§ Mr. Jim CunninghamTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on the role of local councils following the abolition of community health councils. [144193]
§ Ms StuartThe democratic deficit in the National Health Service has long been recognised. In future, democratically elected councillors will take on from community health councils the important function of scrutinising local NHS service through local authority overview and scrutiny committees (OSCs)
The provisions that give local authority OSCs the new powers to scrutinise the NHS are contained within the Health and Social Care Bill, which is currently before Parliament. The Bill will enable the OSC to scrutinise and review the operation, management and development of the NHS bodies within its area, it will then make reports and recommendations of those NHS bodies based on the results of that scrutiny.
The aim of the new scrutiny arrangements is to allow flexibility and to enable the building of local authority scrutiny models that are fit for ensuring that the NHS is scrutinised rigorously, and that scrutiny is democratically accountable to the local population.