Andrew Lansley: ...on whether commissioning termination of pregnancies should in the longer term be the responsibility of clinical commissioning groups or local authorities. In the interim, as a practical measure, CCGs will be responsible for commissioning these services for April 2013. The update documents have been placed in the Library. Copies are available to hon. Members from the Vote Office and to...
Earl Howe: ...In these circumstances, the property deeds are transferred to the clinical commissioning group as a corporate entity. They are not transferred to the individual GP members, and once transferred to CCGs, if the governing body wished to dispose of property, that, as I say, has to be done in accordance with the same safeguards that currently apply to PCTs. I hope that that reassures the noble...
Earl Howe: 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) in their commissioning decisions. This will include publishing commissioning guidance to which CCGs must have regard. This will be based on the quality standards that the National Institute for Health and Clinical...
Baroness Lister of Burtersett: ...of life's ironies. Through a system of community care grants and crisis loans, the discretionary Social Fund provides vital cash assistance to some of the most vulnerable members of the community. CCGs help people on out-of-work benefits to remain in or set up their own home, to retain their independence. We are talking, for instance, about young people leaving a children's home or foster...
Earl Howe: None. Clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) cannot sub-contract nor delegate their commissioning decisions to other organisations. Subject to the passage of the Health and Social Care Bill, CCGs will be legally accountable for meeting their statutory functions and responsible for the outcomes of their commissioning decisions.
Andy Burnham: ...real direction of the policy. We simply ask how that can possibly be consistent with the Prime Minister’s promise of no privatisation. The second example is the Department's guidance document to CCGs entitled “Developing commissioning support: towards service excellence”. I shall quote from the beginning of the document, which gives a clear statement of intent: “The NHS sector,...
Earl Howe: Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) will take on responsibility for commissioning female genital mutilation (FGM) services. The NHS Commissioning Board will be responsible for commissioning specialised services. We anticipate that the list of these services will be based closely on the current specialised services national definition set. There are a number of ways in which the Government...
Anne Milton: ...at preparing for the establishment of the NHS Commissioning Board, subject to the passage of the Health and Social Care Bill. Therefore, it has no power to authorise clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) and is not taking applications for this purpose. The Government have accepted the NHS Future Forum's recommendation that the boundaries of CCGs should not normally cross those of local...
Simon Burns: ...groups to have the flexibility to engage with the full range of health and care professionals to support the design of pathways of care and to shape services. Clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) will be required to obtain appropriate advice from a broad range of professionals, which can include pharmacists. CCGs may also include pharmacists in their committees. Subject to the passage of...
Simon Burns: The Department supported NHS North East in its work with local emerging clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) to develop “Interim Governance Arrangements for Pathfinder CCGs”. This document has been used to support local emerging CCGs to put in place robust governance arrangements that would enable them to operate with delegated authority from primary care trust boards and build experience...
Earl Howe: ...; this will include supporting commissioners to draw on appropriate advice. The NHS Commissioning Board will, subject to Parliament, be established by October 2012. Clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) will, subject to Parliament, be established in April 2013. The NHS Commissioning Board Authority has been set up in order to prepare for the establishment and operation of the NHS...
Simon Burns: The sixth cohort of Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) pathfinders was announced in October 2011, taking the number of pathfinders in the North East to 14, covering the entire population. Emerging CCGs are working with primary care trust and strategic health authority clusters on developing the right configurations, and consequently the number of individual CCGs would change when practices...
Simon Burns: ...will be set out in job descriptions and reflected both in the recruitment processes for individuals and in terms of ongoing development for individuals. All emerging clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) will receive a broad range of development support from their primary care trust and strategic health authority. This includes financial support as well as assigning key personnel to them...
Lord Patel: ...that the Secretary of State is fully committed to improving the nation's mental health services and the prevention and treatment of mental and physical illness and expects the NHS board and the CCGs to do the same. When the Government launched their mental health strategy, No Health WithoutMental Health, in February 2011, the Minister for Care Services stated that he wanted to see parity...
Earl Howe: ...Secretary of State or an NHS body is failing to comply with its legal duties, there would be a right to seek legal redress by means of a claim for judicial review. There is a central issue here. CCGs will be under a statutory obligation to arrange for provision of care to meet the reasonable requirements of the people for whom they have responsibility. The local authority's health and...
Earl Howe: ...noble Lords will see, we have tabled amendments to strengthen links with the wider system. We have already discussed government Amendments 61 and 104, which would place duties on the board and on CCGs to promote education and training. These amendments were accepted in a previous debate. They are designed to ensure that commissioners of NHS services consider the planning, commissioning and...
Baroness Williams of Crosby: ...group determine when a patient can be excluded from the overall effect of the directions under Amendment 35. I assume that that would be because they come under the board rather than the CCGs but my noble friend may be able to give me a slightly purer view of the exact meaning. My second question relates to Amendments 137, 138, 139 and 140. What are the effects of the Secretary of State's...
Simon Burns: Information on remuneration for doctors working for emerging clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) is not held centrally. Once established, the governing body of a CCG will have the responsibility to determine remuneration, fees and allowances payable to employees of the CCG and to those that provide services to the CCG. Each clinical commissioning group will have a limit on administrative...
Jeremy Lefroy: ...not just ditch them. Transparency in the reporting on and reaction to adverse and serious incidents is improving, but under the Bill, with the health and wellbeing boards, HealthWatch and the CCGs, there will be groups taking a direct interest in what is happening in their local area. Since the troubles at Mid-Staffordshire, all parties have focused on quality of care. I welcome the...
Simon Burns: ...subject to the value-based pricing regime. In addition to this, NICE will continue to have an important role in providing authoritative advice to clinicians and Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) on how new and existing treatments best fit into the treatment for a particular condition. In addition to guidance from NICE, when making commissioning decisions, CCGs will be able to draw on...
