Who we are and what we do
National Voices is the coalition of health and social care charities. We work together to strengthen the voice of patients, service users, carers, their families and the voluntary organisations that work for them.
We have over 150 members with 130 charity members and 20 professional and associate members.
Our broad membership, rooted in people’s experience, represents millions of people, and covers a diverse range of health conditions and communities.
What makes us distinctive?
We are the only organised and representative national voice of the broad public interest in health and social care.
What do we want?
High quality health and social care for all. Despite improvement in recent years, the NHS and social care systems are not good enough across the board. They are not responsive enough to people’s needs and preferences. They don’t do enough to support independence and self-care.
National Voices seeks to narrow the gap between the rhetoric about person-centred care and the reality.
Our objectives reflect the concerns and issues of National Voices’ members, the broader evidence on people’s experiences, and the enduring challenges and deficiencies in the current systems of care. We therefore call for:
- Voice, choice and involvement: the NHS remains too paternalist and “top down”. We call for a stronger patient, service user and public voice in the design and delivery of services. We champion the NHS constitution, informed choice, shared decision making, and more responsive services, listening and adapting in response to feedback and complaints.
- Fairness and justice: We champion services delivered according to need. Many people get worse access and less good care, and not all voices are heard. Many battle to get the services they need. We want a better deal for people who are disadvantaged because of their condition, disability, where they live, their age, ethnicity or the setting of their care (eg care homes)
- Safety and quality: We want to see a stronger culture of quality improvement and safety, and a focus on people’s experiences of care as a fundamental dimension of quality.
- Right care, right time, right place: Improved outcomes and a higher quality of life would result if primary and community services were consistently better, if there was better support for people with long term conditions and their carers, and we hospitalised people less.
- A seamless service: services don’t join up well and there are problems in the transitions between primary, community and secondary settings in health and between health and social care. Many people find they are passed from pillar to post; can’t get packages of care to meet all their needs; suffer lack of continuity of care. We call for more integrated design and delivery of services.
How do we work?
Voicing and influencing: We speak up on behalf of patients, service users, carers and the bodies that represent them. Members and staff represent the coalition on high level forums. We work with national decision makers in government, the health service, regulators and the care professions in England.
Brokering: We are a conduit between national decision makers and our network of voluntary sector professionals, volunteers, service users and experts.
Serving our members: We engage members on cross-cutting themes and create opportunities for members to influence decision makers.
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