‘Public involvement in commissioning is about enabling people to voice their views, needs and wishes and to contribute to plans, proposals and decisions about services .’ (NHSE 2018)

The CCG is accountable to the public, communities and patients it serves. As part of good governance and to ensure that we involve our population in our work, there are a number of statutory duties that we must follow under the Health and Social Care Act 2012.  Most relevant to this strategy is our statutory ‘duty to involve people’ whether directly or through representatives in:

• planning the provision of services
• the development and consideration of proposals for changes in the way services are provided, and
• decisions to be made affecting the operation of services

The Health and Social Care Act 2012 also places specific duties on CCGs to reduce inequalities in respect of planning and commissioning, service change proposals and in decisions affecting commissioning arrangements. By focusing on the needs of those that experience the worst health outcomes, we can work together to tackle health inequalities in our communities.

We follow a set of guidance issued by NHS England which outlines best practice for patient and public involvement.

More information about the CCG statutory obligations available on the Department of Health website: https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/patient-and-public-participation-guidance.pdf

We provide our staff with support in the form of training and a toolkit to help them to assess the level of public and patient engagement that is needed within a project. We use the NHS England patient and public engagement statutory guidelines to help us with decision making.