Delegation of primary medical, pharmaceutical, ophthalmic and dental functions
As well as taking on the NHS commissioning functions of clinical commissioning groups, integrated care boards (ICBs) can assume responsibility for commissioning some of NHS England’s direct commissioning functions.
From 1 July 2022 all ICBs assumed delegated responsibility for primary medical services and some ICBs took on delegated responsibility for one or more pharmaceutical, ophthalmic, and dental functions.
The suite of documents below enabled the delegation of these functions:
- Delegation agreement
- Contractual notice – secondary care dental
- Contractual notice – onward delegation
- Contractual notice – contracts delegated at the outset
Primary care assurance framework
However, NHS England still retains overall accountability for the discharge of these delegated functions, under the Health and Care Act 2022. Therefore, the following Primary care assurance framework sets out how NHS England seeks assurance that ICBs are exercising the delegated primary care functions safely, effectively and consistently within legislation and statutory guidance.
The framework sets out how NHS England is assured of all the core commissioning and contracting requirements that have been set out in the delegation agreement and the types of data needed to support that assurance. It also provides details of data on commissioning activities that will continue to be collected through existing processes as part of NHS England’s wider oversight role and to support the delivery of the reserved functions. The information collected through these processes will continue to contribute to the assurance and oversight of the delegated functions.
This framework provides an interim approach for 2022/23. During 2022/23 we will continue to develop the PCC assurance and oversight arrangements to ensure that they are harmonious with other direct commissioning functions assurance arrangements as they become delegated in due course. We will also seek to ensure that the framework is aligned with the NHS Oversight Framework, along with segmentation and enforcement policies.