Local Involvement Networks (LINks)

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From April 2008 Local Involvement Networks (LINks) will be the new way for people who live in The Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames to have their say about health and social care services.

A Local Involvement Network (LINk)  will be a broad network made up of individuals and organisations from the community and voluntary sectors within the Borough.  The LINk will enable local people to influence local care services, from planning right through to service delivery.  Membership of the LINk will be open to all local user groups, voluntary and community organisations and residents with an interest in health and social care.  The LINk will be independent of the local authority and the NHS.  It will be run by local people and will decide its own agenda.  

The LINk will be supported by an independent ‘host organisation’. The Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames has appointed the Kingston Citizens Advice Bureau as the host organisation to support and develop the Kingston LINk.

What will the LINk do?

The job of a LINk is to:

• Give everyone the chance to say what they think about their local health and social care services – what is working well and what is not so good
• Give people the chance to check how those services are planned and run
• Provide feedback on what people have said about services, so that things can change for the better

However a LINk will not become involved in dealing with complaints nor can it be used to follow up individual complaints.

What powers will the LINk have?

The LINk will have a range of powers so that they can say how local services should improve.  It will be able to:

• Make reports and recommendations and get a reply within a set amount of time
• Ask for information and get a reply within a set amount of time
• Go into some types of health and social care premises to see what they do
• Refer issues to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee and get a response

Get involved

Please visit the Kingston LINk website listed below to see how you can become involved in the Kingston Local Involvement Network.

Further Information

For further information about LINks please see related documents at the bottom of this page.