NHS England’s Specialised Commissioning Oversight Group (SCOG) has announced a number of decisions made at its latest meeting.

SCOG has operational oversight of specialised commissioning and now, as a result of recent governance changes, receives advice and recommendations from the Clinical Priorities Advisory Group (CPAG).

The group has delegated authority to make decisions on the recommendations made by CPAG, which provides advice to NHS England about any decision-making that defines access to clinical services.

SCOG, which is chaired by Dr Paul Watson, Regional Director for Midlands and East, met on 22 July and considered recommendations made by CPAG at its June and July meetings.

The following CPAG recommendations were agreed by SCOG:

• 12-week public consultation on the Adult Critical Care service specification. This specification has been subject to extensive engagement already with Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs), via the Commissioning Assembly, as this service is commissioned by both NHS England and CCGs.
• Consideration of commissioning policies for both Microprocessor Controlled Prosthetic Knees and the use of Defibrotide in Severe Veno-Occlusive Disease, as part of the annual prioritisation round later in the year, as further work is needed on activity, financial impact and affordability.
• Adoption of -a clinical commissioning policy statement on Radiotherapy after Primary Surgery for Breast Cancer, which is in line with NICE guidance.
• Adoption of a commissioning policy statement on Palliative Radiotherapy in the Treatment of Bone Pain, which is in line with NICE guidance.
• Adoption of a clinical commissioning policy statement on Intra-Operative Radiotherapy for the Treatment (IORT) of Early Breast Cancer, which states that IORT should not be routinely commissioned. This policy statement was revised following feedback from the June CPAG meeting and ensures patients not participating in the clinical trial will continue to receive NICE evidence based treatments.
• Adoption of revised clinical commissioning policy on Haematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation, which now includes updated guidance and includes the use of double cord transplants, as well as single cord transplants.

Stakeholder testing was carried out on all revised commissioning policies and policy statements, which considered that no further consultation was required.

Revised statements and policies will be published on the NHS England website in due course.