Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment has been made by NHS England of the specialist skills and knowledge required to commission dialysis.

NHS England has advised that it is in dialogue with key stakeholders about both the opportunities and challenges of transferring responsibility for renal services. The head of the Specialised Services Task Force in NHS England recently met stakeholders from renal service representative groups and heard their concerns directly. A new Task & Finish group is being established by NHS England through the NHS Commissioning Assembly. This group will look specifically at what support clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) would require to be able to safely and effectively commission services devolved to them.

The Prescribed Specialised Services Advisory Group (PSSAG) is a Department of Health appointed expert committee which was established in 2013 to provide the Secretary of State with advice and recommendations on specialised services. The PSSAG meets multiple times a year. The PSSAG met and formulated its recommendations on 30 September 2014, which concluded transferring commissioning responsibility for renal services. The Department intends to launch a public consultation before the end of 2014. The consultation will consider how to transfer commissioning responsibility and what would need to happen to ensure a smooth transition and maintain both service standards and patient safety.

NHS England is committed to issuing commissioning guidance for the safe transfer of services from national NHS England responsibility to local CCG responsibility.