Decision Making Policy | Healthwatch Wakefield

This policy and associated procedures outline the steps taken to ensure decisions are evidence based and lead to substantive impact in the community.

The governing regulations and standards are:

The NHS Bodies and Local Authorities (Partnership Arrangements, Care Trusts, Public Health and Local Healthwatch) Regulations 2012 – referred to as Regulation 40 throughout this document.
Freedom of Information Act 2000.
Seven Principles of Public Life (Nolan Principles).

This policy applies to all relevant decisions made by Healthwatch Wakefield and is supported by the Scheme of Reservation and Delegation and the Financial Procedures Policy which outline the roles and responsibilities of key roles within the organisation, financial spend control and delegation of functions, which may at times link with relevant decisions outlined in this policy.

Relevant decisions

Regulation 40 requires Healthwatch Wakefield to have in place and publish procedures for making relevant decisions. Relevant decisions include:

How to undertake our activities.
Which health and care services we are looking at covering with our activities.
The amounts we will spend on our activities.
Whether to request information.
Whether to make a report or a recommendation.
Which premises to Enter and View and when those premises are to be visited.
Whether to refer a matter to Overview and Scrutiny Committee.
Whether to report a matter concerning our activities to another person.
Any decisions about sub-contracting.

Relevant decisions do not include day-to-day activity that may be required to carry out exploratory work prior to making a relevant decision.

Who may make such decisions?

The Healthwatch Wakefield Trustee Board (hereafter referred to as ‘the Board’), will be responsible for making relevant decisions. The Board will have the power to delegate some of the relevant decision making to the Chief Officer, for example, small pieces of work which do not have a substantive impact on staff or financial resources.

There may also be times that quick strategic decision making is needed – this may be done between meetings, by the Chief Officer and the Chair working together. When this happens, the rest of the Board will be informed as soon as possible, and it will be minuted at the next meeting.

All relevant decisions, including those delegated to the Chief Officer, will be recorded in the minutes of the Board meeting at which the decision was made. The minutes of all Board meetings are published on Healthwatch Wakefield’s website once they have been agreed by the Board as being a correct record of the meeting concerned.

Once a decision has been made, the staff team is responsible for implementation and delivery, with an agreed reporting process to Board.

The Board will reconsider a decision where new data has become available, or if circumstances change, which might prompt it to reach a different decision, or where there is evidence that this decision-making process was not followed.

As a Charity and a company, decision making within Healthwatch Wakefield is also covered in our Articles of Association / governing document.

Involving lay persons or volunteers in such decisions

Healthwatch Wakefield’s Board is composed solely of lay persons (a person who is not a health or social care professional) and volunteers (a person who is not a paid employee of Healthwatch Wakefield). Healthwatch Wakefield intends to secure broad based views on its activities wherever possible, and involves others, particularly lay people and volunteers in its decision making.

Transparency

Healthwatch Wakefield is committed to transparency – we want people in Wakefield District to be part of the way we make decisions. We also want to keep people informed about decisions we make, and how we are working towards our identified priorities. As part of this:

The Board will hold at least two meetings in public each year where people are able to actively contribute to the way that we are working.
Minutes of Board meetings will be available on our website once they have been agreed as a correct record of the meetings. There are sections of our meetings which are confidential or sensitive and these parts of the meeting are held in private and the minutes are not shared publicly.
All relevant decisions, including those delegated to the Chief Officer, will be recorded in the minutes of the Board meeting at which the decision was made and be available in the public minutes.
Reports following many of our pieces of work are published on our website and we publish an annual report highlighting the achievements of the year based on the decisions made on what work to complete.

How are decisions made?

The potential scope of the work of Healthwatch Wakefield is vast – it has a responsibility for health and social care services for all adults, children and young people in Wakefield and the District, including those who are most vulnerable or may be excluded. This means we must prioritise the issues we focus on. The main sources to inform our work programme are likely to come from:

People’s experiences of health and social care services that they share with us.
Evidence we proactively collect about specific areas of concern through the stories and enquiries we hear directly, including deliberative research, public surveys and polls.
National and local data sets that evidence issues affecting large numbers of the local population and the most excluded.

