Commissioning documentation key to CCG authorisation

Prospective CCGs are to be assessed on their commissioning intentions for 2013–14 as part of the CCG authorisation process, latest guidance from the NHS Commissioning Board Authority (NCBA) has revealed.

Applicants will need to submit key documentation such as Joint Strategic Needs Assessment plans and Health & Wellbeing Board strategies as part of a robust review process.

The shadow organisations will also need to provide a list of collaborative commissioning arrangements, joint commissioning agreements and any 2012–13 contracts approved via PCT clusters. An Integrated Plan for the current year will also be assessed.

The parameters for assessment are outlined in a new guide issued by the NCBA: Clinical commissioning group authorisation: draft guide for assessors undertaking desk top review, which is designed to support assessors participating in the CCG application process. The guide focuses on the first phase of NHSCB assessment, ‘desk top review’, the completion of which will lead to the production of a key reference document to support CCG authorisation.

The guide follows the April publication of a draft guide for applicants and aims to ensure that evidence submitted by CCGs is assessed ‘transparently, consistently and fairly’. It outlines assessors’ roles within the authorisation process, its overarching principles and methodology, and the criteria by which evidence submissions should be judged. This evidence, it says, should be a ‘by-product of core business’ for CCGs.

Full details of the authorisation process at the desk top review stage are available here.