communities. The tragedies of Audrey Paley, Mid Staffs, Morecambe Bay and Winterbourne View all highlight what happens when the system fails to listen." Almost a third of councils cut their local Healthwatch budgets in 2015–16 by an average of 14%, Blackpool and Hounslow by more than half. For 2018–19 it was planned that the 152 local Healthwatch services should receive £26,064,086 from local authorities to carry out their statutory activities, 35.3% less than was originally planned in 2013. This paid for 408 full-time equivalent staff. Local Healthwatch organisations also engage a considerable number of volunteers. In November 2018 it was announced that NHS England and NHS Improvement were to make "significant investment" into the organisation in order to encourage participation in the development of the NHS's long term plan. In 2022 Sir Robert Francis resigned the chair, saying funding cuts meant the organisation could soon struggle “to fulfil its vital role". Local Healthwatch The announced intention was that each local Healthwatch would be an independent organisation, able to employ its own staff and involve volunteers and accountable in its own right. Plans to make the local Healthwatch in Leicester an independent organisation were thwarted by Voluntary Action Leicester who had been charged with establishing the organisation but would not hand over the contract to the newly established Healthwatch Leicester Ltd. National activity The organisation produced a report entitled Safely Home: what happens when people leave hospital and care settings? in July 2015, which was based on thousands of stories about people leaving hospital without the right planning and support. Criticism The 2015 People's Inquiry into London's NHS recommended that Healthwatch England be closed down, with local Healthwatch bodies separated from the Care Quality Commission and modelled on the old Community Health Councils. They should link up with local community organisations, pensioners' groups and other community organisations, and be given statutory powers to inspect hospital and community services, to object to changes which lack public acceptance, and to force a decision on contested changes from the Secretary of State. References External links National Health Service (England) Patient advocacy