Administration errors and time constraints have meant a number of clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) have moved between authorisation waves since submitting their application to become statutory bodies from April 2013.
St Helens CCG, Trafford CCG, Newark and Sherwood CCG and Lincolnshire West CCG have all come out of the waves they were originally placed in by the NHS Commissioning Board (NHS CB) in May 2012.
However, “administrative errors” caused two of these “minor changes”.
A spokesperson from St Helens CCG said it is “confident” of becoming authorised as part of wave three and confirmed its timetable “has not changed”.
“One nationally published document erroneously listed us as being in the second wave,” said the spokesperson.
“As soon as we became aware of this we informed the National Commissioning Board about the problem.”
The same happened to Lincolnshire West CCG.
However, Trafford CCG has taken the decision to moved back a wave – from wave three to wave four – in order to give it “as much time as possible to work on the process”.
Newark and Sherwood CCG also confirmed it has moved from wave two to wave three but claimed this was a result of a request by the NHS CB.
“We originally applied to be part of wave two of the authorisation process, however we were asked by the NHS CB if we could go in wave three,” said the spokesperson.
“This was due to the number of CCGs undergoing the process in wave two and because we share some joint management functions with our neighbouring CCG NHS Mansfield and Ashfield CCG which is also due to be considered within wave three.
“We were happy with this approach and are confidently moving towards authorisation in the autumn.”
The NHS CB confirmed that between the publication of the board report into CCG authorisation in mid-May 2012 and the publication of the final list of CCGs in each authorisation wave, “minor changes” were made.
The spokesperson insisted the separation of CCGs into waves for authorisation is “purely to simplify a very large administrative task for the NHS CBA, and is no reflection on any CCG’s status”.
