Clinical commissioning groups are key to transforming the NHS

In Corby, the CCG has introduced a new urgent care facility, and local people no longer have to travel eight miles for an x-ray. Photograph: Hans Neleman/Getty

For the past year clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) have been working hard to make a difference in a system that isn’t set up to support them. But in spite of increasingly unstable finances and an NHS that is still embedding and adapting to new ways of working, CCGs are making responsible, clinically-led decisions in partnership with GPs, patients and providers which are making a difference to the care being delivered to their communities. Our Taking the Lead publication highlights 16 CCGs across the country who are unleashing the power of clinical leaders, working with local government, the voluntary sector and other key partners.

The 16 examples show what results for patients the innovation, enthusiasm, energy and clinical leadership of CCGs can have – for example, in Corby, senior GPs now work part of their week in a new urgent care facility, and local people no longer have to travel eight miles to A&E for an x-ray. Or take Oldham, where the CCG is working with the local council and a housing association to lift people out of fuel poverty so that 1,000 households stay warm in the winter. In Leicester, health coaches are helping people with chronic lung disease to look after themselves, and in east London people recovering from mental ill-health can now be seen out of hospital in their GP surgery.

These are just a small sample of the range of integrated and innovative work that CCGs are leading all over the country. I’m not pretending that creating a high-quality and sustainable NHS is going to be easy, but the ambition and appetite from CCGs to make services the best they can be for patients is real.

Our members regularly tell us the good, the bad and the ugly of what is happening at the local level, so on 1 May we launched our CCG manifesto, Making change happen. The manifesto, which was developed by NHSCC members, is a system-wide call to ensure CCGs are supported to realise their potential and create a transformational NHS. The NHS chief executive, Simon Stevens, welcomed it and committed to working with CCGs to make it a reality. We were pleased to hear his announcement of new powers for CCGs in primary care, which recognises the need for a more integrated approach across the whole system.

The manifesto, which highlights eight challenging and critical asks, stresses the importance of every part of the NHS working with each other, and respecting the value that CCGs bring. All too often people don’t see clinical commissioning as an equal player in the system, but if we are going to transform services locally for the benefit of patients, CCGs must be at the centre of decision making.

The eight asks are:

1. Free clinical commissioners to act in the best interest of patients.
2. Make local system leadership a priority.
3. Health and well-being boards as the focus of joined-up commissioning.
4. CCGs must not be a risk pool for the NHS.
5. Support to deliver large-scale transformation at pace.
6. Connecting national and local commissioning.
7. Better alignment of local commissioning to healthcare quality and the new inspection regime.
8. Competition in the NHS in the best interest of patients.

With the general election due in 2015, we will also pursue the aims of the manifesto. We need to make sure that whichever party or parties are leading the country after the election understand the value and impact that clinical commissioners are having and why it’s critical that we don’t go backwards or face another massive reorganisation of the NHS.

The whole system – providers, local authorities, regulators, thinktanks, as well as NHS England and the Department of Health – needs to recognise the system leadership role that CCGs play at the local level, and appreciate their clinical expertise and patient understanding.

Our manifesto for change has some of the answers to those difficult and critical questions, and with more than 75% of CCGs in membership we have a loud, strong and collective voice, but working with each other, and not against each other, is the only way we can ensure the NHS transformation continues in the best interests of patients and local populations.

Dr Steve Kell is co-chair of the NHSCC Leadership Group and chair of NHS Bassetlaw CCG

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Clinical commissioning groups are key to transforming the NHS