Primary care trusts will be told to assign more staff to clinical commissioning groups to prevent a lack of support hindering CCG development.

But PCTs boards fear the policy could lead to transferred staff being made redundant if CCGs decide they want different support skills.

The move marks the next stage in the development of CCG support following NHS chief executive Sir David Nicholson’s instructions to PCTs that they had to “assign” four managers in specified roles to CCGs by the end of June.

NHS Midlands and East workforce director Stephen Welfare sits on the national human resources partnership forum. He told HSJ: “There needs to be further assignment of [PCT] employees in advance of the [CCG] authorisation process… The alternative risk is that CCGs don’t develop as fast as they could.”

The message to transfer staff will be disseminated to PCTs before a national transition event on 5 December. PCTs will also be asked to provide details on the number and types of assigned staff.

But at last week’s NHS Employers conference, HR directors said a lack of guidance meant they were already “over assigning” people – placing them into roles that might be made redundant.

It is not yet fully known which support functions will be hosted by CCGs and how commissioning support units will be designed. Final guidance is expected by the end of the year.

Jean Sapeta, from lawyers Hempsons, said PCT staff would eventually be officially transferred to authorised CCGs or commissioning support organisations via TUPE [employment protection] rules if their functions were required “whether [the new organisation] wants them or not”.

But if CCGs wanted particular functions carried out “sufficiently” differently, staff would face redundancy, she said.

HSJ has learned that the NHS Greater Manchester cluster has paused all assignment. Three PCTs have assigned no one, November board papers say. A spokeswoman said the pause was ongoing pending the development of a draft cluster-wide assignment process.

NHS Trafford board minutes reveal non executive director Paul Connellan said on 25 October the lack of national guidance available to support the workforce transition put the PCT in an “untenable” position. The PCT has this month red-rated the “risk of losing vital and critical capacity… [without] a much clearer road map for people”.

National Association of Primary Care chair Johnny Marshall also said there had been a “lack of a strategic approach” to staff assignment.

Topics