Simon Burns: The arrangements we are proposing for commissioning would see clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) led by local clinicians responsible for coordinating the commissioning of complex or low volume services; including those for disabled children and young people. CCGs will have the flexibility to enter into collaborative arrangements. They can for example adopt a lead commissioner/CCG model and...
Lord Hunt of Kings Heath: ...weeks. The Secretary of State has ruled that this is unacceptable. The question that arises is: if that situation arose with clinical commissioning groups, what is there to be done to ensure that CCGs are reminded that their job is to ensure that their patients receive comprehensive health services? Essentially, that is what my first amendment is about. It is of course linked to Clauses 10...
Lord Patel: ..., the Bill does not give local healthwatch organisations any specific role in relation to clinical commissioning groups. They have no direct role in influencing the commissioning arrangements of CCGs in relation to the needs of local people, nor do they have any say in it. In my view, therefore, HealthWatch England should be established as an independent body outside the CQC; be the...
Lord Hunt of Kings Heath: ..., but of course, one has first of all to recognise that if a major reconfiguration is proposed, it will involve a number of clinical commissioning groups. The first test will be whether a number of CCGs will be able to come together to achieve a strategic outcome. Secondly, even if that happens, those clinical commissioning groups have yet to feel the heat of battle. They may well...
Earl Howe: ...is expected to consider these proposals later this year. Final arrangements can only be adopted by the board, once it is established. There will be a duty placed on clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) to involve patients, carers and the public in commissioning decisions. This would require commissioning groups to consult on their annual commissioning plans to ensure proper opportunities...
Baroness Thornton: ...-what information he will need, where he will get it from and how those decisions will then be moved through the proposed structures of the National Health Service Commissioning Board, the CCGs and so on. Surely, the health and well-being boards would want to have some involvement from the NHS on health inequalities, so Amendment 118 seeks to ensure that the board has health inequalities...
Earl Howe: ...the use of arrangements under Section 75 of the National Health Service Act 2006 between the authorities and clinical commissioning groups. Section 75 arrangements would effectively be a means for CCGs and local authorities to work together in an integrated manner, often to commission health and social care services. The Bill contains a number of provisions to encourage and enable the NHS,...
Earl Howe: ...a great deal will be different, and that is exactly why Clause 21 provides the Secretary of State with the power to set a limit on the use of resources by the board itself and by the board and CCGs together in relation to administrative matters. The meaning of what is to be considered as administrative matters will be defined through parliamentary regulations for the first time. The board...
Baroness Bakewell: ...are having about it concern the replacement of one complex structure of the NHS with another. We have been debating in detail the network of relationships between the NHS Commissioning Board, the CCGs, HealthWatch England, the CQC, the local HealthWatch organisations and the role of Monitor. All this abundance of well intended organisational ways of meeting the needs of patients does not...
Baroness Thornton: ...say that the publication of the Government's recent draft guidance on commissioning, Developing Commissioning Support: Towards Service Excellence, in effect decrees that by 2016 the real work of CCGs will be outsourced, presumably to large private providers, which makes me start to question what is left for CCGs to worry about. However, the issue that these amendments deal with is a...
Simon Burns: ...% of the community services budget. A table listing the organisations and their go-live dates (as of 30 November 2011) has been placed in the Library. The pathfinder clinical commissioning group (CCGs) programme is about testing the principles of our proposals for clinical commissioning groups. As such pathfinder CCGs will be able to change their composition, as they work to find the most...
Baroness Jolly: ...expertise is looked up to and expected from the community. They will be absolutely pivotal in delivering and making health plans, both through the health and well-being board and working with the CCGs. There is no way that the DPH could be a shrinking violet; as my noble friend Lady Cumberlege has just said, they really have to be able to mix it and get in there, but what they do has to be...
Lord Patel of Bradford: ...groups. In effect, it significantly alters these duties so that the protections currently afforded by the Mental Health Act are greatly weakened. Separating the statutory responsibilities between CCGs and local authorities in the manner proposed by Clause 37 will allow one agency to decide to end the provision of services without notice or consultation with the other agency or even the...
Lord Hunt of Kings Heath: ...NHS Commissioning Board or health and well-being boards. Quite remarkably, there is nothing about clinical commissioning groups. Perhaps the noble Earl could tell me why the effectiveness of the CCGs is not to be kept under review? Perhaps I have misread the Bill and this will be done in some other way. But I find it remarkable that this Bill is built around GPs and clinical commissioning...
Lord Dubs: ...some 8 million people with neurological conditions. The problem concerns how the commissioning of services for people with MS and other neurological conditions will take place under the new CCGs. There is a sense that there is a strategic gap between CCGs and the national Commissioning Board. CCGs, as at present devised, will cover relatively small populations and it will be difficult for...
Baroness Thornton: ...Amendment 277C would add a safeguard that before Monitor takes any actions under Clauses 68 or 69, it must have regard to the regulations made by the Secretary of State, including the PRCC, consult CCGs and the health and wellbeing boards, and obtain the consent of the Secretary of State. Amendment 277D would ensure that in relation to procurement, patient choice and competition, the...
Andrew Lansley: ...to the passage of the Health and Social Care Bill, the NHS Commissioning Board would be responsible for the allocation of resources and pace of change policy to clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) from 2013-14. In common with previous practice, I have today written to all hon. Members to inform them of the revenue allocations made to the PCTs covered by their constituencies. Full details...
Baroness Williams of Crosby: ...who will no longer be able to take his place. A substantial number of NHS patients-one hopes a majority-are patients under the foundation trusts. It is therefore important that the concerns of the CCGs and of the board should be represented on foundation trust governing bodies. I will also briefly speak to Amendments 300, 301, 302 and 303 in the same group. All relate to the decisions to...
Earl Howe: ...care needs that are related to a wide range of areas, such as alcohol harm, disability or older people. In preparing the JSNA and joint health and well-being strategies, local authorities and CCGs will be under a duty, which the health and well-being boards will discharge, to involve people who live or work in the area. In practice this could include allied health professionals, as...
Simon Burns: ...has been issued. Subject to the passage of the Health and Social Care Bill, the National Health Service Commissioning Board will be responsible for supporting clinical commissioning groups (CCGs), previously known as general practitioner consortia, in their commissioning decisions. This will include publishing commissioning guidance to which CCGs must have regard. This will be based on the...
