance for Local HealthWatch organisations on effective engagement with children, drawing on pathfinders' experiences.
• Conducting a review into how HealthWatch England and Local HealthWatch have involved children in their work, two years after commencement.
• Appointing a champion for children within HealthWatch England to oversee this work and to drive forward standards on children's engagement in decision-making.

Zoe Renton, head of policy at NCB, said: "Government must be clear from the start that patient and public involvement in the health services really includes children and young people. It needs to be more than a nod in that direction, naming children and young people is essential. National leadership and support for local HealthWatch on this issue will be key to enabling children and young people's views to be heard."

Thu, 09/02/2012 - 15:23