Download and read the full annual report
About this report
The NHS South West London Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) Annual Report 2021/22 has been produced in response to the NHS England requirements as published in the Department of Health and Social Care Group Accounting Manual 2021/22. The structure closely follows that outlined in the guidance and includes three core sections:
The Performance Report – including an overview, performance analysis and performance measures
The Accountability Report – including the members’ report, corporate governance report, annual governance statement, remuneration and staff report
The Annual Accounts – including the independent auditor’s report and the financial statements
This report has been approved by the Governing Body members, and all the content has been checked for accuracy and consistency with reporting data sources and to make sure that all requirements are met by our auditors.
Annual report overview
This annual report is a record of the second year of our clinical commissioning group and the challenges and achievements faced in another year in which we led the NHS response to the Covid-19 pandemic in South West London.
It is also the final full year report of NHS South West London CCG. From July 2022, a new Integrated Care Board will be in place to oversee the planning and funding of health services in South West London.
South West London CCG came into being in unprecedented times and we are proud of the way our Governing Body, GP members and staff adapted to being in a new organisation while responding to a global pandemic. Their ability to lead and respond in unknown and changing circumstances to meet the needs of our communities demonstrated the very best of what NHS staff can do.
Delivering the Covid-19 vaccination programme
The Covid-19 vaccination programme has been the biggest vaccination programme ever delivered by the NHS and we have been a top performer in London throughout, delivering over 3 million jabs by March 2022. In the course of the programme we strengthened relationships with our communities and found new ways to make getting vaccinated more accessible for people who don’t normally engage with health services.
We are grateful to GPs, nurses, pharmacists, volunteers and CCG staff who are delivering the vaccination programme, and the community and faith leaders and the voluntary organisations whose work with us has significantly reduced the impact of this pandemic on our communities in South West London.
Our other priorities
Responding to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and delivering the vaccination programme were major areas of focus for the CCG but alongside these we continued our work to address the health needs of local communities; to catch up on the back log of diagnostics and treatments delayed because of Covid-19; and to further develop our ability to deliver health and care in partnership with our ICS partners.
Reviewing borough health and care plans
Patients are at the heart of everything we do and we wanted to understand the impact of the pandemic on individuals and communities so that we could build this insight into how we deliver services.
In 2021, CCG leaders in each of our six boroughs talked to local people, partner organisations and stakeholders to review their local health and care plans. These plans will be the building blocks for the NHS and local authorities to improve health outcomes and health services in the next couple of years to be delivered by the new Integrated Care System.
Engaging communities and addressing health inequalities
We made good some progress on our approaches to addressing health inequalities, but recognise we have a great deal more work to do. We deepened our understanding of the current challenges and adopted more systematic ways to use data. We also built new relationships with communities who have the greatest health needs, for example in Sutton where our work with Sutton Housing Partnership helped us to connect with the Gypsy Roma Travelers community and homeless residents.
We were also successful in our bid to become a Wave 1 national Core20 Connectors NHS site, receiving funding from the NHS to recruit community connectors to support individuals, families and communities, to achieve better health and social outcomes.
Insight from engagement with people and communities was a key influencer in the way we delivered the vaccination programme and supporting campaign. It also influenced many of the programmes and projects highlighted in this report.
Primary care developments
Primary care networks (PCNs) continued to play an essential role in delivering the Covid-19 vaccination programme, setting up local vaccination centres; vaccinating in care homes; and vaccinating the most clinically vulnerable groups.
Through the PCNs, primary care also played a major part in managing demand for urgent care services through extended access to GPs and nurses and a telephone number set up for patients to get help during the busy winter period.
Service recovery and improving access following Covid-19
The pandemic contributed to the continued pressures that we have seen on NHS services. Ensuring that vital non-Covid NHS services were available to those who needed them remained a priority for us. Health and care organisations collaborated across South West London to increase capacity and our clinicians continued to lead the work to find new and better ways to make services more efficient and effective for patients.
This collaborative approach helped us to maintain our position as the highest performing ICS in London for the Referral to Treatment standard but there is still much to do and our recovery plan for the coming year will seek to further reduce the number of people waiting.
Similarly, we were the highest performing system in London for the number of patients with cancer treated within 62 days of referral and our aim is to build on this and return to pre-pandemic rates of access to treatment and meet the increased number of referrals.
Our work to improve diagnostic services was boosted by a £10 million investment in developing a community diagnostic centre at Queen Mary’s Hospital in Roehampton, to be supported by new ‘satellite’ sites in areas of greatest need.
Transforming care, joining up services and preventing ill health
Some of the work to improve care out of hospital was accelerated because of the need to keep patients safe and reduce pressure on hospital services during the Covid pandemic. In this report we have highlighted some of the many initiatives introduced in the past year to support priority work programmes.
For example, teams of health professionals now care for patients in the comfort of their own home through virtual wards; social prescribing is helping people to be more independent, active and improve health and wellbeing; a proactive care model is helping patients stay healthier longer; technology is helping GPs to prevent complications for people with diabetes; and a ‘Stay Steady, Stay Well clinic’ in Croydon is helping older adults to live independently for longer.
In 2020/21 we established 15 elective recovery clinical networks to support restarting elective surgical operations and treatments. Last year the networks, each led jointly by acute and primary care clinicians, continued to support our hospitals to work together to transform services and to make sure our patients got the treatment they needed. As a CCG, we have supported these networks with experienced primary care clinicians and commissioning managers, making sure we are focused on the whole patient journey and coordinating patient care across different settings.
Responding to the mental health crisis
We know people’s emotional health and wellbeing was affected by the pandemic and demand increased, especially for children and young people’s mental health services. We have worked with mental health service providers to focus on prevention and early intervention and develop the capacity we need to support people including support for people who are waiting for treatment. Services such as crisis cafés and health and wellbeing spaces have helped patients without the need for them to go into hospital.
In 2022, we will have finalised and begun implementing a new mental health strategy for South West London.
Developing a Green Plan for South West London
Embedding a sustainable approach to NHS services is a big challenge but one where many of our trusts saw progress in 2021. Initiatives such as virtual wards, and a ground-breaking partnership between a Primary Care Network in Merton and the London Ambulance Service, where a paramedic cycles to deal with acute calls, are reducing travel emissions.
The move to more virtual consultations by phone, video and online in primary and secondary care introduced during the Covid-19 pandemic also continued to contribute to reducing the impact of travel while being a safe and convenient option for many patients.
At the start of 2022, we finalised the first NHS South West London Green Plan and during 2022 we will be delivering the jointly agreed priorities.
Becoming an Integrated Care System (ICS)
We now look forward to the transition to the South West London Integrated Care System (ICS) and the NHS South West London Integrated Care Board (ICB), which will take on the CCG’s core functions.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, the NHS in South West London, local councils and the voluntary sector demonstrated what we can achieve by working together, quickly identifying and supporting those at greatest risk. We know that by working together with a shared ambition to help our communities thrive, we can achieve the best for everyone.
The clinical leadership that has been the cornerstone of the CCG will continue to drive our Primary Care Networks, leading the design and delivery of integrated services in their local area to improve quality and access to health and care services, and working with clinical networks and provider collaboratives to benefit from working at scale.
We are fortunate to have such strong relationships with our partners forged through hard work over a long time. Our ICS will build on these partnerships including all parts of the NHS – primary care, community services and hospitals – and local authorities and the community and voluntary sector.
Thank you to CCG staff, our Governing Body and GP members for your commitment and contribution to the success of the CCG and for the proud legacy that we will build on in the coming years.
Dr Andrew Murray
Clinical Chair
Sarah Blow
Accountable Officer