CCGs taking on full primary care co-commissioning powers revealed

The CCGs will be responsible for the performance management and budgets of their member GP practices, including managing complaints about practices and GPs.

There is a regional divide in the CCGs which will be taking on these responsibilities: 24 CCGs in the North (35.3 per cent of CCGs in the region) and 26 in the Midlands and East (42.6 per cent) have been approved for have full delegated commissioning of their member practices. However, just eight in the South (16 per cent) and six in London (18.8 per cent) have been approved.

NHS England chief executive Simon Stevens said that 65 CCGs had been approved to take on delegated primary care responsibility for 2015-16, at a King’s Fund event in London this morning.

However, a statement released by the organisation this afternoon clarified that 64 groups have been granted full approval, while one further group, which has not yet been named, has been conditionally approved “pending changes to some governance arrangements”.

Primary care is currently commissioned by NHS England’s area teams, but Mr Stevens announced last spring that he wanted to hand the responsibility to CCGs. They were asked late last year to choose between three levels of “co-commissioning”: delegated commissioning, joint commissioning or “greater involvement”.

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HSJ revealed last month that 77 CCGs had submitted proposals to NHS England to take on delegated commissioning of primary care.

Ian Dodge, NHS England’s director for commissioning strategy, said: “Today we are backing 64 CCGs that have asked NHS England for full delegated powers to improve local primary care, within a transparent and robust framework for managing conflicts of interest. It is a vote of confidence in CCGs.

“It is part of our commitment to deliver a new deal for primary care. It’s a critical step towards joining up the commissioning system, which in turn will help unlock new models of integrated care described in the NHS Five Year Forward View.”

Amanda Doyle, co-chair of NHS England’s primary care co-commissioning programme oversight group, said: “This is a journey to enable local commissioning arrangements that can deliver the kind of integrated care, in and out of hospital that we all want to see.

Dr Doyle, who is chief clinical officer of Blackpool CCG, one of the organisations taking on delegated commissioning, said: “Giving GP led [CCGs] more influence over the wider NHS budget will enable a shift in investment from acute to primary and community services, and enable money to follow the patient.

“The introduction of co-commissioning is another strong step on the path to provide a more joined up, high quality service for the future.”