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Health and Social Care Bill

Local involvement networks are the Government's proposed solution to public and patient involvement. If they are as good as they are cracked up to be, and are to deliver all that the Government claim, why does the Minister not accept the amendments, which would strengthen the role of LINks? Are the Government not 100 per cent. convinced that LINks will prove an effective system? The Select Committee on Health looked into LINks and public and patient involvement, and it was apparent that, despite the expertise of the range of experts who came to speak to us, there was no clear idea about the final structure of LINks and how they would work in practice, or even what their functions would be. There was disappointment that some of the functions of the old CHCs were missing. That could be explained by the mantra that we want local solutions and that they will be different in different areas. I subscribe to that point of view to some extent. However, I was struck by the uncertainty about how LINks would work. In the next couple of years, while the networks find their way, it could be said that we face a democratic deficit. Perhaps the Minister can reassure us that our concerns about how LINks will work are unfounded and that they genuinely are the best thing since sliced bread. If they are, there is no reason for not accepting the amendments.