Notice: Following publication of the Health and Care Bill 2021, and subject to this Bill receiving Royal Assent – NHS Clinical Commissioning Groups will be dissolved with their duties and functions transferring to Integrated Care Boards on 1st july 2022. At present the shadow entity for the Integrated Care Board is the Herts and West Essex Integrated Care System. However, the final name for this new entity is to be confirmed once formally assigned.

Background

The Health and Care Bill was introduced to Parliament in early July by the new Secretary of State for Health and Care, Sajid Javid. The Bill follows on closely from the publication of the Integrated Care System design framework, which reinforced the importance of public and voluntary sector health and care organisations working together to improve health and wellbeing for all. 

The Health and Care Bill builds on the proposals for legislative change set out by NHS England and NHS Improvement in its Long Term Plan, while also incorporating valuable lessons learnt from the COVID-19 pandemic. The Bill’s introduction to Parliament follows extensive discussions with NHS England, the Local Government Association and the health and care sector. 

The Bill introduces an Integrated Care Board, as well as a wider Integrated Care Partnership that each Integrated Care Board and its partner local authorities will be required to establish. The Integrated Care Partnerships will bring together local NHS organisations and local government - including social care, mental health services, housing providers and public health expertise - to deliver joined-up care for their local populations. Clinicians, carers and public health experts will be empowered to operate collaboratively across health and care to tackle health inequalities. The Bill also includes measures to tackle obesity and improve oral health. The Bill aims to help reduce unnecessary bureaucracy so that health and care staff can focus more on patients, and ensure the system is able to flex to changing needs in the years to come. 

All Clinical Commissioning Group staff below Board level, and all functions of the CCGs will transfer to the ICS, along with many other duties and accountabilities. There will also be a transfer of several NHS England and NHS Improvement direct commissioning functions, which is currently being explored. Work is taking place across our system to ensure the transition is as smooth as possible.

East and North Hertfordshire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) is the organisation responsible for commissioning (planning, designing and paying for) your NHS services. The CCG is made up of local GPs and health professionals, working together with other clinicians and patients, to decide how the local NHS budget of £724m should be spent.

The CCG serves about 600,000 people registered at 57 GP Practices across east and north Hertfordshire. Our GPs understand the health needs of their patients, and we believe this local approach to commissioning helps ensure good quality services that meet the needs of the population.

The CCG’s mission is:

To reduce health inequality and achieve a stable and sustainable health economy by working together, sharing best practice and improving expertise and clinical outcomes.

To work with patients, manager and clinical colleagues from all sectors to commission the best possible healthcare for our patients within available resources.

Find out more about your locality group, the lead GPs and the health priorities in your area here.

Here are some of the organisations we commission health services from:

• Addenbrookes Hospital (Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust)
• Barnet & Chase Farm Hospitals (The Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust)
• East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust
• East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust
• Herts Community NHS Trust
• Herts Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust
• Herts Urgent Care
• Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust

Some other sites you might find useful

• NHS England
• NICE
• NHS Choices

The health and care system from April 2013

The system that the government’s reforms created in April 2013 can be quite complicated and difficult to understand. And it isn’t always easy to see how all the new bits of the system fit together. The following animation produced by the King’s Fund gives a useful summary of the system and you can see how CCGs fit into this, as does this infographic from NHS Employers, 'The new NHS in 2013 - What it means for you'.

NHS England has a also produced 'Understanding the new NHS' which outlines the organisations and systems that define, sustain and regulate the NHS.   The new version of this guide, originally produced for junior doctors, incorporates changes to the structure and function of the NHS.  It provides an understandable and informative guide to the new NHS.

Our plan on a page
This diagram summarises our priorities and aims for the next five years. We call it our 'plan on a page'.