My first week at the CCG!

3rd August 2015- 7th August 2015

Hello, welcome to my first blog post! My name is Katie Hall, I'm a student at Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) studying Business and Marketing. As part of my 'sandwich degree' I have the opportunity to undertake a professional placement year. I have secured a brilliant Business placement here at the NHS Eastern Cheshire Clinical Commissioning Group (ECCCG) working within The Business Management team and my role is "Quality and Commissioning Officer."

The first week of my placement has gone extremely well! Everyone at the CCG has been extremely friendly and welcoming. I've had a busy first week attending various meetings which has given me a good initial introduction of what happens on a daily basis in a CCG. I've also been meeting with other employees at the CCG in order to understand their roles better and reading and learning many interesting and useful NHS documents such as the Five Year Plan and ECCCG's prioirties for 2015-2016.

I've also began to learn about a very complex framework termed "CQUINS" which stands for Commissioning for Quality and Innovation. They enable commissioners such as ourselves to reward excellence by linking a certain amount of the provider's income to the achievement of local or national quality improvement goals. NHS England release CQUINs each year that each provider must achieve. I've also been looking at the multitude of complex contracts that the CCG is responsible for with various providers around Eastern Cheshire which I am keen to get more involved in.

Overall I've had a brilliant, informative and very productive first week at the CCG. I am looking forward to next week to learn more about the CCG and the vital role they have in planning, buying and monitoring healthcare services for the local population.

To find out more about ECCCG, visit www.easterncheshireccg.nhs.uk