Government Response on the Future of Healthwatch

News - 12 December 2025

Houses of Parliament in London, representing the Government response on Healthwatch and upcoming changes to patient voice services.

Despite a response from the government regarding the future of Healthwatch, here at Healthwatch Wirral, we remain fully committed to supporting local people. Every day, we:

  • Provide signposting and advice to help you make informed decisions about your health and care.
  • Use your feedback to shape and improve local health and care services.
  • Offer NHS advocacy support if you need help making a complaint about NHS services.
  • Gather views and identify themes to inform commissioners and providers of services about what matters to local people.
  • Host forums and run community outreach programmes to keep everyone in Wirral informed and engaged.
  • Seek out people who find it harder to use health and social care services. For example, people who care for someone, people with learning disabilities, and those with sensory impairments.

For more information about what we do or to get any advice about health and care, contact us here.

What’s Happening Nationally?

In July, as part of the NHS 10-Year Health Plan, the government announced proposals to abolish Healthwatch. These proposals followed the publication of the Dash Patient Safety Review, whose recommendations were incorporated into the plan. The changes include transferring Healthwatch’s functions to NHS Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) and local authorities, and establishing a new Patient Experience Directorate within the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC).

In response, local Healthwatch launched a national petition. This petition asked the Government to:

  • Revisit its decision to abolish local independent services that speak up for the public
  • Consult with the public to codesign a service which meets their needs and supports the NHS to realise its ambitions
  • Invest in and strengthen independent services

The petition has now received more than 10,000 signatures, and the Government has published its response.

Government’s Response to the Petition

In the Government response about Healthwatch, they wrote:

  • They will abolish Healthwatch England and amend local Healthwatch in their current form
  • A new patient experience directorate within DHSC will bring patient voice ‘in house’
  • Integrated Care Boards will be responsible for the health functions of local Healthwatch, and Local Authorities will be responsible for their social care functions
  • The changes aim to simplify patient safety to improve care and amplify patient voice
  • Legislative changes have to be made first to abolish Healthwatch and transfer its functions

We will find out more about the Government’s plans early 2026 via the King’s speech. Then there will be a wait for legislative change so implementing changes could take until 2027.

Read the Government’s Response Here

Healthwatch Wirral’s Response

Simplifying the feedback process about patient’s experiences can be beneficial, however the proposals set out by the Government come at a great cost to people’s confidence and safety.

Health inequalities are widening; peoples’ confidence in health and social care is at an all-time low. Stripping away Healthwatch Wirral, the statutory and local independent body for Wirral’s 330,000 residents, is not the answer. Independent voices, prevention services, and the protection of vulnerable people in the face of increasing health inequalities is more important now than ever before.

Getting rid of Healthwatch means silencing a large demographic, weakening the informed local insight Wirral providers receive, and crucially, worsening health and care amongst local people.

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