Local Involvement Networks (LINks) Bulletin 
Issue 1 – March 2007 
Gateway reference 7925 
About this bulletin 
This bulletin is for all: 
-NHS staff working on Patient 
& Public Involvement 
programmes; 
-Local Government staff 
working on user involvement 
programmes and the 
procurement of host 
organisations for LINks; 
-Voluntary and community 
sector organisations who are 
interested in providing a 
‘host’ service to the new 
LINks or becoming a member 
of a LINk, including those 
that provide forum support 
services; 
-Current PPI Patients’ Forum 
members; and 
-Health and social care 
regulatory bodies with PPI 
interests. 
We would ask that you forward the 
bulletin to all members of your team 
who may benefit from this 
information. You may wish to print 
and display this bulletin on all 
relevant notice boards or arrange to 
have it published on your internal 
intranet sites. 
Feedback 
We welcome your ideas and 
comments that will shape the format 
and content of this bulletin in the 
future. The next edition will be 
published in April 2007. Please e-
mail ppimailbox@dh.gsi.gov.uk or 
write to the PPI Policy Team, Room 
502A, Skipton House, 80 London 
Road, London SE1 6LH. 
Introduction 

Welcome to this first monthly edition of the 
Local Involvement Networks (LINks) Bulletin, 
keeping you up to date with developments on 
LINks. We are still at the very early stages of 
introducing this new system. The 
establishment of LINks forms part of the Local 
Government and Public Involvement in Health 
Bill, currently under consideration by the 
House of Commons. The establishment of 
LINks is still subject to the passage of 
legislation, as a result we cannot give a 
definitive time scale for establishment at the 
moment. We will ensure you are kept up to 
date with progress as the Bill moves through 
Parliament and will of course inform you once 
we are able to “set a date” for LINks’ 
establishment. 

We would like the transition from old to new to 
be as smooth and as straightforward as 
possible. This newsletter is intended to keep all 
stakeholders and interested parties aware of 
the progress being made towards the 
establishment of LINks, and will provide helpful 
tips and advice about gearing up for LINks and 
how to get involved in preparation both locally 
and nationally. 

Website links 

If you are reading a printed copy of the bulletin, 
you may not be aware that further information is 
available on most items. If you go to the online 
version of the bulletin you can access links to 
further information at the click of a button. It is 
available at http://www.dh.gov.uk/ 
PolicyAndGuidance/OrganisationPolicy/ 
PatientAndPublicInvolvement/index.htm 

You will also be able to access further 
background information about LINks on our 
website and access key documents such as A 
Stronger Local Voice published in July 2006 and 
the Government response document published in 
December 2006. 


Voice piece 
Harry Cayton – National Director of Patients and the Public, Department of Health 

I am pleased to be able to contribute to this 
important newsletter and to highlight the 
opportunities the introduction of the new local 
involvement networks (LINks) will bring to current 
health and social care systems. LINks will be 
powerful advocates for the views that they gather 
and will help to provide higher quality services for 
their local populations. They will aspire to be a 
stronger and more influential local voice of the 
health and social care service user. 

LINks will enable genuine involvement for a far greater number of people 
than is currently available, 

I know the ultimate purpose of user and public involvement is to underpin the 
production of improved services, which better satisfy the needs and wants of users of 
services. Patients, carers and users of services are the real experts in the care they 
need and want, their input is therefore essential if services are to be tailored to their 
needs, to create a user led health and social care system. I believe it is also essential 
to involve users, as well as the groups that represent them, in the commissioning 
decisions that are taken, to ensure they have input into what services are provided in 
any locality. This should create local ownership and support for services. 

The establishment of LINks fits with the overarching themes of the Local Government 
and Public Involvement in Health Bill – ensuring greater opportunities for local people 
to influence and shape services in their area and help local authorities, Primary Care 
Trusts and service providers become more accountable to people. The inclusion of 
these provisions tell a coherent story of the government’s efforts to promote public 
engagement. 

LINks will be powerful advocates for the views that they gather and will 
help to provide higher quality services for their local populations. 

LINks will enable genuine involvement for a far greater number of people than is 
currently available, ensuring local communities have a stronger voice in the 
process of commissioning not only health, but social care services and enabling them to 
influence key decisions about the services they both use and pay for. 

You can begin to engage with those people and organisations in your area that will 
have a direct role to play in the establishment of LINks. You can make contact with a 
local Early Adopter pilot site and see how they are doing with their planning and see if 
there are any lessons you can learn. We plan to hold regional events over the next few 
months, following on from the outcomes of the national event held on 13th December in 
London. Information about the regional events can be obtained from the Commission 
for Patients and Public Involvement in Health at helpdesk@cppih.org or on 0845 
1207111. 

I want to wish you all the very best of luck with your planning processes and hope the 
information we provide goes some way in clarifying your role within the LINks system. 


