Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007

221 Health services and social services: local involvement networks

(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 people in the commissioning, provision and scrutiny of local care services;

(b) enabling 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 people about their needs for, and their experiences of, local care services; and

(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.

(3) The matters referred to in subsection (2)(b) 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.

(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;

• “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).