Councils appoint Carers Federation to help local people have their say

The Carers Federation has been appointed to run Nottinghamshire and Nottingham’s Local Involvement Networks (LINks).

They will now be working hard to encourage local people who want to have their say on GP services, hospital food, cancer care, learning disability services, care homes or many other issues to join their local LINk to give their views and investigate services.

The LINks will be made up of local people, organisations and groups who want to improve their health and social care services. They will replace the previous system of Public and Patient Involvement Forums, which just covered health issues.

Nottinghamshire County Council and Nottingham City Council went through a joint tendering process and chose the organisation based on ability, knowledge and expertise in community engagement. They also showed a clear understanding of the demographic issues and the people living in both Nottinghamshire and Nottingham.

Councillor Glynn Gilfoyle, Cabinet Member for Community Safety and Partnerships at Nottinghamshire County Council, said: "We are pleased to appoint the Carers Federation to run our LINk. The LINks will give local people greater powers to investigate a range of issues that are important to them. The new system will also cover social care, so people can get involved in scrutinising the way care homes, learning disability services, home care and other services are run.

"Although we will now be passing the baton onto the Carers Federation to support the LINk in Nottinghamshire, we will still be involved in monitoring progress and ensuring that the LINk is working well."

People can be permanent LINk members or just dip in and out on particular issues and anyone is eligible to join. Information will be fed back to managers and people who buy services to help make improvements to care.

LINks will have a range of powers:

• if they ask for information from an organisation, they will get a reply within a set amount of time
• they will be able to visit services and talk to users and patients
• they can refer matters of concern to the County Council’s Overview and Scrutiny Committee, where councillors can investigate issues.

Kath Soanes, LINks Operations Manager at the Carers Federation, said “The Carers Federation is really delighted to be working in partnership with Nottinghamshire County Council and Nottingham City Council on this contract, and we are very much looking forward to using our expertise to work with the diverse and dynamic array of local communities. LINks provide a new and innovative way to enable local people to shape health and social care services to meet local need, and the Carers Federation looks forward to supporting local people to work together with partners to effect positive change on the ground."

Councillor Trimble, Portfolio of Community and Culture at Nottingham City Council, said: "Nottingham City Council is pleased to work with Carers Federation and Nottinghamshire County Council to help local people have a say in the Health and Social Care Services. The Local  Involvement Network will be an important way that people in Nottingham and Nottinghamshire can affect health and social care is delivered."