TOP STORY - “Gearing up for LINks” 

Key Facts 

We know that there are differing degrees of awareness about LINks and many individual 
stakeholders and organisations have raised concerns about this. 

Here is a summary of key facts about the new LINks: 

-It will be the responsibility of local authorities to make arrangements for the 
establishment of LINks by contracting with a ‘host’ which in turn will put in place 
arrangements to attract people to participate in and form the LINk; 

-the Department of Health will make targeted grants available to local authorities 
to enable them to fund the establishment of LINks through the procurement of 
the ‘host’;

 
- 
The amounts made in these targeted grants will be made public; 
- 
LINks will be open to all, there will not be any set membership; 
-LINks will have the power to determine what areas of work they focus on, within 
their statutory functions which will be:

 
o 
promoting and supporting the involvement of people in the commissioning, 
provision and scrutiny of local care services; 
o 
obtaining the views of people about their needs for, and experiences of, local 
care services and making these views known to people responsible for 
commissioning, providing, managing or scrutinising those services;

 
o 
making reports and recommendations about how local care services could be 
improved, to people responsible for commissioning, providing, managing or 
scrutinising those services. 
- 
LINks will have a set of ‘powers’ which will enable them to: 

o 
enter specified types of premises and view the services provided as well as 
collecting the views and experiences of recipients of services; 
o 
request information and receive a response within a specified timescale; 
o 
make reports and recommendations and receive a response within a 
specified timescale; and, 
o 
refer matters to the relevant Overview and Scrutiny Committee (OSC) and 
receive a response. 
-LINks, directed by their governance structure, and the decision making process it has 
put in place, will have the power to focus on issues which are of concern to the local 
community; 

-LINks and Overview and Scrutiny Committees (OSCs) will need to work closely 
together, but will remain independent of each other; 

-for LINks to be effective they will need to be inclusive and draw on a wide range 
of views and inputs; 


-LINks will need to develop close working relationships with commissioners and 
providers, to enable them to perform a role of critical friend; 

-To enable them to make a headstart with the process, encourage people and 
organisations to start to develop ways of working locally which can foster the 
development of LINks early . 

NEWS IN BRIEF 

Legislation update 

The primary legislation to establish LINks is currently being considered by Parliament. 
Over the next few months the provisions in the Local Government and Public 
Involvement in Health Bill will receive considerable scrutiny and it will not be until the 
Bill receives Royal Assent later this year that we can be sure of the final arrangements 
for LINks. However, we do think it important that in the meantime all those who may be 
involved in making them a reality begin to think through how they might play their part. 
The Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Bill was introduced in the 
House of Commons on Tuesday 12th December 2006. As well as the provision for the 
establishment of LINks, the Bill also: 

-makes provisions with respect to local government and the functions and
procedures of local authorities and certain other authorities;


-makes provisions with respect to persons with functions of inspection and audit 
in relation to local government; 

-establishes the Valuation Tribunal for England; 

-will abolish Patients’ Forums and the Commission for Patient and Public 
Involvement in Health; and 

-strengthens and updates the duties on health service bodies to consult the 
public. 

You may wish to follow the stages of this Bill by logging on to: 

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/pabills/200607/ 
local_government_and_public_involvement_in_health.htm 

Health Select Committee investigation in to PPI 

On 2nd November 2006, the Health Select Committee issued a press notice informing us 
that it would be undertaking a short inquiry into public and patient involvement in the 
NHS. The inquiry started in January 2007. 

Amongst the matters the committee has considered are: 
· The purpose of public and patient involvement 
· The proposed establishments of Local Involvement Networks (LINks): their powers 

and make-up 
· Public consultation over changes to services in both primary and acute sectors 
(Section 11 of the Health and Social Care Act 2001) 


The committee has heard evidence from key stakeholders including the Commission for 
Patient and Public Involvement in Health, a number of Patient Forum members, Healthlink, 
the NHS Confederation, the Health and Social Care regulators, Harry Cayton, National 
Director of Patients and the Public, Meredith Vivian, Head of Responsiveness and 
Accountability Branch as well as the Minister with responsibility for Patient and Public 
Involvement, the Rt Hon Rosie Winterton, Minister for Health Services. 

Transcripts of the proceedings from this investigation and other relevant information are 
available on the Parliamentary website at: 

http://www.parliament.uk/parliamentary_committees/health_committee.cfm 

The Committee hopes to report on its findings just after Easter. 

‘Getting Ready for LINks’ National event held in London on 13th December 

On 13th December 2006 the ‘Getting Ready for LINks’ national conference was held at 
the London Paddington Hilton Hotel. This event was organised to explore in detail the 
development of Local Involvement Networks (LINks) and provide clarity to those 
stakeholders present on the arrangements needed to be in place once Patients’ Forums 
and the Commission for Patient and Public Involvement in Health (CPPIH) come to an 
end. 

