Navca, Community Service Volunteers, National Voices and Regional Voices have come together to promote participation in the new local Healthwatch initiatives, set to launch in April.

The four major charity bodies have united under the banner 'Healthwatch - Communities Involved' to encourage local communities to get involved with the new Healthwatch "consumer champions". From April there will be 152 local Healthwatches set up, one in every city and county council in England, with the power to hold local health and social care services to account.

Communities Involved has been set up with funding from the Department of Health. It will begin its work by inviting individuals and groups interested in being involved in Healthwatch to declare their interest online and mapping interest before connecting local Healthwatch groups with these people. It will also host a series of free workshops across the country in a bid to boost confidence to get involved. Later it will provide free training for Healthwatch members and a range of free materials to assist understanding. 

Oonagh Aitken, CSV's director of social action and volunteering said on behalf of Communities Involved: "Our organisations welcome the opportunity to work in partnership on such a fundamental issue - the role that local people can play in shaping their services. 

"The changes in the health and care system must be driven by the needs and preferences of local people. So to help people get involved we will help them to get their voices heard by the new organisations in charge of our health and social care services."

Healthwatch England was set up by the government as part of an effort to change health and social care services. It aims to drive change with local branches identifying the issues directly affecting people, and then analysing this information to identify trends. It aims to inform policy and care provision by the producing reports of its findings. Healthwatch will also be statutorily obliged to report knowledge of failing services to key national organisations such as the Care Quality Commission which must then submit a public response to these concerns.

The formation of Communities Involved follows similar funding for a coalition of healthcare charities set up to get the most vulnerable and hard to reach groups involved in Healthwatch.

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