I’M delighted to announce that NHS South Worcestershire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) has become a fully authorised statutory body.

Last week the NHS Commissioning Board – which is responsible for ensuring CCGs meet and maintain national standards – authorised our new status as part of the ‘second wave’ of CCG authorisations happening across the country.

This means that we have successfully met all of the criteria that had been set out during a rigorous assessment process. This involved assessing the work that we are currently doing, our plans and priorities for the future.

Our organisation is made up of a partnership of 32 GP practices across South Worcestershire and from April 1 we will be responsible for a budget of £320 million to commission local hospital, community and mental health services for people in Worcester, Evesham, Pershore, Malvern, Tenbury and Droitwich.

I believe that having decisions about health services being driven by local clinicians will bring benefits to local people. Over the last year we have started to see the results of greater clinical involvement in commissioning decisions.

We will continue to work with local people to improve our health services by being more innovative in our approach to commissioning.

I’m confident that we will be able to tackle the challenges that lay ahead and I look forward to continuing to work with partners, staff, and – most importantly – our patients.

If you would like to find out more about the work we are doing, go to our website, southworcsccg.nhs.uk or follow us on our new twitter account at @SW_CCG.