The Local Involvement Network

We are one of the 150 local authorities in England with responsibility for social services who are being funded by the Department of Health to help set up a Local Involvement Network (LINk) in Kent.

LINks will replace patient and public involvement forums, which currently cover health care issues. Their remit will also include social care. Patient and public involvement forums will be abolished in March 2008.

LINks will be independent from Kent County Council and the NHS.

They will collect and represent the views of all of the different groups and people who live in Kent. They will not take over from existing groups, but will make it easier for the groups to have their say about local health and social care services.

The role of the LINk will be to:

• give people the chance to tell health and social care providers what they think about their local care services - what is working well and what is not so good
• give people the chance to check up on how health and social care services are planned and run and register any concerns
• provide feedback on what people have said about health and social care services so things can be changed for the better

Some of the LINk's powers will be to:

• make reports and recommendations and get a reply within a set amount of time
• ask for information and get a reply within a set amount of time
• go into some types of services and see what they do
• tell an Overview and Scrutiny Committee what they have found and get a response