Helping local people improve health and social care services

Welcome!

LINk Southwark no longer operates. Healthwatch Southwark is the new replacement body to represent service users and the public to influence health and social care services. Please visit www.healthwatchsouthwark.co.uk, email info@healthwatchsouthwark.co.uk or call 020 7358 7005. 

LINk (short for Local Involvement Network) is a network of local people, organisations and groups in each borough and county in England that want to improve local care services. LINk Southwark is your local network.

• To access our E-bulletins and latest news please click here
• To access our Task Group Updates please click here.
• To become a member for FREE, please click here.

LINk Leadership Group Meeting - Friday 25th January 2013

The next LINk Leadership Group meeting will take place on Friday 25th January 2013. It will start promptly at 10am and finish at 12pm. Venue: Cambridge House, 1 Addington Square, Camberwell SE5 0HF. If you would like to share your views or issues on any health or social care service, there is a public space available at the start. You will need to book this in advance by contacting link@ch1889.org or calling 020 7358 7005. To access the agenda click here.

We look forward to seeing you on Friday.

Southwark Healthwatch

By April 2013, LINk Southwark will not exist and Southwark Healthwatch will take its place. Southwark Council are responsible for making sure that there is a functioning Healthwatch ready in April 2013. Before then, there are preparations to be made about what the legal structure will look like, and how it will operate. With agreement from the Leadership Group, the Co-Chairs have been meeting with the Council and Partner Organisations to discuss how this can happen. Ultimately the Council have the final say, but they must involve the current LINk in some way. There are no firm decisions at the moment. Once we know more, we will update our members and the website.

Other LINks in London and around the country are either going through a public tendering process, are grant-in-aid (i.e. the current LINk have been contracted to take on Healthwatch) or to a lesser extent going through a 'Co-Production' process.

More information on the tender process for Southwark Healthwatch can be found on our Resources tab, under LINk Southwark documents, or click here.

Center of Excellence for Dementia and Complex Needs (September 2012)

The Council are consulting on a proposed new Centre of Excellence for people with dementia and/or complex needs. This will mean the current two day care centres for dementa sufferers, Fred Francis and Southwark Park Road Day Centre will close, and replaced by a new building that will also house other services to deliver a more holistic experience. The location of the new site could be at Cator Street or renovating one of the Day Centres.

See LINk Southwark's response here.

Be Heard

You can now help to improve care services in Southwark. LINk Southwark has a direct line to the people who make the decisions, and wants to share your views to make things better. We need to hear from different people in Southwark, with different experiences, health and social care needs and disabilities.

We have work steams in:

• Adult Social Care
• Maternity & New Born
• Mental Health
• Dementia Sub Group (Adult Social Care and Mental Health)
• Communities and Outreach
• Acute Providers (looking at the main Acute Providers: Kings College Hospital FT and Guys & St. Thomas FT. South London Maudsley FT will be looked at in the Mental Health.

So get in touch today, and make a difference to Southwark’s Health and Social Care.