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Councils will get new powers to oversee commissioning of health services, the communities secretary, Eric Pickles, has pledged. Directors of public health look set to see their jobs upgraded, as councils will be given responsibility for improving wellbeing in their communities. Mr Pickles revealed more details about the Government's plans to radically overhaul health service delivery following on from the controversial White Paper which pledged to scrap primary care trusts and strategic health authorities. The minister and health secretary, Andrew Lansley, issued a joint call for input on a consultation aimed at shaping the reforms which will also give greater power to GPs. The communities secretary said: ‘A decade of centralising, controlling government has left public services such as the NHS strangled with red tape, lumbered with target after target, and weakened by the need to report to bureaucrats instead of the public. ‘Under proposals published today, for the first time in 40 years, there will be local democratic accountability and legitimacy in the NHS. ‘Elected councils will have a key role, including commissioning "HealthWatch" services to guarantee patients a voice. As we push power away from Whitehall, we will make the health service more answerable to patients, not politicians.' The plans received strong support from Liberal Democrat leader of local government, Cllr Richard Kemp. He said: ‘Councils taking responsibility for strategic health assessment; the health/social care interface; pooled budgets and the scrutiny of major health reorganisation puts elected people in the driving seat of local health activity for the first time for more than four decades. This will mean that real needs and priorities will be pursued, not targets set by ministers and Whitehall warriors. ‘This will mean both better and more cost-effective local services.'

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WHITEHALL

Council role upgrade in health service overhaul

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