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Being Autonomous and Having Space in which to Act: Commissioning in the ‘New NHS’ in England

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 August 2017

KATH CHECKLAND ,
RINITA DAM ,
JON HAMMOND ,
ANNA COLEMAN ,
JULIA SEGAR ,
NICHOLAS MAYS  and
PAULINE ALLEN
KATH CHECKLAND
Affiliation:
Centre for Primary Care, Division of Population Health, Health Services Research and Primary Care, School of Health Sciences, Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL email: Katherine.H.Checkland@manchester.ac.uk
RINITA DAM
Affiliation:
Centre for Primary Care, Division of Population Health, Health Services Research and Primary Care, School of Health Sciences, Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL email: rinita.dam@manchester.ac.uk
JON HAMMOND
Affiliation:
Centre for Primary Care, Division of Population Health, Health Services Research and Primary Care, School of Health Sciences, Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL email: jon.hammond@manchester.ac.uk
ANNA COLEMAN
Affiliation:
Centre for Primary Care, Division of Population Health, Health Services Research and Primary Care, School of Health Sciences, Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL email: anna.coleman@manchester.ac.uk
JULIA SEGAR
Affiliation:
Centre for Primary Care, Division of Population Health, Health Services Research and Primary Care, School of Health Sciences, Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL email: julia.segar@manchester.ac.uk
NICHOLAS MAYS
Affiliation:
Department of Health Services Research and Policy, Faculty of Public Health and Policy, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, 15–17 Tavistock Place, LondonWC1H 9SH email: nicholas.mays@lshtm.ac.uk
PAULINE ALLEN
Affiliation:
Department of Health Services Research and Policy, Faculty of Public Health and Policy, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, 15–17 Tavistock Place, London WC1H 9SH email: pauline.allen@lshtm.ac.uk
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Abstract

The optimal balance between central governmental authority and the degree of autonomy of local public bodies is an enduring issue in public policy. The UK National Health Service is no exception, with NHS history, in part at least, a history of repeated cycles of centralisation and decentralisation of decision-making power. Most recently, a significant reorganisation of the NHS in 2012–13 was built around the creation of new and supposedly more autonomous commissioning organisations (Clinical Commissioning Groups – CCGs). Using Bossert's (1998) concept of ‘decision space’, we explored the experiences of local commissioners as they took on their new responsibilities. We interviewed commissioning staff from all of the CCGs in two regional health care ‘economies’, exploring their perceptions of autonomy and their experiences over time. We found significant early enthusiasm for, and perceptions of, increased autonomy tempered in the vertical dimension by increasingly onerous and prescriptive monitoring regimes, and in the horizontal dimension by the proliferation of overlapping networks, inter-organisational groups and relationships. We propose that, whatever the balance between central and local control that is adopted, complex public services require some sort of meso-level oversight from organisations able to ‘hold the ring’ between competing interests and to take a regional view of the needs of the local health system. This suggests that local organisational autonomy in such services will always be constrained.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Social Policy , Volume 47 , Issue 2 , April 2018 , pp. 377 - 395
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

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