GP practices throughout Berkshire West have voted for the 4 CCGs (Newbury and District, South Reading, North and West Reading and Wokingham) to merge to form a single CCG. The administrative leadership of the Berkshire West Federation has issued a proposal for the merger (see below) which has now been approved by voting by GP practices in the 4 Councils of Practices in Berkshire West. The proposal would maintain 4 local teams and 4 local Councils of Practices in the localities corresponding to the existing CCG areas to deal with local variation but there will also be an overall Council of Practices of the 50 or so GP practices in Berkshire West. The retention of local Councils of Practices is said to favour engagement with patients, but it is not clear how. Overall, there is little consideration of patient involvement, nor have patients and public been consulted. The next step will be to pass the proposal to NHS England for further consideration and action. The proposal also states that "the work associated with the CCG programme boards has grown significantly and these are now major transformation programmes supporting delivery of the Five Year Forward View and underpinning the ACS programme". Apart from the Primary Care Commissioning Committee, none of these boards meets in public and so very little is known to the public about these "major transformation programmes".