National Voices
LTCA is a member of the 'National Voices' working group, and is hosting these pages on behalf of the 'National Voices' working group.
'National Voices' will coordinate a network of voluntary sector organisations in England to provide a way for everyone whose lives are affected by national health and social care policy to have a say in shaping that policy.
Latest news
28th September 2007
The work of National Voices was the recent subject of a full page spread in Society Guardian, which was based upon an interview with Baroness Pitkeathley, the chair of the working group. To read the online version of the article, 'Timely Intervention', follow this link to the Guardian website
20th September 2007
Baroness Pitkeathley, chair of the National Voices working group recently wrote to all email contacts on the National Voices database to inform them of recent developments within our project. To read the letter in full, follow this link
Background on the National Voices project
In Autumn 2006, following support from the Department of Health, a working group, chaired by Baroness Delyth Morgan, produced a proposal to establish 'National Voices', a voluntary sector body whose membership would be open to all organisations concerned with health and social care in England. Inspired by a vision of transformation in national health and social care policy making, so that the needs and preferences of service users and carers are central, our aim is to provide a way for organisations created by people whose lives are affected by health and social care policy to have their voices heard. 'National Voices' is not about creating a single voice, but enabling and empowering a diversity of voices to become prominent in influencing national policy, including – importantly – those voices previously “seldom heard”. We are currently working towards launching this new ‘organisation of organisations’ in 2008.
To better understand the needs of stakeholders, an engagement exercise was carried out involving about 400 organisations in the voluntary sector, which led to the publication of a second, more developed proposal document that was warmly welcomed by health minister Rosie Winterton MP. The proposal trailed our plans to influence policy making by working with the National Health Service, Social Care, and other government departments and national bodies - enabling effective communication amongst all parties. Functions would include signposting government departments and ministers to relevant specialised knowledge and offering a range of services to support its members. The document also laid out the organisation’s guiding principles, namely, that ‘National Voices’ will be
- Open and transparent
- Inclusive and diverse
- Facilitative and enabling
- Based on shared ownership and shared learning
- Equitable
Following publication of the second proposal document, and Delyth Morgan's appointment to the Government Whip's Office, Baroness Jill Pitkeathley took over as Chair of the Working Group. We employed two part-time, temporary staff members and consultants with specialised knowledge. They have been working on a comprehensive business proposal and a governance framework. We believe that 'National Voices' will be successful if service user involvement becomes prerequisite to policy making, and no policy or strategic decision can emerge without voluntary sector engagement. It is expected that 'National Voices' will champion the interests of service users, patients and carers and in so doing, provide them with a complementary and co-ordinated voice for effective and useful decision-making in health and social care.
For more information about 'National Voices', contact nationalvoices@ltca.org.uk
For a list of members of the working group, click here
Download the 'National Voices' Proposal (PDF format 750kB)
Download the original 'National Voices' Proposition Document(PDF format, 756kB)
You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view these documents. If you have difficulty reading PDFs and would prefer this information in another format, please e-mail nationalvoices@ltca.org.uk