National Voices welcomes pilots of Personal Health Budgets.

Press Comment on the announcement of Personal Health Budgets.

The Government has announced legislation for Personal Health Budgets.

National Voices wants to see health services that pay attention to what service users want. Personal Budgets are a very direct way of ensuring that people are given more power and control over the services they use. David Pink, chief executive of National Voices, said,

“People have so little control over their NHS services – being able to choose between hospitals for operations is not enough. In this country we have budgets and direct payments for people who need social care services. Now we need to test personal budgets in healthcare. I am pleased to see that the Government intends to run pilots, so we can evaluate how well personal budgets will work in healthcare.“

Until last year, David Pink was co-chair of the National Choice Reference Group (along with Mayur Lakhani, chair of the RCGP). At that time David was chief executive of LTCA, before it merged into National Voices.

Voices is the new umbrella organisation established by and for the national voluntary organisations representing users of health and social care in England to give them a stronger voice in policy-making. National Voices works with policy-makers in Westminster and Whitehall to make sure that the voices of patients, carers and service users are heard and that their diverse needs and preferences are genuinely placed at the heart of policy development. In doing this National Voices will ensure that the views of the people who use health and social care services are heard by the people who shape and provide those services

David Pink
Chief Executive
National Voices