Standard-setting for CCG executives and board members - CHRE consultation is open!

GPs and other clinicians involved in establishing CCGs should be aware that yet another regulatory body is training its sights on them. The Council for Healthcare Regulatory Excellence (CHRE) has published a consultation on draft Standards for members of NHS boards and governing bodies in England.

The CHRE is the body which regulates the healthcare regulators such as the GMC and NMC. It was asked by Sir David Nicholson in July 2011 to develop a set of high-level standards for executive and non-executive NHS board members in England. The CHRE website states that the standards are intended to apply to members of boards and governing bodies in the NHS [including] members of the governing bodies of Clinical Commissioning Groups.

The CHRE cannot itself take action against individual healthcare professionals or organisations. However the CHRE regulates the GMC and NMC and carries out annual audits of how they deal with allegations against their registrants. The GMC and NMC are likely to pay very careful attention to allegations that a doctor or nurse on the governing body of a CCG has breached the standards required by the CHRE.

The consultation is open until 10 April 2012.