NHS Health Education England are looking for people interested in being Patient and Public Voice Representatives.
They are looking for people with a passion for the NHS and a keen interest in workforce development and education and training issues to join their advisory groups.
They welcome applicants from a diverse range of backgrounds.
You can find more information on their website by clicking here.
And you can download the Application pack here (scroll down to the bottom of the page to find the download link).
Or for more information, please email jenny.vincent@wessex.hee.nhs.uk Telephone 01962 718526
Application by letter and CV by 12 noon Monday 15 February 2016

NHS England’s ambition is for patients and the public to be at the heart of everything they do, in line with the values of the NHS Constitution.
They are working to strengthen participation in all of their projects and programmes of work, including policy making and commissioning (the process of planning, buying and monitoring health services).
NHS England is responsible for commissioning primary care, specialised services, health in justice, health services for the armed forces, and some public health services. They are now developing detailed and bespoke frameworks for participation in each of these areas to supplement the overall arrangements.
Please can you help?
The views of patients and the public, and our staff, are very valuable to NHS England in shaping their future approach to participation.  The draft Framework for Patient and Public Participation in Primary Care Commissioning has been produced by a working group including internal and external stakeholders. They are now seeking comments on the draft more widely. Please first look at the  overarching NHS England Patient and Public Participation Policy (an easy read document about involving the public in Primary Care Commissioning is available) and Statement of Arrangements and Guidance on Patient and Public Participation in Commissioning.  These documents set out the commitment to participation and outline how they will work with patients and the public to enable them to influence the health services they use.  The primary care framework has been drafted to take account of this context and aims not to duplicate existing information.
Having read the document, please complete the following short questionnaire and return it by email to england.nhs.participation@nhs.net as soon as possible and at the latest by Friday 12 February 2016. All feedback received by this date will be considered and incorporated as appropriate into the framework, which will be presented to NHS England’s Commissioning Committee (a sub-committee of the Board) for approval in March 2016.  Thereafter, there will be an opportunity for the public to comment further on the framework via our website and in other ways.
Should you have any queries, please contact the NHS England Public Participation Team in the national support centre: england.nhs.participation@nhs.net or telephone 0113 8250861.
Click here for the questionnaire

Nationally there has been a review of urgent and emergency care services which led to the establishment of local System Resilience Groups (SRG). The aim of Urgent and Emergency care Networks is to bring these together to work strategically across a larger patch and to address issues that go beyond any one SRG.
More information about Urgent and Emergency Care Networks can be found here.
RequestThese networks are now being set up nationally. In Wessex we have had one initial meeting with some of the members to discuss the most effective way of achieving our objectives. A key part of this will be patient or public engagement and all of the members felt this was very important. The meetings for the first twelve months will be two monthly with the next two meetings being held on 21 January 2016 9am-12pm and 31 March 9am-12pm. At the moment these meetings are scheduled for three hours but this is likely to rapidly change to two hourly. The patient or public member would be there in their own right representing as much as they are able general views. The group will operate strategically so will be less about dealing with specific operational issues which are picked up by the SRG i.e. issues with a particular hospital and more about Wessex wide issues i.e. commissioning 111 and out of hours’ services.
The person who is a member will want to be interested in this style of working, support for you will be provided through the urgent care lead at NHS England Wessex, Lucy Sutton, and regular discussions can take place to make sure you continue to feel your contribution is as worthwhile as possible.
Ideally we would like one individual to attend to enable consistency but recognise the time commitment so can discuss with individuals deputising arrangements as necessary.
Expenses will be covered. For all discussions or any queries please contact Lucy Sutton on 07825 448230 or lucy.sutton@nhs.net.
Please do come and join us, you will find it interesting and informative and your views will inform the future strategic direction of services.