When the board of community health councils and community health councils in Wales, the patient's voice in Wales, said they supported the passing of this Bill at Stage 2 in the law-making process, they said they were pleased to see the proposals that the Bill should be strengthened in areas, including visits and rights of access. They said the new body's rights of access to health and care settings should be set out clearly in the Bill, by introducing an amendment that said 'The citizens' voice body shall have the right to enter the premises for the purpose of exercising its functions. Such rights will be exercised and enforced in accordance with subsection 2.'

They said that Welsh Ministers must prepare and publish a code of practice about the circumstances in which the body may have access to premises for the seeking of the views of individuals in respect of health or social services, and the circumstances in which the body may enter excluded premises upon the invitation of members of the public for the purpose of seeking the views of those individuals in respect of health or social services, and where access to those premises or excluded premises is permitted or has been agreed, engagement with individuals that those premises are included premises for the purpose. This addresses, for example, the concerns raised by the Welsh Local Government Association in their e-mail to Members today.

Ahead of this Stage 3 debate on the Bill, they, the patient's voice in Wales, said their support for the changes continues to depend on the establishment of a new body that is properly equipped to undertake its new role on behalf of people living in all parts of Wales. They said that the citizen voice body should be able to access health and care settings so it can hear from people about health and care services and that it should do so responsibly. They said the statutory framework governing visits and rights of access for the new body must establish an operating framework that works on the presumption that the body is able to access health and care settings when it considers it needs to, unless there are specific circumstances where it would be unreasonable to do so. They said that this is how the community health councils currently operate and that it works well in the NHS. They said there's no reason why the same approach would not work with the new body. They said local authorities and NHS bodies must make sure, through their commissioning arrangements, that the body can access health and care settings operated by third-party providers such as private care homes, as well as NHS bodies, providing services across the border in England. They said the code should set out clear requirements for this.

If Members really want to give voice to their constituents, if they really want to put the content of society before its form, then they must support Angela Burns's redrafted amendment.