The main purpose of the Bill is:

Improve the quality of NHS care and services and improve public health.

The main elements of a Bill might be:

• Delivering high quality care for all – the NHS Constitution, direct payments for health services, quality accounts.
• Improving public health - measures to protect children and young people from the harm caused by smoking.
• And miscellaneous – extending the remit of the Local Government Ombudsman to consider complaints from people who have arranged their own adult social care.

The main benefits of a Bill could be:

• To ensure the highest possible standards of care and give more power to individuals to shape the care they receive.
• To reinforce the core purpose and values of the NHS, placing a duty on providers and commissioners of NHS services to have regard to a new NHS Constitution. The Constitution will be published alongside the Bill and will secure the enduring principles of the NHS, setting out the rights and responsibilities of patients and staff.
• To allow the further development of ways to give patients greater personalisation and control over the health care services they receive by involving them directly in the commissioning of health services.
• To drive up the quality of health services through a duty to produce new quality accounts - information on quality for patients, clinicians and managers which would be used to inform local accountability for services, and to assist clinicians, commissioners and patients in driving improvements.
• To reduce the impact of tobacco on health and well-being in future generations by protecting children and young people from the harm caused by smoking.
• To extend the remit of the Local Government Ombudsman to enable him to consider complaints from people who have arranged their own adult social care. This will place these users on a similar footing to those adults whose social care is arranged and/or funded by Local Authorities.