This list is not exhaustive and other relevant sources of data will be considered.

In order to prioritise, Healthwatch Wakefield Board will carefully consider all sources of information and decide where it can add most value. Areas to be considered include but are not limited to:

That the issues fit with our organisational role and responsibilities, ensuring Healthwatch Wakefield delivers its statutory remit.
How much the issue matters to local people, it must be something they care about as we are here to be the voice of people in health and social care.
How much change Healthwatch Wakefield can bring about. This enables us to make sure we are choosing areas where we can have the greatest impact. This is important to deliver the greatest return for our budget, maintain our independence and ensure we bring issues to the attention of the health and care system.
Does the change need to come from Healthwatch Wakefield – so we aren’t focusing on things that others can do more easily and effectively? We may also recognise opportunities to work collaboratively with local partners or other Healthwatch locally to drive change.
Finally, the Board of Healthwatch Wakefield will consider our work as a full set of priorities, as together they need to have the greatest impact for people using health and social care services.

Board meetings are open to the public, and minutes recording decisions will be available via Healthwatch Wakefield’s website.

Decisions about how we do our work

When we plan how we do our work we will consider:

What approach will help us involve the people we want to involve? For example, will people need a face to face conversation, or would they prefer doing a survey online?
How will we engage across the whole district and how will we ensure we engage groups who are seldom heard?
What method is most appropriate for the setting? For example, an approach that’s right in a GP surgery, will be different to one needed in a care home.
Safety and wellbeing of staff, volunteers and the public – does the work place people at risk? A robust risk assessment will be done before any face to face work takes place.
What has worked in the past and what learning do we have that can help us develop and improve?
How we can meet any funding requirements and ensure a financially sound delivery model that is efficient as well as effective.

The decisions about how work is carried out will be primarily developed by the staff team and presented by the Chief Officer to the Board as a proposal before any work is commenced.

Dealing with breaches of any procedure referred to in this policy document, including circumstances in which a breach would be referred to the local authority

If a decision is taken in the name of Healthwatch Wakefield without authorisation in the manner set out in this policy document, the Board will determine what action is needed. This may be to either approve the decision retrospectively, or to reverse the decision.

If the breach of the agreed procedure is considered to have also breached the contract between Healthwatch Wakefield and Wakefield Local Authority, it will be reported to the Local Authority and further action will be agreed jointly between the Local Authority and Healthwatch Wakefield.

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion statement

Healthwatch Wakefield is committed to ensuring all decisions made are free from any form of discrimination on the grounds of age, disability, gender, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation, in accordance with the Equality Act 2010.

Healthwatch Wakefield will monitor this policy in order to identify whether it is having an adverse impact on any group of individuals and act accordingly.

Review of policy document

The Board of Healthwatch Wakefield will review the effectiveness of the decision making policy and procedures set out in this document every three years. Any amendments to this policy and the procedures governing the making of relevant decisions will require a simple majority of board members voting in favour.

The amended policy document will be published on the website of Healthwatch Wakefield as soon as is practicable.

Procedures

Healthwatch Wakefield undertakes to carry out the following procedures:

Publish Healthwatch Wakefield’s most up to date policy document on our website.
Review and obtain Board approval to Healthwatch Wakefield’s decision making policy every three years.
Ensure all Healthwatch Wakefield staff are familiar with the policy and refresh their understanding and awareness of the need for open and transparent decision making by reading the policy on a regular basis, at a minimum after review by the Board.
Publish minutes from Board meetings where decisions are made in a timely manner on our website. Where decisions are made outside of board meetings, they will be ratified at the subsequent Board meeting.
Chief Officer is a decision maker, risks, benefits and financial implications will be guided by strategic policies and brought to the Board for final approval

Implementation and review 

Implementation date: March 2025 

Review date: March 2028