20th November 2008

Your right to be consulted

Section 242(1B) of the NHS Act 2006 came into force on 3rd November 2008. Section 242(1B) places a duty on SHAs, PCTs, NHS trusts and NHS foundation trusts in England to make arrangements to involve users or their representatives, whether by consulting them, providing them with information or in other ways, in

1. planning the provision of services
2. the development and consideration of proposals for changes in the way services are provided
3. in decisions to be made that will affect the operation of services

The legislation specifies that NHS organisations must always involve users when they are planning services and if the implementation of a proposal, or a decision (if made) would have an impact on either

1. the manner in which the services are delivered to users of those services, or
2. the range of health services available to those users

Sections 17A and 24A of the Act place a new duty on SHAs and PCTs to report on consultation. These 2 sections of the Act require directions to be made setting out the reporting requirements.

The Department of Health will be issuing statutory guidance sometime in October for section 242(1B) together with guidance for sections 17A and 24A. Statutory guidance means that NHS organisations must ‘have regard to’ it or provide a good reason why they have chosen not to.

We will provide a further update as the guidance is available.

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