Accountability
How we are held to account
Our CCG is a membership organisation and we are accountable to our member GP practices, as well as local people and wider stakeholders. Some of the ways in which we demonstrate accountability include:
- publishing our constitution, you can find out more about our constitution on the how our CCG is run page of our website.
- appointing independent lay members and non-GP clinicians to our governing body and holding governing body meetings in public. You can find out more about our governing body on the governing body page of our website.
- publishing our annual report and accounts and holding an annual public meeting to present these. You can read our annual report and accounts on the documents page of our website.
- reporting to the health and social care overview and scrutiny committee. You can find out more about the health and social care overview and scrutiny committee on the Bradford Council website (opens in a new window) which covers Bradford district, Airedale and Wharfedale or on the North Yorkshire County Council website (opens in a new window) for the Craven area.
- having a clear and published concerns and complaints process. You can read more about our concerns and complaints process on the patient support line page of our website.
- publishing our conflicts of interest policy. You can read our conflicts of interest policy on the policies and procedures page of our website.
Lay member for public and patient involvement
A lay member is someone who has expertise and experience at a senior level in patient and public involvement, and who has a good knowledge of our local communities. They also bring experience of working at board level in a large organisation.
In every aspect of CCG business, our lay member helps ensure that local people’s voices are heard and that opportunities to empower people, and get them involved in co-design, are created and protected for patient and public.
Our lay member is also responsible for holding the CCG to account for their patient and public involvement by ensuring:
- patient and community interests are at the heart of discussions and decisions
- our CCG acts in the best interests of the health of the local population
- our CCG commission (buy) the highest quality services and secures the best possible outcomes for patients within resources available and maintains a consistent focus on quality, integration and innovation
- health provision is in line with the NHS constitution.
Our lay member for patient and public involvement is David Richardson.
As a member of the governing body and primary care commissioning committee, together with involvement in a broad range of patient involvement meetings, David is able to provide appropriate support and challenge to issues being considered and decided upon.
Together with colleagues, he ensures that the governing body remains in tune with member practices, their patients and the community by acting in the best interests of the health of the local population and maintaining a clear business focus on commissioning the highest quality services that secures the best possible outcomes for patients.
David is an active member of the Patient Network Steering Group and an advocate for the effective engagement with patients and communities in all of our GP practices.
David is a lay member of the Programme Board for a research programme into Personalised Care Planning for the Elderly and Frail that has received £2.7 million of funding from the National Institute for Health Research to conduct a five year programme studying personalised care planning to improve quality of life for older people with frailty.
Personalised care planning is designed to improve self-management skills, prevent unplanned hospital admissions and help support older people with frailty to thrive in their communities. The approach also aims to improve coordination of primary care, out of hospital programme board, voluntary sector and social care services whilst increasing social connectivity of individuals to improve their health and wellbeing.
The overall aim of the research is to find out whether personalised care planning improves quality of life for older people living with frailty, and is cost-effective.
David is a member of a number of CCG committees and other meetings, including:
- Governing body
- Primary care commissioning committee
- Joint quality committee
- Remuneration committee
- Involve (a regular meeting about the communications, engagement and equality and diversity aspects of our CCG work)
- West Yorkshire and Harrogate Health & Care Partnership lay members’ group
- Patient network steering group
- Patient network meetings attendee
- People’s board attendee
- Voluntary and community sector strategic planning group – chair
- Post infection review group
- Enhanced primary care implementation group
- Bradford district and Craven engaging people steering group
- NHS Improvement Academy, Yorkshire – quality and public and patient involvement in patient safety
- NHS Improvement Academy, Yorkshire – academic unit of elderly care and rehabilitation programme board for personalised care planning for the elderly and frail
Information about the roles of these committees is available in our annual report.
How we hold others to account
Our CCG is responsible for planning and buying (commissioning) services from healthcare providers to meet the needs of our population. The main providers in Bradford district and Craven are:
- GP practices
- Airedale NHS Foundation Trust (Airedale Hospital)
- Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (Bradford Royal Infirmary and St Luke’s hospitals)
- Bradford District Care NHS Foundation Trust (community and mental health services)
- Care homes and nursing homes
- Voluntary and community sector
Local councils – Bradford Council, North Yorkshire County Council and Craven District Council – are responsible for social care services and public health.
We regularly monitor feedback about these local providers to make sure that the services we buy deliver high quality care and give people a positive experience. If the feedback we receive suggests that there is an area for improvement, we work with our providers to identify the actions that need to be taken and follow this up.
You can find out more about what we do with people’s feedback about local services providers on the get involved pages of our website. The way that we pull together and analyse feedback is known Grassroots.
You can read more about how Grassroots feedback has made a difference in our guide to Grassroots.
We also work together with our provider organisations on engagement with patients and the public. This is facilitated by a Bradford district and Craven communications and engagement network which brings teams together to coordinate activity and jointly plan projects.
When providers want to make a change to a service, they must involve us as commissioners so that we have assurance that patients, carers and the public are involved in decision making. If appropriate, our CCG will carry out patient and public engagement activity or work closely with partners to make sure that patients and carers are fully engaged in any changes.
Some recent examples of how we have held services accountable during a change include:
- GP practice service changes: in 2019 a group of GP practices in Bradford City wanted to work more closely together and move from Whetley Medical Centre to Westbourne Green Community Health Centre with the aim of offering improved facilities and services to patients. Our CCG advised the GP about their responsibilities to engage with patients and supported them with their communications and engagement strategy for the proposed relocation to enable a wide range of people to participate. You can find out more about the GP practice service change on The Family Practice website (opens in a new window).
- Services changing the way they work together: our two acute hospital trusts – Bradford and Airedale – are working collaboratively on the development of a number of services, including stroke care. Our CCG funded Healthwatch Bradford to be involved in the project to ensure that the patient and carer voice was at the heart of this work. You can find out more about the stroke services project work on the Healthwatch Bradford website (opens in a new window).
The CCG quality team take part in regular quality review meetings with all local providers. The engagement and experience team work closely with the quality team to make sure the CCG is asking the right questions, focusing most on those people who find it hardest to access services or who will be most affected by any changes.
As a result of patient experience feedback we may invite providers to attend our Joint Quality Committee (JQC). The JQC is chaired by the CCG lay member for patient and public involvement and provides assurance about the action(s) being taken to improve services.
Providers report regularly to us about patient experience and engagement as part of their quality assurance processes. Our CCG comments formally on these reports. Sometimes we ask for more information about the involvement activities which have taken place, or make suggestions for ways provider can improve their engagement with patients and the public. For example, we worked with maternity services at our local hospitals to improve engagement through the local Maternity Voices Partnership.
