A current exemplar of the way the government misjudges citizen engagement is the proposal to introduce LINks and abolish Patient and Public Involvement Forums.

A current exemplar of the way the government misjudges citizen engagement is the proposal to introduce LINks and abolish Patient and Public Involvement Forums.

The proposal assumed that 'volunteers' were 'amateurs' who would roll over and accept a change to what would transparently be 'involvement' without 'influence'. The meeting of 30 October with the minister showed how wrong that assumption was.

Ruth Marsden, Chair, Specialist Forums of Yorkshire and Humberside; Lead, Associated Forums of London, Leicester, Rutland, Yorkshire, Humberside and Teesside.