Professor Stephen Peckham, Director of the University’s Centre for Health Services Studies (CHSS), has been closely involved in the first in-depth study into how the government’s planned shake-up of the NHS next year is progressing.
Professor Peckham is Director of the Policy Research Unit in Commissioning and the Healthcare System (PRUComm), which provides evidence to the Department of Health to inform the development of policy on commissioning. It is collaboration between the University of Kent, the University of Manchester and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
The reorganisation of the NHS in England, which will see new Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) – led by GPs – take responsibility for spending some £60 billion of public money, has generated much debate and discussion over the last two years. These groups were established during 2012 and have been preparing their organisations and plans ready to take on their new functions from next April.
The Department of Health-funded PRUComm researched these developments and published its first major report about the early development of CCGs on 16 November. The research was led by Dr Kath Checkland, of the University of Manchester.
Professor Peckham said: ‘This study provides a comprehensive look at what is happening as the most significant NHS reorganisation in a generation unfolds.’
Professor Peckham joined the University of Kent as CHSS Director earlier this year. CHSS is part of the University’s School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research.