Examination of Witnesses

Part of Health and Social Care(Re-Committed) Bill – in a Public Bill Committee at 11:31 am on 28 June 2011.

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Mike Farrar: That is one of the concerns, which we raised in our evidence, about the relationships between the players that are now making decisions at local level, and we echo the point that Chris just made about the potential for several organisations effectively to have to agree on a particular course of action. It is not at all clear what the hierarchy is. For example, we do not support, as is currently set out, the notion that clinical senates and clinical networks would effectively be part of the national commissioning board. We think that they should play an advisory role to local consortia, to emphasise the localism of decision making.

We also worry about the default position wherein consortia are not ready to take on budgets and they are being deployed by a national body. Again, there is a risk that, in that organisation trying to have relationships with health and well-being boards and its clinical senate, which, by the way, it also hosts, there is an enormous amount of confusion when it is supposed to be setting the strategic framework and then holding people to account.