Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what specific role NHS England has in supporting Clinical Commissioning Groups; and what plans, if any, they have to change this role.

Clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) commission the majority of NHS services in England. As such, NHS England is responsible for ensuring that every CCG can access excellent affordable commissioning support services. Its principal vehicles for delivering this are through the Lead Provider Framework for commissioning support which enables CCGs to draw down a range of support services from nine high quality providers and through the oversight of NHS Commissioning Support Units, which NHS England hosts.

NHS England also has a statutory duty to produce commissioning guidance, which CCGs must have regard to, and continues to promote good commissioning through its CCG assurance framework.

NHS England continues to review its support of CCGs to ensure they are well supported organisations. There are no immediate plans to change this offer.