Local HealthWatch Service - HealthWatch Luton

.1 Luton Borough Council is looking to engage qualified organisations to submit a quotation for the Provision of Services : Healthwatch Luton' 1.2 This procurement is subject to PCR15 , Public Contract Regulation 2015, Light Touch Regime rules, and as such the Council is following a below FTS threshold Request For Quotation (with Evaluation) bidding process i.e. an advert is published on the Council's e Commerce Platform as arranged by Proactis , Pro Contract ' Due North ' and also on Contract Finder. Any suppliers wishing to bid for this work within a 30 day return period, need to register for free via the Proactis Due North website to receive the tender documents. Please note the return date can only be extended by the Council with good reason to do so, those suppliers not seeing advert until late, should bid on the understanding that they will have less time to prepare. 1.3 The aim of Local Healthwatch is to give citizens and communities a stronger voice to influence and challenge how health and social care services are provided within their locality.

Local Healthwatch are funded by and accountable to local authorities. Their statutory functions are:

1. Promoting and supporting the involvement of local people in the commissioning, the provision and scrutiny of local care services

2. Enabling local people to monitor the standard of provision of local care services and whether and how local care services could and ought to be improved

3. Obtaining the views of local people regarding their needs for, and experiences of, local care services and importantly to make these views known

4. Making reports and recommendations about how local care services could or ought to be improved within an overall framework that recognises financial constraints. These should be directed to commissioners and providers of care services, and people responsible for managing or scrutinising local care services and shared with Healthwatch England

5. Providing advice and information about access to local care services so choices can be made about local care services

6. Formulating views on the standard of provision and whether and how the local care services could and ought to be improved; and sharing these views with Healthwatch England

7. Making recommendations to Healthwatch England to advise the Care Quality Commission to conduct special reviews or investigations (or, where the circumstances justify doing so, making such recommendations direct to the CQC); and to make recommendations to Healthwatch England to publish reports about particular issues

8. Providing Healthwatch England with the intelligence and insight it needs to enable it to perform effectively.