News

Clinical Priorities Advisory Group and Rare Diseases Reference Group seek patient and public voice representatives

NHS England is advertising for patient and public voice (PPV) representatives to join two senior clinical advisory groups.

The Clinical Priorities Advisory Group (CPAG) is seeking four PPV members to join this NHS England Board sub-committee. Its scope includes all directly commissioned services of NHS England.

The Group’s core role is to make formal recommendations to NHS England’s Board on the commissioning of services where there could be a substantial change in service provision.

A United Kingdom Rare Diseases Advisory Group (RDAG) is being formed to make recommendations to NHS England, NHS Scotland, NHS Wales and NHS Northern Ireland (to be confirmed) about which highly specialised services or technologies should be considered for investment. For example, liver transplant services, enzyme replacement therapy, and secure forensic mental health services for young people.

RDAG is seeking four PPV representatives that will be part of a Group that will make recommendations to the Clinical Priorities Advisory Group (CPAG) about how highly specialised services should be commissioned. This includes recommending which expert centres should be nominated (or should no longer be nominated) to deliver highly specialised services.

Among many parts to the role on CPAG and RDAG, the PPV representative will bring important views, perspective and challenge into the Groups – championing a service user, patient and carer/family viewpoint, ensuring that the needs of the patient/carer are met through the outcomes of the programme.

PPV representatives will work alongside other members of the respective Groups, sharing responsibility for developing recommendations on national clinical priorities.

Each Group currently has an interim chair. NHS England will be holding open recruitment for permanent chairs imminently and is expected to be completed for both Groups by November 2013.

Both Groups will be open to public scrutiny and will be publicly accountable.

The closing date for both applications is Friday 9 August 2013 – Applications for these posts have now closed.