CCG to lose powers by joining commissioning partnership

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Certain responsibilities are set to be moved from a struggling clinical commissioning group after it joined a partnership of four other CCGs.

Isle of Wight CCG has become part of Hampshire CCG Partnership amid the planning of a “significant transformation programme” for the island, according to its board papers.

The £235m income CCG was put under legal directions by NHS England in December over concerns about its leadership.

Hampshire CCG Partnership comprises Fareham and Gosport, North Hampshire, North East Hampshire and Farnham, and South Eastern Hampshire CCGs. It was formed in spring 2017 to share expertise and reduce duplication.

The partnership’s accountable officer, Maggie MacIsaac, has become head of Isle of Wight CCG.

The CCG’s previous accountable officer, Helen Shields, left the CCG earlier this year. Its main provider, Isle of Wight Trust, has been in special measures for a year.

According to the CCG’s governing body papers, the move means “some” commissioning activities are “more appropriately undertaken at scale with other CCGs in Hampshire and NHS England”.

However, the activities affected have not yet been agreed. Deciding which services should be commissioned from the mainland will be discussed by the CCGs, NHSE and Isle of Wight Council.

The papers said: “The CCG and NHS England are clear that the way NHS services are commissioned and delivered on the island needs to change in order to deliver the scale of service transformation required, and to restore financial balance.”

For 2018-19, the CCG is planning to break even but that relies on a “challenging” savings target of £9.4m – roughly 4 per cent of the CCG’s income.

The CCG broke even in 2017-18 but it was reliant on a £2m non-recurrent injection of funds from NHSE after missing its savings target.

It has an underlying deficit of £2.4m.

Loretta Outhwaite, deputy chief officer of the CCG, said: ”We are beginning the work of agreeing which clinical services are best commissioned at local level on the island, and where there may be benefits from commissioning across a wider geographical area. That is a process which is applied to all CCGs within the partnership.

“That work is very much just getting underway,” she added.