Yesterday I went to a seminar to hear about the Warwickshire LINk, which is just being set up. LINks are independent of Councils and the Health Service, and are intended to provide a strong voice for local people in the planning, design and commissioning of Health and Social Care services.

The technology and facilities being set up to enable public participation are impressive - full details are on the web site www.communityvoicesonline.org.

Less clear was how the new structure would operate in overall governance terms, how it would set its priorities etc. The government’s view seems to me that this will emerge in line with local needs, but this approach risks a lot of wasted navel-gazing time in the early months. Far better would have been to have put up a standard model to begin with, and allowed each LINk to then adapt this over time as required.