Appendix 2

North West London WHEELCHAIRS STRATEGY BOARD

Terms of Reference

Status / The NWL Wheelchairs Strategy Board (WSB) will provide strategic leadership of the NWL Wheelchair Service Hardware and Maintenance Procurement on behalf of:
Central London CCG (CL CCG) Host
West London CCG
Hammersmith & Fulham CCG
Ealing CCG
Brent CCG
Hounslow CCG
Barnet CCG
The WSB will report directly to theCWHHE Operations Group.
TheBoard has decisions to act within the scope of these terms of reference and will provide the vehicle through which the CWHHE Operations Group can provide assurance to the 7CCG Governing Bodies that all the detailed work relating to wheelchair procurement is undertaken effectively and appropriately.
Chair / The NWL WSB will be chaired bythe Assistant Director of Service Redesign & Transformation for Central London CCG.
Membership / The following will be members of the WSB and hold authority for decision making on behalf of their representing organisation/population group:
  • Head of/Assistant Director/Director level management representative across each CCG
  • Patient Representation/Lay Representation
  • Associate Director of Contracts (CL CCG)

The following will be advisory members of the WSB and hold no authority for decision making:
  • Head of Planning & Governance (CL CCG)
  • Wheelchair Finance Lead (Ealing CCG)
  • Wheelchair Programme Lead (CL CCG)
  • Heads of Finance
  • Procurement Lead
  • Clinical Lead / GP lead
Input from additional Subject Matter Experts (SME’s) will be required on an as and when basis from the following:
  • HR
  • Estates
  • IM&T
  • IG/Risk
SME’s do not hold any authority for decision making.
Administration / Administrative support for the meeting will be provided by the host CCG. Action notes from the meeting will be taken and distributed to the Managing Directors following each meeting by the administrative support.
Frequency / The WSB will meet on a 6 weekly basis commencing in October 2014 and provide reports to the Collaborative Operations Group/Investment Committee on behalf of all 7 CCG’s regularly.
Quorum / A quorum will be eight membersin addition to the chair.
  1. Constitution

1.1.The CWHHE Investment Committeehereby resolves to establish a groupto be known as the Wheelchair Strategy Board (WSB).
The WSB is primarily amanagement group and has responsibilities as set out below. The Terms of Reference can only be amended with the approval of the CWHHE Finance and Performance Committee.

  1. Purpose

2.1.The WSB has been established to provide a centralised forum for the strategic leads across North West London Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) to work collaboratively to reach key decisions that will inform the timely progression of the wheelchairs procurement that is being undertaken across the 7 CCG’s.

2.2.The guiding principles of the WSB will be to ensure that the CCGs:

  • Undertake robust planning of for the delivery of future wheelchair services
  • Commercial accountability - following robust and transparent procurement processes - abiding by all national and European guidance, and following an agreed local process in undertaking all procurements
  • Receive appropriate advice and quality assurance from appropriately qualified people in relation to the procurement and specification of the service
  • Maintain up to date records of all discussions and decisions
  • Provide clear arrangements for patient engagement and engage with key patient groups to ensure “the patient voice” is at the heart of service re-design

2.3.To ensure the NWL Wheelchairs procurement is undertaken from inception to service mobilisation in accordance with respective governance arrangements and agreed key timescales and milestones.

2.4.To ensure systematic communication with the Collaborative regarding outputs.

  1. Membership

3.1.The standing membership shall be as set out in the table at the top of these terms of reference.

3.2.If the chair is unable to attend they will nominate a deputy for the meeting.

3.3.If members are unable to attend they should delegate their decision making authority to a CCG representative of a similar grading (role/responsibility). The standing member who is unable to attend should confirm who they have delegated their decision making authority to, when providing “Apologies” to the chair.

3.4.It should be noted that nominated deputies should be specifically identified and should not be different for each meeting of the group that they attend on behalf of the standing member. Standing members must not routinely allocate attendance at the group to their nominated deputy. This should only happen as a result of planned or unforeseen absence by the standing member.

3.5.The WSBmay request attendance by any relevant staff at any meeting.

4Quorum and Vote Management

  1. The required quorum for reaching a decision or recommendation to the CWHHE Finance and Performance Committeeis eightmembers of the membership.

4.2.At the discretion of the Chair, decisions may be made virtually i.e. by email, with the decision formally recorded in the actions of the following WSB meeting.

4.3.All decisions to be made by consensus agreement.

4.4.If consensus can not be reached, decision making powers to be devolved to CWHHE Finance and Performance Committee for purposes of individual query.

5Conflicts of Interest

  1. All WSBmembers should declare any potential conflict of interest in line with their CCG policy. Where a member has a material interest, they should either be excluded from relevant parts of the meeting, or join in the discussion but not participate in the decision-making itself.

6Frequency of Attendance

  1. The WSB members will be expected to attend a minimum of 60% of all meetings.

7Accountability and Reporting Arrangements

  1. The WSB will report directly to theCWHHE Finance and Performance Committee and will, as required, provide a report for the NWL Collaborative Board.

7.2.Action notes will be prepared for each meeting identifying clearly what actions were agreed, who will be responsible for them and the timetable for reporting back to theCWHHE Finance and Performance Committee. The action note will also record issues referred to the CWHHE Finance and Performance Committee for decision and/or resolution. Copies of the action notes will be provided to the NWL Collaboration Board.

7.3.Business Case and Contract Award to be signed off by each CCG’s Governing Body.

7.4.Each member will be responsible for reporting as per their respective Governance structure.

CCG / First Level / Second Level
Central London CCG / Finance & Performance Committee / Governing Body
Hammersmith & Fulham CCG / Finance & Performance Committee / Governing Body
West London CCG / Finance & Performance Committee / Governing Body
Barnet CCG / TBC / TBC
Brent CCG / TBC / TBC
Ealing CCG / TBC / TBC
Hounslow CCG / TBC / TBC

8Responsibilities

  1. The WSB will oversee the commercial execution of the NWL Wheelchairs procurement. It will provide a systematic approach to steering the governance arrangements and ratifying the following high level principles:
  • Procurement timescales and milestones
  • Delegated responsibilities across all CCG’s
  • A systematic process for business decisions
  • Types of bids required i.e. unilateral/multiple/both
  • Contractual framework(s) i.e. block/cost & volume
  • Engagement and Communications plan for patient and stakeholder involvement
  • CCG reporting arrangements
  • Tender evaluation membership and monitoring criteria
  • Risk management of the procurement and leadership and direction for mitigation of risks.
  • Strategic group momentum through to completion of mobilisation
  • The NWL Strategic Board will receive updates from the NWL Steering Group who will be responsible for the operational delivery of the end-to-end procurement.

9Review and Monitoring

  1. Terms of Reference, frequency of meetings and membership will be reviewed on six monthly basis, or as required by changes in organisational requirements.

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