Thames Valley NHS England has written to the new head of NHS England, Simon Stevens, asking for a lay/patient representative to have a place on the board of NHS England. The text of the letter to Simon Stevens is below: Dear Mr Stevens,. The Patient Partnership Leads of the Strategic Clinical Networks, along with Area team and other colleagues, offer you a very positive welcome to NHS England. We would value your assistance to resolve a concern that we, along with many patients/carers/lay people and our health professional colleagues have expressed over the last 12 months:- There is no Patient/carer/lay person voice/representative on the NHS England Board. We have worked very hard and successfully over the first year of NHS England to develop a strong and loud voice for patients and the public inall our NHS work, as clearly mandated and welcomed. This does not appear, however, to be reflected in the constituency of the NHS England Board. Effective Patient Leaders are currently actively under development - with some local variations in names/titles. In developing this important Patient Group to support all aspects of the new NHS, we believe that this would be a means of identifying individuals to work at aNational level. These details could be sent to the Participation Leads of your Executive Team which could then be the constituency of the Participation Academy currently being developed. From this hub, possibly linking to the developing Citizens Assembly, the interested adult and/or young persons of the public could be selected for the Board. Itis understood this will need proper development, and hope you will agree the value of this positive move to guarantee NHS Englands commitment to the Patient and Public voice being heard at the highest level. Rather than have a long distribution list, we will all be separately forwarding this e-mail on to the Patient Leaders we are working with. We look forward to positively pursuing this proposal with you. Best wishes Steve Steve Candler Steve Candler Senior Network & Domain Manager Thames Valley Strategic Clinical Networks NHS England Jubilee House 5510 John Smith Drive Oxford Business Park South Oxford OX4 2LH