As well as taking on the NHS commissioning functions of clinical commissioning groups (CCGs), 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.

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 assurance 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. It provides examples of the types of information and data that ICBs could use to demonstrate their compliance with these requirements and how NHS England will seek to support ICBs where any issues are identified.

This framework is aligned with the principles of oversight that are described in the NHS Oversight Framework.