Who we are and what we do

This class of the publication scheme has information about our organisation such as structure, governance and location and how to contact us.

How we fit into the NHS structure

Clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) were established in 2013 after Primary Care Trusts were abolished in the Health and Social Care Act 2012 (opens in a new window). CCGs are led by clinicians and are responsible for commissioning (buying) health and care services including:

planned hospital care
rehabilitation services (e.g. physiotherapy and occupational therapy)
urgent and emergency care (e.g. A&E and ambulances)
most community health services (e.g. district nurses)
mental health and learning disability services
maternity services
continuing healthcare/personalised commissioning (care out of hospital for people with ongoing health needs).

This means that CCGs are empowered and enabled to improve services locally for the benefit of patients and local communities.

Our CCG has full delegated responsibility from NHS England (now NHS England and NHS Improvement), to commission GP primary care services. We are passionate about improving quality across all GP practices and the introduction of this delegation is seen as an essential step towards expanding and strengthening primary medical care.

To support our role, we have established a primary care commissioning committee whose role is to make decisions on the review, planning and procurement of primary care services in our area, under delegated authority from NHS England. You can read more about our primary care commissioning committee on the how our CCG is run section of our website.

CCGs are overseen by NHS England and NHS Improvement. They oversee CCGs in our area and also manage some aspects of primary care commissioning, such as services commissioned from NHS dentists, pharmacies and opticians.

The Health and Social Care Act established several other new bodies including (please note links will open in a new window):

Healthwatch England who are responsible for providing advice on the views of local organisations and service users
NHS Digital who are responsible for publishing and assessing the quality of information produced by health and social care bodies
Public Health England who are responsible for public health.

Further information and key documents

In 2019, NHS England published the Long Term Plan which sets out the priorities for the NHS for the next ten years (opens in a new window).

The NHS Constitution sets out the principles and values of the NHS in England, you can read the constitution on the Government website (opens in a new window).

Equity and excellence – liberating the NHS (2010) (opens in a new window) sets out the government’s long term vision for the future of the NHS.

Organisational structure

A copy of our organisational structure chart will be published here once available. Once available it will provide an explanation of the internal structure of our organisation, key personnel and how this structure relates to roles and responsibilities. It also includes details of our senior executive team.

CCGs are made up of member GP practices, you can find a list of our member practices on the our GP practices page of our website.

You can take a look at our governing body members (our board) on the governing body page of our website.

Meetings with pharmaceutical companies and other medical suppliers

Our CCG does not hold meetings with pharmaceutical companies or medical suppliers.

Organisations we work in partnership with

Below is a list of organisations with which we work in partnership, you can click on the name of each one to be taken to their website (opens in a new window).

Governing body members, senior executives and management board

Information about our governing body, senior executives and management board can be found in the how our CCG is run section of our website.

Location and contact details

The location and contact details of our CCG can be found on the contact us page of our website.