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Good governance guidance published for Primary Care Trust Provider Committees

News Release issued by the COI News Distribution Service on 30 July 2009

The Appointments Commission and the Department of Health have today published guidance to help Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) with their governance arrangements for Provider Committees.

Provider Committees are a committee of a PCT Board, overseeing the operations of a PCT’s provider arm. The guidance published today, ‘Governance Arrangements to Support PCT Provider Committees’, sets out core principles that should underpin the committee’s membership and make-up.

Provider Committees need to be able to focus on quality, taking into account patient safety, patient experience and effective outcomes. This guidance will help to ensure that these committees are able to independently monitor, identify and mitigate risks to patients. The guidance also offers options for recruiting the independent members and outlines their roles and responsibilities.

All NHS organisations need to be underpinned by robust governance arrangements that deliver independent challenge, scrutiny and accountability. This is particularly important for community services as they transform their patterns of service and organisational structures.

The Department of Health is also giving more freedom to the NHS, to allow timescales to be set locally for when a PCT must choose an organisational structure under which to operate. Moving to locally-set timescales will enable the NHS to focus on driving-up quality and productivity in community services.

Minister of State for Health, Mike O’Brien, said: “This guidance will support Primary Care Trusts in ensuring their local governance arrangements are fully in place and that PCT Provider Committees are well-equipped to provide both excellent management and clinical leadership and independent scrutiny and challenge.”

Andrea Sutcliffe, Chief Executive of the Appointments Commission, said: “We have sought to address the concerns raised by PCTs that they needed clear guidance that was sufficiently flexible to respond to local circumstances. This guidance will help to ensure that recruitment of independent members to Provider Committees is supported by a process that is fair, rigorous, transparent and that is able to stand up to public scrutiny.”

Jonathan Montgomery, Chair of Hampshire PCT, said: “'I welcome the publication of today's guidance, which contains principled and practical advice on how to ensure robust governance arrangements are in place for PCT provided services. It promotes consistency of practice and conformity with the high standards governance that patients and the public expect of NHS organisations, while recognising that the precise form of arrangements depends on local circumstances.

“It also contains important advice on the recruitment of independent members to Provider Committees, to provide the challenge and scrutiny necessary to give assurance that provider services are strategically led and that risks are effectively managed.”

The guidance is available to download from the Appointments Commission’s website www.appointments.org.uk/providergovernance. A Frequently Asked Questions section to update PCTs on key issues and developments is also available on this site.

Notes to Editors

· Transforming Community Services: Enabling new patterns of provision, published by the Department of Health in January 2009, set out guidance to support PCTs with the separation of provider services from their commissioning function and making decisions about the possible future organisational forms that their provider organisation could take. Transforming Community Services: Enabling new patterns of provision: http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/PublicationsPolicyAndGuidance/DH_093197

· The guidance published today fulfils the commitment made in Enabling new patterns of provision to provide PCTs with further guidance on the operation of PCT Provider Committees, such as the role of Independent Members and other governance issues.

· The Appointments Commission is based in central Leeds and is the independent organisation responsible on behalf of ministers for appointing chairs and non-executives to Strategic Health Authorities, primary care trusts, NHS trusts and the Department of Health’s arm’s length bodies. It also provides non-executive recruitment services to foundation trusts and to the boards of public bodies across central Government.

· Enabling New Patterns of Provision (DH, January 2009), set out a range of potential options for providing community services – from PCT directly-provided services (which will continue to be an option where well-managed and more business-like) to Community Foundation Trusts, social enterprises, integration with other NHS organisations, partnerships with Local Authority services, and PCTs contracting with practice-based commissioners, integrated care organisations or non-NHS bodies. Different forms may suit different services and hybrid organisations derived from more standard originals may well emerge.

· Timescales to choose an organisational structure for PCTs to operate under were previously set for October 2009, These timescales are now flexible and will be decided locally in agreement with the Strategic Health Authority.

Further information

Karen Feeney, Communications Manager
Appointments Commission
T: 0113 394 7983
M: 07766 368 891
E: karen.feeney@appointments.org.uk

Please contact the Department of Health newsdesk on : 020 7210 5221.

Contacts:

Department of Health
Phone: 020 7210 5221
NDS.DH@coi.gsi.gov.uk