Croydon Local Involvement Network (LINk) - What is a LINk?

WHAT IS A LINk?

LINks are a network of people, organisations and groups from across the local area that wants to make health and social care services better. 

LINks have the potential to:

·        Provide a single approach to monitoring health and social care

·        Provide a stronger, more independent voice

·        Be more representative

·        Make community involvement more convenient

The role of a LINk is to:

·        Ask local people what they think of local health and social care and suggest improvements directly to the service providers

·        Look into specific issues , make recommendation and get a response

·        Ask for information and get answers in a specific amount of time

·        Be able to carry out spot checks to see if services are working well

·        Refer issues further if it seems action is not being taken

LINk objectives are to:

·        Give everyone the chance to say what they think about their local care services

·        Give people the chance to check how care services re planned and run

·        Feedback what people have said about services so that things can change for the better

LINk powers are to:

·        Get replies to requests for information or to reports and recommendations

·        Enter and view premises where publicly funded care is being provided

·        Refer issues to Overview and Scrutiny Committees and get responses

LINks have flexibility about how they undertake their role but the following principles should be common to all LINks:

·        Being open and inclusive

·        Reaching out to all communities, looking for and collecting evidence of their views

·        Being accessible to all, including those with full-time jobs, and others who may feel excluded and/or who might need support to participate

·        Recognising that tackling health inequalities, looking at public health issues and addressing the wider influencing factors of health are central to their role

·        A commitment to communicating the information they receive in a constructive way to service planners, commissioners and providers

·        Always feeding back responses and outcomes to the wider community