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Patient and public empowerment

Over the last few years, the NHS has made great strides towards fully engaging people in the design and delivery of services. They are routinely asked for their views, about their experience of services, to contribute to staff training and to be members of NHS foundation trusts.

All major policy drivers make it clear that we must carry on embedding this good practice in all that we do. Through providing opportunities for the views and opinions of local people to be heard, decision making will be better informed.

Our challenge now is to make the engagement and empowerment of people and communities mainstream in the commissioning of services. To be world class commissioners we need to know the needs and preferences of our local communities, work with our partners on the health and well being agenda and work with local people to tackle health inequalities.

The Department of Health’s Patient and Public Empowerment division provides NHS organisations with the knowledge and expertise to enable them to achieve this goal.