NHS mandate emphasises need for services to learn from complaints

Response - 18 December 2015

Following a public consultation to which over 130,000 responses were received, the Department of Health has now published the NHS mandate.

The NHS Mandate sets out the Government's ambitions for the health service.

The new Mandate includes the need for the NHS to learn from complaints, as well as the greater engagement of communities in the decision making processes. 

Responding to the news our Chief Executive, Katherine Rake, said:

“The NHS Mandate promises more power to patients and gives communities the opportunity be more engaged in their healthcare.

“We are particularly pleased to see the Mandate including the need to use insight from complaints to improve services and quality of care, following suggestions we made in the consultation informed by our work on complaints.

“However, improvements could be made in how people are engaged in the Mandate development process. The appetite to engage in a dialogue about health is demonstrated by the fact that 130,000 people responded to the consultation over a short time frame. We want to see future consultations take advantage of this interest by engaging with communities in new, more effective ways.”

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Our consultation response to the NHS Mandate

We have highlighted our concerns about the time frame people have to respond to the consultation and for their views to be responded to.
hat's why we have responded to the consultation with our views on the draft framework document including two key areas where we think the draft misses an opportunity to strengthen the role of patients:
Response