1.
Ba ckg rou n d
Change is coming to public services in Lambeth. The cooperative council is
Lambeth’s big idea for local government. It’s about giving people more
involvement and control of the services they use and the places where they live
by putting council resources in their hands.
Over the years, we have seen how cooperation between service providers, such
as the council, and those who use or are affected by services, such as residents
and communities, has resulted in public services that are more closely aligned
with people’s needs and expectations. In Lambeth, there are dozens of examples
of this approach in action, and this was the inspiration for the cooperative
council.
In addition, the aftermath of recession and the deepest cuts in Government
funding for a generation, demanded a reform of public services – they simply
could not continue to be delivered in the same ways.
The cooperative council shows that this ethos - of meaningful partnership and
cooperation - is the foundation on which public services can be run in years to
come.
The cooperative council aims to:
• Turn more citizens from p a ssi v e reci p i en t s into a ct i v e
sh a p ers of services
• Deliver more effective, m ore resp on si v e serv i ces by giving users
more control
• S t ren g t h en ci v i l soci et y so it’s better able to deal with challenges
• Do things ‘wi t h ’ our communities rather than ‘t o’ our communities
This is an opportunity to think creatively and realistically about local public
services, with the prospect of improved, more responsive service delivery as the
result.
Th e ov era l l G ood for Not h i n g ch a l l en g e
Across England, all councils have to set up a new local organisation called
Healthwatch.
Healthwatch Lambeth will be an independent organisation. Key roles will be to
provide information and advice to the public about health and social care
services, gather the views of residents about their needs and experience of local
health and social care services, and make those views known to people
involved in the commissioning, provision and scrutiny of health and social care
services.
There is no prescribed format that a local Healthwatch must take, and so we
need to design it!

2.
Th e b ri ef
In order to really work and for it to be part of our cooperative vison,
Healthwatch needs to be created by residents, stakeholders and council officers
from across all parts of Lambeth’s diverse population, both geographically and
demographically, including people of all ages, BME groups, abilities and
income, working together to make it a reality. This Good for Nothing event will
provide a great opportunity to i n i t i a t e t h e Hea l t h wa t ch La m b et h
cop rod u ct i on p rocess, i n a wa y t h a t i n v ol v es a fu l l ra n g e of p eop l e
i n i t s d esi g n a n d m a kes fu l l u se of n ew t ech n i q u es of en g a g i n g
wi t h p eop l e.
P ot en t i a l ou t p u t s
• Exploring and prototyping methods to capture feedback from residents
on health and social care services improving on previously used
methods.
• Developing ways to communicate to residents so that they know
Healthwatch Lambeth is there, understand what it does, know how to use
it and know that it ensures their voices are heard and represented?
• Planning and developing communication material and approaches that
will engage Lambeth people in designing this service in a meaningful
way, including those who are deemed hard to reach?
• Exploring ways we can show how Heathwatch can make difference to
health and social care services, particularly for those in the most
deprived communities?
Milestones
Healthwatch Lambeth needs to be in place by April 2013, which gives us 10
months to develop the new body. We need to have a specification or model for
the new service ready by September 2012.