Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what services currently commissioned by NHS England will be commissioned by clinical commissioning groups following the implementation of the recommendations in Prescribed Specialised Services Commissioning Intentions 2014-15 and 2015-16.

NHS England has advised that there have been no changes to the scope of specialised services directly commissioned by NHS England in 2014/15, in order to provide a period of stability following the major changes in 2013/14. There has therefore, been no transfer of resources to clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) in 2014/15, for any changes in commissioning responsibility.

The Manual for Prescribed Specialised Services 2013/14 describes the prescribed specialised services and sets out which elements of services are commissioned directly by NHS England, and which elements are commissioned by CCGs.

The Prescribed Specialised Services Commissioning Intentions 2014-15 and 2015-16 document sets out the firm plans for 2014/15 and the direction for 2015/16. There will be a new set of commissioning intentions for 2015/16 to take account of the new environment and to firm up the plans for next year.

The development of the commissioning intentions for 2015/16 is included in the work of the specialised commissioning taskforce and will be progressed over the next few months ready for publication in the autumn. The taskforce work streams also include actions relating to the future portfolio of services to be commissioned by NHS England and CCGs, and possible future commissioning models. This work will be further progressed over the summer and will inform the 2015/16 commissioning intentions.

NHS England advise that it is yet to be determined whether or not there will be changes to the scope of specialised services directly commissioned by NHS England in 2015/16 or whether any additional resources will be transferred between NHS England and CCGs.