NAO 18 December 2018
- This review sets out:
- changes to the commissioning landscape before CCGs were established;
- the role, running costs and performance of CCGs; and
- the changing commissioning landscape and the future role of CCGs.
- "There has been a phase of CCG restructuring with increased joint working and some CCGs merging. If current trends continue, this seems likely to result in fewer CCGs covering larger populations based around STP footprints. This larger scale is intended to help with planning, integrating services and consolidating CCGs’ leadership capability. However, there is a risk that commissioning across a larger population will make it more difficult for CCGs to design local health services that are responsive to patients’ needs, one of the original objectives of CCGs."
- "It is ... important that the current restructuring of CCGs creates stable and effective organisations that support the long-term aims of the NHS. Following almost three decades of change, NHS commissioning needs a prolonged period of organisational stability. This would allow organisations to focus on transforming and integrating health and care services rather than on reorganising themselves. It would be a huge waste of resources and opportunity if, in five years’ time, NHS commissioning is going full circle and undergoing yet another cycle of restructuring."
