On 1 April 2013, local Healthwatch organisations became responsible for promoting the patient and public voice.
Local Healthwatch is directly commissioned by local authorities with commissioners potentially having a hands-on relationship. As a result, some concerns were raised about their independence being threatened, and that the local authority could prevent Healthwatch being overly critical of their services.
In response to this, Healthwatch England [2] and Regional Voices [3] have worked with Compact Voice to produce a guidance note, outlining how local Healthwatch can maintain their independence.
The guidance stresses the importance of independence and local Healthwatch maintaining a 'critical friend' approach with funders, and provides an overview of the tools available to ensure independence is upheld.
Download the guidance here [4] (PDF).