Our concerns about reduced local accountability arrangements

The draft legislation, Draft Legislative Reform (Clinical Commissioning Groups) Order 2014, which is due for imminent sign-off by the Secretary of State for Health, will grant Clinical Commissioning Groups the statutory power to set up joint committees in common to make decisions on health services at a regional level, effectively overriding their requirement to engage local people.

Where these structures are already in operation, local Healthwatch are reporting that these new structures are cutting corners and making little effort to actively engage their local populations in major decisions about the redesign of services.

The current legislative procedure does not allow the Government to make amendments to the draft Order at this stage of the process.

Therefore, we have asked the Secretary of State to use the next legislative opportunity to amend the Order. In the meantime, we have advised the Secretary of State to consider a number of proposals as matter of priority to ensure public engagement is not compromised.