We have been operating as a Community Interest Company and Social Enterprise since April 2013. Local Healthwatch provision was created in 2013 as part of widespread changes to the way in which care is organised in England. The obligations of a local Healthwatch are set out in the Regulations subsequent to the Health & Social Care Act 2012. We aim to amplify the voice of patients, service users and the public, as an independent consumer champion for health and social care in Suffolk. We are responsible for gathering the views of the people of Suffolk regarding the health and social care they receive. We then bring such views to the attention of commissioners and providers of health and social care and have statutory powers to hold them to account. We are responsible to Suffolk County Council for realising the requirements of the specification which they have agreed with us. As a part of that agreement we are responsible for providing a signposting service, thereby giving advice to people looking for a health or social care service to meet their needs. We are also responsible for the requirements placed upon us by the 2012 Act and to exercise such powers as we have been granted under that Act. Our powers are that: • We can ask providers for information which they must make available to us. • We can make recommendations to a local provider and they are required to tell us within 20 days what action they intend to take or why they intend not to take any action. • We have the power to report on health or social care matters to the local Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee. They are required to have regard to any information we have sent them. • We have the power to Enter and View providers of publicly funded health or social care services. Apart from where they concern social care for people under 18 years of age (OFSTED's responsibility). • We can refer matters to the Care Quality Commission or to Healthwatch England if it is a matter for national attention.