In the article, David sets out the different roles the Board will fulfil and highlights the importance of getting the style right in both holding clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) to account and supporting them to be more effective. He sets out a number of suggestions on how the Board could approach this;
- Focus on pulling together clinical evidence and avoid duplicating effort across CCGs;
- Ensure commissioning guidance is practical and useful. Lengthy strategy documents are often unhelpful. Focus on practical material which can be “cut and pasted” into local contracts, such as model service specifications, benchmarking tools or quality markers;
- Be clear it is guidance, not instruction. CCGs should be free to ignore it provided they have good reasons to do so;
- Make sure CCGs have control over what areas are prioritised for commissioning guidance because the existence of guidance can distort local priority setting.
Read David's article in full on the HSJ website (subscription required).