Healthwatch petition reaches 10,000 signatures
This summer, the NHS 10-year Health Plan and Penny Dash review into patient safety organisations recommended that the functions of Healthwatch England be transferred to the Department of Health and Social Care. The functions of local Healthwatch will be transferred into Integrated Care Boards and local authorities,
The reforms will change how services engage with people and communities across Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland, threatening to compromise the impartiality and effectiveness of feedback and the trust of the public.
A national petition currently running on the parliament portal, emphasises that people need input to the future of health and care and that this voice must stay independent.
A milestone of 10,000 signatures was reached last month, triggering a response from the Department of Health and Social Care on 21 November:
“The Government asked Dr Penny Dash to carry out a review of patient safety across the health and care landscape. Dr Dash’s review focused on six key organisations overseen by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC): the Care Quality Commission, the National Guardian’s Office, Healthwatch England (and the local Healthwatch network), the Patient Safety Commissioner, the Health Services Safety Investigations Body and the patient-safety learning related functions of NHS Resolution.
Dr Dash found that there are many organisations carrying out reviews and investigations or looking at user experience. This can lead to an overwhelming number of recommendations which can cause confusion for patients and users. At the same time, customer experience is not given the attention that it deserves in the NHS. Dr Dash aimed to streamline, simplify and consolidate functions across the patient safety landscape to remove duplication and overlap, and make processes simpler and more effective for users and patients.
The report of the Dash review of patient safety across the health and care landscape was published in July 2025. In the report, Dr Dash made nine recommendations which the Government has accepted in full and aligns with the 10 Year Health Plan for England. As such no other options have been considered. We consider the Dash review to be thorough, with all the recommendations aiding to meet the overall objective.
The Government will abolish Healthwatch England (HWE) and Local Healthwatch (LHW) in their current form. A new patient experience directorate within DHSC, will bring patient voice ‘in house’. This will become a central function of the Department and ensure Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) and Local Authorities (LAs) incorporate the views of patients and users directly into strategic planning of services for health and social care.
ICBs will be responsible for the health function of LHW. They will ensure the functions are incorporated in provider organisations alongside existing patient engagement work such as Patient Participation Groups. LAs will be responsible for the social care LHW functions.
The overall objective is to simplify the patient safety landscape with the combined intended outcome to improve quality of care, including safety, by making it clear where responsibility and accountability sit at all levels of the system, and making it easier for staff, patients and users to directly feed into and access the system. And for the system to hear more clearly and so act on the views.
The Government aims for there to be fewer organisations in the patient safety landscape. Patients and users will have a clearer path to providing feedback, which will directly input into the centre, and the commissioners and providers of health and care. Their voices will influence policy, strategic thinking and planning with the aim of improving the quality and safety of care, both in their local areas and nationally.
To achieve the aims and outcomes, the Government must first make legislative changes to abolish HWE and LHW in their current form. Existing legislation will be amended or revoked with the functions currently held by HWE and LHW moving to the Secretary of State, ICBs and LAs.”
Department of Health and Social Care
Thank you to everyone who has signed so far.
If you have not yet signed, you can add your name to the petition until 7 February 2026. By signing, you’ll help Healthwatch gain support amongst MPs to protect the public’s right to give open, honest feedback and share lived experiences about services, without it being filtered through the organisations that deliver their care.
