Sharing ideas and experiences helps make services more suited to what people need. Along with other types of patient involvement, such as Patient Participation Groups (PPGs), or foundation trust memeberships, LINks allow health and social care providers to understand what people think about the services they deliver.
Acting on public feedback
LINks provide useful information about what the people who use services want and the issues that matter to them. This information can be used to help health and social care providers to plan and develop new and existing services in their area.
Improving services, strengthening relationships
LINks aim to improve existing services and to highlight gaps in service provision. They seek to update and amend established systems rather than changing them unnecessarily or finding fault without offering a solution.
Through LINks, health and social care providers:
- Seek and listen to the views of more people in their community.
- Provide better feedback about what people need and want.
- Engage the whole community.
- Avoid duplication of effort.
- Make more informed decisions about the commissioning and running of services.
LINks' influence
A LINk covers all the publicly funded health and adult social care services in a local authority area. The only services that are excluded are children’s social services.
By joining a LINk, members of the public have more power than they would individually. LINks can:
- Request information from health and social care commissioners about their services and expect a response.
- Issue reports or make recommendations about a service and expect a response from commissioners.
- Refer matters to the local council’s health overview and scrutiny committee.
- Visit certain services and view the care provided.
You can read more about LINks' legislation and regulations on the Department of Health website.
