Issue - meetings

5.1.        The Committee considered a report and presentation on the financial plans of the three East Sussex Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) for 19/20 and the proposal to merge into a single East Sussex CCG from April 2020.  The Committee then asked the witnesses present a number of questions.

5.2.        The Committee asked what Brighton & Hove CCG (BHCCG) was doing differently compared to the other CCGs in Sussex and East Surrey in order to achieve a ‘green’ rating on both the finance and leadership ratings given by NHS England (NHSE) to CCGs.

5.3.        Adam Doyle, Chief Executive Officer, Sussex and East Surrey CCGs, explained that three years ago BHCCG was rated red by NHSE and was in financial difficulties. It was the first CCG he was appointed to as Accountable Officer in Sussex, and required a full change of governance, a refresh of its leadership team, and the development of a plan to deliver financial balance. Since then, the CCG has had a track record of achieving and sustaining its financial and leadership goals.

5.4.        Mr Doyle added that all other CCGs in the Sussex and East Surrey Sustainability and Transformation Partnership (STP) had subsequently fallen into financial difficulties. Since taking over as the chief officer at each CCG in turn, he has enacted the operational principles applied to BHCCG and is confident that they are all improving and are closer to achieving financial targets than they were last year.

5.5.        The Committee asked how local representation will be maintained on the proposed East Sussex CCG Governing Body.

5.6.        Adam Doyle explained that the three CCG Governing Bodies are being asked for indicative approval of the merger during June and July. Discussions with local representatives will then take place over the summer about the constitution of a new East Sussex CCG, including how local representation will feature in the membership of its Governing Body. The current working view, which will be subject to this engagement process, is that GP members of the Governing Body will represent populations of about 100,000 residents. He added that, in order to safeguard localism within the larger organisation, each GP Governing Body member will need to have an infrastructure around them to ensure they can be made aware of and represent local views at governing body meetings.

5.7.        The Committee questioned whether the additional infrastructure needed to support governing body members representing larger areas would not cancel out any potential savings from merging the three CCGs; and whether there was scope for voluntary organisations to provide this information.

5.8.        Adam Doyle explained that running the eight statutory CCG Governing Bodies (across the whole STP) has a cost to it. He said he believed that the right operating model can be developed that will both meet the required 20% back office saving and provide the appropriate level of support the people on the new CCG governing bodies would need.

5.9.        He said that this will be aided by the new Primary Care Networks (PCNs), which are required  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5