The conference, chaired by the Consumers’ Association Principal Policy Adviser, 
Frances Blunden, attracted an audience of over 150 people, made up of those main 
stakeholder groups who will be involved, or have a direct impact on the formation of the 
new LINks; namely from local government, the NHS, non-profit sector, and patient and 
public involvement forum members. 

Speakers at the event, included Harry Cayton, the National Director for Patients and the 
Public; Meredith Vivian, the head of the responsiveness and accountability branch at 
the Department of Health who leads on the overall patient and public involvement policy 
agenda, and the Minister of State for Health Services, the Rt. Hon. Rosie Winterton MP 
who addressed the conference with a strategic overview of why there is a need for 
changes in the system and why LINks. 

For a detailed write-up of this event, please go to http://www.dh.gov.uk/PolicyAndGuidance/ 
OrganisationPolicy/PatientAndPublicInvolvement/index.htm 

Planning for similar regional events 

The feedback from the 13th December event was very positive, and there is an evident 
thirst for more detail on the proposals . Following this event, DH, CPPIH and other 
partners are organising a series of nine regional conferences. These will be more 
workshop focused and will build on the key themes highlighted in London – 
governance, membership, resourcing, activities & accountability. 

Information about the regional event nearest to you can be obtained from the Commission 
for Patients and Public Involvement in Health at helpdesk@cppih.org or on 0845 1207111. 


In November 2006, The Rt Hon Rosie Winterton, Minister of State for Health Services 
wrote to all Chief Executives of Local Authorities with Social Care responsibilities 
introducing LINks. In that letter, she requested all Local Authorities to submit a named 
contact for the procurement of LINks. We will be working closely with the named 
contacts so you are kept up-to-date with progress. 
This serves as a reminder to all Local Authorities who have not yet submitted their 
named contact to do so. The names can be emailed to Florella Baker at the following 
address: 
e-mail: florella.baker@dh.gsi.gov.uk 

Early Adopter Projects – Update 

CPPIH EAP Background and Progress Update 

The Commission for Patient and Public Involvement in Health (CPPIH) is managing 
seven early adopter projects (EAPs) on behalf of the consortium comprising DH, the 
Health Care Commission, the NHS Centre for Involvement, Care Services Improvement 
Partnership, Centre for Public Scrutiny and the Commission itself, to test out the LINks 
concept in a variety of deliberately chosen local environments. The projects are located 
in County Durham, Doncaster, City of Manchester, Hertfordshire, London Borough of 
Kensington & Chelsea, Medway and Dorset. These areas have been chosen because 
they represent a mix of, inner urban, urban and rural communities, contrasts between 
wealth and deprivation, ethnically diverse and relatively homogenous populations and 
so on. They also represent a geographic spread across England. CPPIH has 
appointed Transition Co-ordinators to manage the EAPs. There is also a substantial 
time commitment from CPPIH’s four Area Directors and from the Executive Director of 
Operations & PPI. 

In addition the Healthcare Commission has two existing projects in Leeds/Bradford and 
south west England which are being managed as EAPs as part of the LINks project. 

The NHS Centre for Involvement is working with the Centre for Patient and Public 
Involvement in Health and the Health Care Commission to evaluate the EAP sites. 
The purpose of the EAPs is to work with a wide range of local stakeholders to 
interrogate the LINks idea by asking hard questions and then applying this learning to 
the new PPI process so that, assuming parliamentary approval, it can hit the ground 
running. 

Work began on the EAPs in November 2006 and the Transition Co-ordinators came into 
post on January 1 2007. As of the end of January 2007 all of the CPPIH led EAPs are 
progressing well and to plan. We will provide a further update next month with details 
of early progress and learning. 

Stakeholders may wish to contact their local Commission for Patient and Public Involvement in 
Health (CPPIH) Area Directors or the project manager overseeing the Early Adopter projects, 
Stephanie Varah. 

Relevant contact details are as follows: 

CPPIH Area Director for North Region – Sally Young 


E-mail: Sally.Young@cppih.org 

CPPIH Area Director for West Region - Paul Siddall 

E-mail: Paul.Siddall@cppih.org 

CPPIH Area Director for East Region – Bernadette Beckett 

E-mail: Bernadette.Beckett@cppih.org 

CPPIH Area Director for South Region – Jessie Cunnett 

E-mail: Jessie.Cunnett@cppih.org 

Early Adopters Project Manager - Stephanie Varah 

E-mail: stephanie@varah.plus.com 

National Lead for CPPIH Early Adopter Projects & Transition activity and Executive Director of 
Operations and PPI - Leslie Forsyth 

E-mail: leslie.forsyth@cppih.org