Agenda item

The Committee considered a report of the Assistant Chief Executive and received a presentation from Ben Clark, Assistant Director of Clinical Strategy, NHS England – Durham, Darlington and Tees Valley Team (DDTVT)  which provided details of the role and function of the DDTVT as the local presence for NHS England (for copy of report and slides see file of Minutes).

The Assistant Director of Clinical Strategy, NHS England informed the Committee that NHS England was a patient-focussed, clinically-led organisation which had the culture, style and leadership to improve outcomes for patients.  It allocated resources to Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCG’s), provided support to CCG’s to commission services on behalf of their patients, as well as having direct responsibility for commissioning some services.

The aims of NHS England were to improve health outcomes as defined by the NHS Outcomes Framework and to ensure that NHS bodies operated within resource limits.  This would enable patients and the public to have more choice and control over their care and services, clinicians to have greater freedom to innovate to shape services around the needs and choices of patients and the promotion of equality and the reduction of inequality in access to healthcare.

The structure of NHS England was as follows:

• A national support centre in Leeds and a presence in London
• Four regions - providing clinical and professional leadership, co-ordinating planning, operational management and emergency preparedness and undertaking direct commissioning functions and processes within a single operating model
• 27 Area teams – commissioning  high quality primary care services, supporting and developing CCGs, assessing and assuring performance, direct and specialised commissioning, managing and cultivating local partnerships and stakeholder relationships, including representation on health and wellbeing boards

Resolved:

That the role and function of NHS England be noted.