Our Constitution

This Constitution sets out the arrangements made by NHS Ipswich and East Suffolk Clinical Commissioning Group to meet its responsibilities for commissioning care for the people for whom it is responsible.

As a membership Group of 40 GP practices in Ipswich and east Suffolk, each member practice has worked together to develop and agree the contents of this Constitution.

This document describes the governing principles, rules and procedures that the Group will establish to ensure integrity, honesty and accountability in the day to day running of the Group; to ensure that decisions are taken in an open and transparent way and that the interests of patients and the public remain central to the goals of the Group.

Conflicts of interest

In accordance with the statutory guidance on conflicts of interest management published by NHS England in June 2016 and to further strengthen scrutiny and transparency of CCGs’ decision-making processes, the CCG has a Conflicts of Interest Guardian, details of which can be found in our Standards of Business Conduct & Conflicts of Interest Policy.

The Conflicts of Interest Guardian, in collaboration with the CCG’s Chief Corporate Services Officer:

Acts as a conduit for GP practice staff, members of the public and healthcare professionals who have any concerns with regards to conflicts of interest
Is a safe point of contact for employees or workers of the CCG to raise any concerns
Supports the rigorous application of conflict of interest principles and policies
Provides independent advice and judegment where there is any doubt about how to apply conflicts of interest policies and principles in an individual situation

The Conflict of Interest Guardian for the Ipswich & East Suffolk CCG is Graham Leaf, Lay Member for Governance. Graham can be contacted via the Corporate & Governance Officer on 01473 770207 or by email to: jo.mael@suffolk.nhs.uk

Ipswich and East Suffolk CCG Primary Care Commissioning Committee

On 1 May 2014 that NHS England invited CCGs to expand their role in primary care commissioning and to submit expressions of interest setting out the CCG’s preference for how it would like to exercise expanded primary medical care commissioning functions. One option available was that NHS England would delegate the exercise of certain specified primary care commissioning functions to a CCG.

In accordance with its statutory powers under section 13Z of the National Health Service Act 2006 (as amended), NHS England has delegated primary care commissioning to Ipswich and East Suffolk CCG.

The CCG has established the Ipswich and East Suffolk CCG Primary Care Commissioning Committee. The Committee will function as a corporate decision-making body for the management of the delegated functions and the exercise of the delegated powers. View Terms of Reference.

Read our Constitution here:

Ipswich and East Suffolk CCG Constitution

In 2016, NHS England published revised statutory guidance on the management of conflicts of interest with an expectation that CCGs will comply with the new requirements by the end of the year.

One of these new requirements is that all CCG staff must now declare any interests that they have every six months in order for these to be recorded and published on the CCGs Register of Interests. This includes full and part-time staff and each provider of primary medical services which is a member of the CCG under Section 140(1) of the 2006 Act.

The Register of Interests now includes: