NHS CBA will co-ordinate CSS recruitment

The NHS Commissioning Board Authority (CBA) will direct the recruitment of commissioning support services over the next four months.

The temporary Authority will appoint managing directors and chief finance officers for each CSS, then co-ordinate the appointment of junior officers.

The decision means that many PCT staff will have to wait months to find out whether they have CSS roles.

The move to take control of CSS appointments is intended to stop CSS organisations competing for management staff.

Some CSS leaders have criticised the decision, which reflects the CBA’s growing concern (highlighted in its recent Board paper) with the challenge of finalising the new NHS organisational structure.

It follows the decision in May to abandon plans for a stand-alone national communications support service for CCGs.

This in turn followed the ‘checkpoint 2’ stage of CSS authorisation, which only 14 of the 26 prospective CSSs passed robustly and three failed outright.

CSS recruitment will start with the most senior posts and continue with more junior staff, ending when the Board is fully launched in October.

As the CBA will initially ‘host’ the CSS organisations, it will employ all CSS staff. As the Board replaces the CBA, the CSSs will become independent.