​Changes to south east London CCGs


From April 2018, the six CCGs in south east London (Bexley, Bromley, Greenwich, Lambeth, Lewisham and Southwark) will build on our existing collaboration to form a single South East London CCG.

The CCGs have now received confirmation that NHS England has approved our merger application to become South East London CCG on 1 April 2020.  All of the six CCG Governing Bodies support this move and our GP memberships have voted in favour of the proposal. 

The merger of the CCGs is part of our response to the Long-Term Plan and will ensure that we can:

  • respond to the different needs of our local populations at neighbourhood level;
  • work in even greater partnership with our local authorities in each borough;
  • commission services for patient pathways that go across the entire south east London system.

Proposals for a south east London CCG

 

Early in 2019, we started to work with our staff, GP members, partners and residents to design proposals to establish a single South East London CCG. We continue to engage with our stakeholders on shaping the approaches of the single CCG.

We are currently in a process of engaging with staff and partners on potential structures, and will be using this to inform our staff consultation which starts in mid-November.

Like our existing CCGs today, the single CCG for south east London will be the statutory body for the commissioning of NHS services for our communities and every general practice in our six boroughs will be a member.  

Local decision making at borough (‘place’) level

 
A single CCG will allow us to commission more effectively and consistently for south east Londoners where it is in the best interest of patients. 
 
However, much of what we do will continue to be at a borough level and our relationships with local authorities, voluntary sector organisations, Healthwatch and other partners will be as important as ever.
 
We are proposing to establish borough or 'Place' based boards that take formal responsibility for decision making, planning and commissioning of local community-based care. These boards would bring together health and local authority commissioners to plan local services with delegated responsibility for budgets in each borough.
 
All of our boroughs will be equally represented through their practices as members of the CCG and through Governing Body membership.  

What would change for patients?

 
Our aim is to be better able to plan services at the right population level, enhance the joining up of health and social care, and reduce management costs so that more money can go into our GP surgeries and community services and our hospitals.
 
Patients should not see any changes to their day to day care but there will be some changes for CCG staff who are working with these organisations. It will also change the way we work with our partners in social care and local authorities to commission services.  

Involvement and engagement with our proposals

 

We have listened to staff, GP members, key partners including clinicians, patients and public and kept them informed of developments throughout the programme.

We held a public event on 4 June 2019 at Cambridge House (read the full report) and outlined our work at the public meeting of our Governing Body in July 2019. We also discussed proposals at:

We held a further engagement meeting on Monday 2 September. You can read the presentation here. You can read a report of this event here.  

Our Governing Body considered final proposals for changes to our CCG at our public meeting in September 2019. Details are available on the Governing Body meeting papers page.

 
Further information

Read more about proposed changes to south east London CCGs.

You can read more about the NHS Long Term Plan.

Read about how you can help shape the future of the NHS in Southwark and south east London.