Wellards Academy

A summary of the changes taking place in the English NHS this April.

• Strategic health authorities (SHAs) and primary care trusts are abolished

• NHS Commissioning Board takes on full statutory powers to oversee all commissioning, undertake specialised commissioning, supervise and allocate resources to clinical commissioning groups, set tariff structures and incentives, oversee primary care services and contractors, and host clinical networks 

• 211 clinical commissioning groups across England take on full responsibilities (if authorised to do so by the NHS Commissioning Board) to commission general healthcare services for their local population (keep up to date with the authorisations)

• Local government health and wellbeing boards take on statutory powers — bringing together clinical commissioning groups and councils to develop a joint health and wellbeing strategy  for how these needs can be best addressed

• Local Healthwatch groups established, replacing local involvement networks, to provide patient and public input

• Health Education England takes over education and training responsibilities from SHAs — leading the planning of the healthcare workforce, allocating education and training resources, and overseeing the local education and training boards

• National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence becomes the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence and takes on new responsibilities concerning social care

• NHS Trust Development Authority becomes fully operational as a special health authority to supervise and take the remaining NHS trusts to foundation status

• Public Health England is established as an executive agency of the Department of Health and takes on full delivery responsibilities for public health activity in the NHS and liaison with local government. The Health Protection Agency is absorbed into Public Health England

• Safety work formerly undertaken by the National Patient Safety Agency's work taken on by the NHS Commissioning Board

• Monitor becomes the sector regulator for healthcare and regulates all providers of NHS-funded services in England through a licensing system. It regulates prices, enables integrated care, safeguards choice and competition, ensures continuity of service, and continues to assess foundation trusts. The co-operation and competition panel becomes part of Monitor

• Health and Social Care Information Centre becomes a non-departmental body and incorporates additional functions taken from SHAs and NHS Connecting for Health

• NHS111 non-emergency information service replaces NHS Direct's 0845 number

• National Institute for Biological Standards and Control moves from the Health Protection Agency to become a new centre of the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency, managing risks associated with biological medicines and facilitating the development of new ones safely

• NHS Improving Quality, as part of the NHS Commissioning Board, becomes the single national NHS improvement body bringing together expertise from across the NHS to help meet quality challenges. NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement closes

• Network of local and regional quality surveillance groups (QSG) will be in action. They will bring together commissioners, regulators and other bodies, in a virtual team, to share information and intelligence about quality across the system

• Clinical senates will be established. They are intended to bring commissioners and providers together to determine the most clinically appropriate way to configure services. They will span professions and include representatives of patients, volunteers and other groups. The senates will work with strategic clinical networks, academic health science networks, local education and training boards and research networks to support improvements in quality