NCB calls for children to be a priority as transfer to new NHS system begins

The bodies are due to be abolished in April 2013 and replaced by the new NHS Commissioning Board and local clinical commissioning groups, among others. Local authority-led health and wellbeing boards will take over responsibility for public health.

In two letters to staff, NHS chief executive Sir David Nicholson said that senior leaders in the NHS Commissioning Board and a number of the other new bodies would start to take on responsibility for the “operational delivery and planning” of local services by 1 October.

There will be no formal transfer of statutory functions, accountability, budgets or staff ahead of April 2013, Nicholson said, but the plans are intended to provide “stability and resilience” for the health system as local professionals leave their jobs and in many cases take up different posts in the new system.

Zoe Renton, head of policy at the National Children’s Bureau, told CYP Now that it is vital the needs of children are paramount as the major changes to local systems get underway. ?

“As we move closer to April 2013, during this complex transition, it is vital that the Department of Health and senior leaders across the NHS keep a strong focus on ensuring the reforms deliver for children and young people, giving them a voice in decisions about their care and ensuring children and their families receive integrated and child-centred services,” she said.

“We hope to see a clear strategy for achieving this from government, when it responds to the Children and Young People’s Health Outcomes Forum later this year.”

Jo Webber, deputy policy director of the NHS Confederation, said the changes could help make sure that specialist knowledge of commissioning children’s health services is not lost, as organisations close down and responsibilities transfer to the new bodies.

Webber added that she is hopeful that many professionals with expertise in organising children’s health provision will take up posts in commissioning support services from April 2013.

“This is an attempt to keep a grip on things, particularly at the present time when the money is so tight,” she said. “The issues that we’ve had around commissioning for children are still going to be there.

"It’s about making sure we use things like the children’s outcome framework so that we’ve got the right services in place. The proof of the pudding will be in the eating”.