Members of NCVO, Acevo and Navca met yesterday to give their thoughts on the Health and Social Care Bill to the NHS Future Forum.

Chaired by Sir Stephen Bubb (pictured), the NHS Future Forum’s lead representative on ‘choice and competition’, the meeting was designed to feed into the Forum’s report to the Prime Minister and the Secretary for Health due at the end of this month.

A turnout of 33 considered questions such as the role competition can play in improving health outcomes, how accountability could be structured, how citizens can take part in decision-making and how the voluntary sector can play the most effective role.

The event will also help inform a report being drawn up by the King’s Fund entitled The voluntary and community sector in health: Implications of the proposed NHS reforms, which will be released in June.

Working on the basis that the proposed reforms will be implemented in full, the report will assess the role of the voluntary and community sector (VCS) and attempt to trigger debate about how the reforms might be approached.

It incorporates findings from seminars held by NCVO, the King’s Fund and Acevo last year which were attended by NHS, local authority and VCS leaders.