Publication Scheme

NHS Lewisham Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) is committed to openness, transparency and accountability. The CCG routinely makes information available to the public and encourages them to take an active interest in the work we do. We are committed to promoting patient centred care, increasing patient choice and involving people in making decisions. The CCG supports NHS England's vision of 'no decision about me, without me'.

1 Who we are and what we do

1.1 How we fit into the NHS structure

Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) were created following the Health and Social Care Act in 2012, and replaced Primary Care Trusts on 1 April 2013. CCGs are clinically-led statutory NHS bodies responsible for the planning and commissioning of health care services for their local area. There are currently over 200 CCGs in England.

Commissioning is about getting the best possible health outcomes for the local population, by assessing local needs, deciding priorities and strategies, and then buying services on behalf of the population from providers such as hospitals, clinics and community health bodies. It’s an ongoing process, and CCGs must constantly respond and adapt to changing circumstances. CCGs are responsible for the health of their entire population, and are measured by how much they improve outcomes.

NHS Lewisham CCG is:

A membership body, with local GP practices as the members;
Led by an elected Governing Body made up of GPs, other clinicians including a nurse and a secondary care consultant, and lay members;
Responsible for healthcare commissioning such as mental health services, urgent and emergency care, elective hospital services, and community care;
Independent, and accountable to the Secretary of State for Health through NHS England;
Responsible for the health of 270,000 local people.

The CCG works closely with NHS England, which has three roles in relation to us. NHS England has a responsibility to assure themselves that we are fit for purpose, and are improving health outcomes. Secondly, NHS England must help support our development. Finally, NHS England are also direct commissioners, responsible for highly specialised services. The CCG has also taken on joint responsibility alongside NHS England as co-commissioners of Primary Care (GP Practices only), working with NHS England’s Regional Teams.

As Local Authorities are now responsible for the majority of public health, CCGs work closely with them through Health and Wellbeing Boards to achieve the best possible outcome for the local community, by developing a joint needs assessment and strategy for improving public health.

Commissioning is the process of planning, agreeing and monitoring services. Securing services is much more complicated than securing goods and the diversity and intricacy of the services delivered by the NHS is unparalleled.
Commissioning is not just one action. These range from the health-needs assessment of the local population, patient pathways, to service specification and contract negotiation or procurement, with continuous quality assessment.
There is no single geography across which all services should be commissioned. Some local services can be designed and secured for a population of a few thousand, while for rare disorders, services need to be considered and secured nationally.

1.2 Organisational structure
Good governance is making sure that we achieve our aims for local people and those that use the NHS services in Lewisham that we commission. It is also making sure we do this in an effective, efficient and ethical way. NHS Lewisham CCG is a public body and a membership organisation made up of all the GP practices in Lewisham and led by a governing body of elected local GPs and other experts. Details of members can be found here.

Details of the general practices who are members of the CCG can be found here.

The CCG's Governance structure can be found here.

1.3 Lists of and information relating to key organisations with which the CCG works in partnership
To better identify what services local people need, we also work closely with partners such as London Borough of Lewisham and Public Health England to agree priorities based on the information that we have gathered between us.
The main hospital in Lewisham is University Hospital Lewisham. It is part of Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust which is also the provider for community healthcare services in Lewisham. They offer medical, surgical and emergency services for the local community.

South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust provides the widest range of NHS mental health services to people in Lewisham. We also work closely with Healthwatch Lewisham and London Ambulance Service.

1.4 Senior executives and management board/governing body members
The CCG are led by an elected Governing Body made up of GPs, other clinicians including a nurse and a secondary care consultant, and lay members. Details of our Governing Body can be found here.

Details of our Caldicott Guardian and Senior Information Risk Owner can be found in NHS Digital’s national register here.

1.5 Location and contact details for public-facing departments

Freedom of Information Team

Complaints Team

2 What we spend and how we spend it

2.1 Financial statements, budgets and variance reports

Annual Reports

Over £25k expenditure

2.2 Staff and Board members’ allowances and expenses

Details of staff salaries and allowances can be found in our annual reports.

2.3 Staff pay and grading structures

Our ‘pay multiple’, which is the ratio between the highest paid salary and the median average salary of the whole of the CCG’s workforce, is 2.37.

2.4 Pay – Very senior managers

Details of salaries for very senior managers can be found on page 95 of our annual report.

