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NHS Commissioning Board meeting was live-streamed on the web yesterday. It was very informative; there'll be a 33% 'capacity reduction' in the commissioning support sector, but the remaining CSU staff will be hosted by the Commissioning Board until 2016.

This means that the staff who find their way into the surviving functions will enjoy some degree of job security for the next four years, regardless of whether their particular CSU gets 'chosen' by the local CCGs.

This could, of course, lead to the absurd spectacle of CSUs without any commissioning support contracts, trying to somehow keep themselves busy.

On the other hand, pretty much all the commissioning skills and knowledge are concentrated in PCTs and SHAs. If you want any wisdom beyond "if the worst 50% could do as well as the best 25%, what a wonderful world it would be" - you need NHS managers. It's good to see that the NHSCB have done something in recognition of this.