National Commissioning Board Had Concerns over Berkshire West CCG Federation Governance

The minutes of the CCG Authorisation Sub-Committee from December show that the NCB before authorising the Berkshire West CCGs, did have concerns over the structure of the Berkshire West Federation.

In particular how one Accountable Officer would be responsible for four CCGs, as shown by the following extract from the minutes: (SPD is Dr Sarah Pinto-Duchinsky - head of CCG authorisation and BH is Dame Barabara Hakin National DIrector of Commissioning Development)

  • 27 SPD moved to present the Berkshire West Federation of four CCGs, which includes Newbury and District CCG, North and West Reading CCG, South Reading CCG, and Wokingham CCG. The federation intended to have one Accountable Officer and one Chief Finance Officer shared across the four
    CCGs.
  • 28. BH outlined that the moderation and conditions panel had agreed to bring the most significant issues for resolution to the sub-committee and highlighted that the Berkshire West federation was considered to be the most difficult issue to be resolved in wave one. The main issue with Berkshire West federation was how one AO would be able to service four separate governing bodies at the same time as running the four CCGs on a day-to-day basis.
  • 29. SPD explained that their view had been that the individual CCGs had been so focussed on the creation of their four individual sets of arrangements that they had not concentrated on how they would work as a collective. The assessments had been careful not to pass judgement on the designate AO as an individual but rather expressed concerns that the current arrangements would not be adequate to support all four CCGs.
  • 30. The sub-committee discussed the issue and concluded that the federation should be asked to review its governance functions in order to ensure that the AO and other directors would be able to function effectively.
  • 31. The sub-committee approved the recommendation to appoint the AO with these assurances.
  • 32. SPD confirmed that the recommendation to the sub-committee was to authorise each of the four CCGs with conditions.
  • 33. The sub-committee approved the authorisation each of the four CCGs within the Berkshire West federated CCGs conditions.