2.5 Pay – NHS staff other than very senior managers

Staff pay scales are in line with the NHS Agenda for Change pay bands. Spine points from 1 April 2016 can be found here.

High cost area supplements (HCAS) are paid to all NHS staff groups who are covered by the Agenda for Change agreement on working in inner and outer London and the fringe zones.

These supplements are expressed as a proportion of basic pay (including the value of any long term recruitment and retention premia) but are subject to a minimum and maximum level of extra pay.

HCAS payments are pensionable. They will not count as basic pay for the purposes of calculating the rate of overtime, unsocial hours pay or on call payments.

Area	Level (1 April 2016)
Inner London	20 per cent of basic salary, subject to a: Minimum payment of £4,158 and a maximum payment of £6,405
Outer London	15 per cent of basic salary, subject to a: Minimum payment of £3,518 and a maximum payment of £4,483
Fringe	5 per cent of basic salary, subject to a: Minimum payment of £961 and a maximum payment of £1,665

Full details of the Agenda for Change pay arrangements are available in the NHS Terms and conditions of service handbook.

This is an online resource which is updated as amendments are made. The Agenda for Change handbook contains the national agreements on pay and conditions of service for NHS staff other than very senior managers and medical staff.

All our current vacancies can be found on the NHS Jobs website.

2.6 Procurement and tendering procedures

Details of procedures used for the acquisition of goods and services can be found in our procurement policy here.

2.7 Details of contracts currently being tendered

Details of contracts currently available for public tender can be found here.

3 What our priorities are and how we are doing

3.1 Our Strategies and plans, audits, inspections and reviews

3.2 Performance against targets (KPI) / performance framework / performance management information

NHS England has designed a set of performance indicators that will help measure how well an individual CCG is tackling these health issues.

You can use these indicators to see how well we are doing and compare it both on national and local terms. All performance indicators can be viewed here.

NHS Lewisham CCG has contracts with NHS providers (e.g. hospitals) to provide care for our patients. We require our providers to meet national and local quality standards. Our contracts enable us to levy fines against hospitals that do not meet standards. Details of financial sanctions levied can be found here.

4 How we make decisions

4.1 Decision making processes and records of decisions.

4.2 Public consultations (closures/variations of services)

Information about public engagement can be found here.

4.3 Our policies and procedures

All current written policies for delivering our services and responsibilities can be found here.

These include:

Policies and procedures relating to the conduct of business and the provision of services
Freedom of Information Act 2000
Health and Safety
Policies and procedures relating to human resources including recruitment and employment policies
Equality and Diversity policies
Joint procedures which are developed with other public authorities
Standing financial procedures/instructions
Standards for providing services to the authority’s customers, including complaints procedures
Information security policies
Records retention, destruction and archive policies
Data protection, including data sharing and patient confidentiality policies
Records management policy
Estate management
Charging regimes and policies
Details on policy for re-use fees
Clinical policies

4.4 Lists and registers

Local services
Location of public building
Register of interests
Register of Gifts and Hospitality provided to Board members and senior personnel
Disclosure Log

4.5 The services we offer

A map showing the geographical area covered by the CCG can be found here.
Please note that map layers are generalised to 200m. To check your exact postcode please click here.
Some of the services we commission are:

Hospital treatment
Urgent and emergency care including NHS 111, A&E and ambulance services
Planned (elective) hospital care, such as hip replacement surgery
Rehabilitation for those recovering from injury or illness
Maternity, new born and children’s care (but not neonatal intensive care)
In-patient, out-patient and diagnostic mental health services
Adult community health services, such as community nursing, physiotherapy and podiatry
Children’s and young people’s community health and wellbeing services
Rehabilitation services for those recovering from injury, operations or conditions
Mental health services, including talking therapies
Improving Access to Psychological therapies (IAPT)
NHS continuing healthcare (CHC)
Patient Transport
Referral Management Centre
IVF/Fertility treatment
GP Out of Hours
Lead for long term conditions including;

diabetes
cardiac conditions
respiratory conditions
neurological conditions
cancer

Sexual Health services
End of Life Care
Dementia
Podiatry

We are not responsible for commissioning dentists, optometrists and pharmacists, or for prison healthcare or specialised health services; these are commissioned by NHS England. A list of specialist services can be found here.