NHS England has today published a good practice guide for commissioners, to assist clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) should they choose to develop proposals for major service changes and reconfiguration.

This guidance builds on earlier best practice guidance developed prior to the new commissioning system, but has been brought up to date, reflecting the roles and responsibilities of commissioners to deliver improvements in services for patients and local communities.

The new guidance provides a one stop resource for the principles and processes for building proposals for major service change, including how to develop the business case, assess proposals against the Government’s ‘four tests’, as well as how to assure patient and public engagement is at the heart of the process.  The guidance will supplemented by an assurance toolkit which sets out how NHS England will support and assure local commissioning proposals.