News

NHS England specialised commissioning Rare Diseases Advisory Group Patient and Public Voice partner/lay member opportunities

This vacancy is no longer available.

NHS England is committed to ensuring that public and patient voices are at the centre of shaping our healthcare services. Every level of our commissioning system needs to be informed by insightful methods of listening to those who use and care about our services to inform service development.

NHS England Rare Diseases Advisory Group (RDAG) PPV representatives

One of the responsibilities of NHS England is to commission services for people with rare diseases. The Rare Diseases Advisory Group (RDAG) makes recommendations to NHS England, NHS Scotland, NHS Wales and NHS Northern Ireland on which highly specialised services or technologies should be considered for investment; this includes services or technologies already commissioned and services or technologies that have not previously been commissioned.  Highly specialised services are those prescribed services concerning usually no more than 500 patients and/or provided in four or fewer specialist centres. For this reason they are typically best delivered nationally through a very small number of centres of excellence. Examples of highly specialised services include Heart & Lung and Liver Transplant Services, Enzyme Replacement Therapy, and Proton Beam Therapy for some cancers.

RDAG is seeking to appoint one additional PPV representative from across the UK, to join the current three PPV members. Candidates will need to have a genuine commitment to patients and to the promotion of excellent health and social care services, as well as an understanding of national strategy development.  The ideal candidate will bring significant board level experience, with a strategic healthcare focus and strong intellect, commercial and political astuteness and a willingness to challenge. They will be expected to apply their skills, knowledge and experience to support the group to make complex decisions that will drive forward NHS England’s ambition to deliver world-class, patient-centred care.

The closing date for all applications is 12 noon on 16 December 2015

We would expect applicants to have previous experience of giving a public, patient or carer perspective on health services and a strong commitment to maintaining a patient focus in the commissioning of health services.  For some roles (indicated within the application pack) there is an honorarium of £150 per day for those people not representing or supported by an organisation.