Participation in commissioning health and care

CCGs have a number of statutory duties. Section 14Z2 of the NHS Act 2006, as amended by the Health and Social Care Act 2012 - covers the duties in relation to public involvement and consultation by CCGs when commissioning health and care services.

The guidance in full is available from NHS England and includes:

The clinical commissioning group must make arrangements to secure that individuals to whom the services are being or may be provided are involved (whether by being consulted or provided with information or in other ways):

(a) in the planning of the commissioning arrangements by the group

(b) in the development and consideration of proposals by the group for changes in the commissioning arrangements where the implementation of the proposals would have an impact on the manner in which the services are delivered to the individuals or the range of health services available to them and

(c) in decisions of the group affecting the operation of the commissioning arrangements where the implementation of the decisions would (if made) have such an impact.

Public sector equality duty

It also states that:

The Equality Act 2010 The Equality Act 2010 prohibits unlawful discrimination in the provision of services on the ground of ‘protected characteristics’, these are:

• age
• disability
• gender reassignment
• marriage and civil partnership
• pregnancy and maternity
• race
• religion or belief
• sex and sexual orientation.

As well as these prohibitions against unlawful discrimination the Equality Act 2010 requires CCGs to have ‘due regard’ to the need to:

• eliminate discrimination that is unlawful under the Equality Act 2010
• advance equality of opportunity between people who share a relevant protected characteristic and people who do not share it and
• foster good relations between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it.

This is known as the ‘public sector equality duty’ (section 149 of the Equality Act 2010). Click here to see how we work to ensure we meet and exceed our public sector equality duties.

Reducing health inequalities

NHS England and CCGs are also under a separate statutory duty to have regard to the need to reduce health inequalities between patients in access to health services and the outcomes achieved (sections 13G and 14T of the NHS Act, as amended by the Health and Social Care Act 2012, respectively).

Involving people in their own health and care

CCGs and NHS England also have a key role to play in ensuring that providers make individuals’ personal involvement in their health and care a reality. This guidance supports CCGs and NHS England to fulfil their legal duties to involve people in their health and care, so that people experience better quality care and improved health and wellbeing, and the system makes more efficient use of resources

How we support our staff to work with you

Our values underpin everything we do as commissioners and an employing organisation. We base our recruitment on our values which include being equitable and fair and services are designed to put people first and they meet their needs.

To be able to do this, our teams need to meet with, talk to and understand what matters most to those they are designing services for.

We were rated as an Outstanding CCG for the second year running by NHS England in 2018/19 and rated Green Star (Outstanding) for our compliance with the statutory guidance on patient and public participation in commissioning health and care, recognising the difference involvement makes to meetings the needs of local populations.

We provide training on engagement and equality for everyone within the organisation. This includes in house training on the use of our Equality and Patient Participation Assessment toolkit and also support staff to access external training provided by partners.  Recent examples include members of our primary care and commissioning teams attending the 10 Steps to Even Better Public Participation; a one-day training course that focuses on a ten-step model of participation to enable meaningful participation of patients and the public that is delivered by the Public Participation Team at NHS England & Improvement.     

We run development sessions for governing body members as well as a range of workshops and online training for staff. We are also members of the Consultation Institute.

As highlighted above, we have developed a toolkit for staff to use  . This is part of our ways of working and includes how we carry out our equality impact assessments and patient and public participation assessments. We also run training and induction sessions for new members of staff. Here is an overview and summary of the updated guidance we give to staff as part of their induction.

Our lay members are part of a South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw network, which is supported by the Integrated Care System. They receive training and peer support as part of this network.

In our latest staff survey, 9 out of 10 people agreed that their role makes a difference to patients/service users. The national average was 7 out of 10. 

We also work closely with local partner organisations as well as groups and forums who carry out this type of activity too. 

We ask for feedback at each of our involvement activities so we can continuously improve. Here is an example following involvement in a procurement.

We always want to improve, so please get in touch and let us know what you would like to see.