In March 2025, the board agreed to disestablish the Primary Care Commissioning Committee, and to ensure continued and clear governance of delegated primary care functions a Primary Care Contacts sub-committee has been established from 1 April 2025.
The primary care contracts sub-committee oversees the planning and delivery of primary care services in Lancashire and South Cumbria. This includes GP, pharmacy, optometry and dental services. The sub-committee agenda and papers are published on this website at least five working days before the meeting.
Lancashire and South Cumbria ICB has delegated responsibility from NHS England for the commissioning of primary care services. These are:
- GP services
- Dental services
- Ophthalmic services
- Pharmacy services
The ICB has a formal agreement with NHS England which requires the ICB to make primary care commissioning decisions in line with relevant legislation, national policy and agreed processes.
This includes the ICB’s legal duty to involve patients and the public in shaping the provision of services.
The ICB takes accountability to ensure that commissioning decisions are made in-line with the delegation agreement with NHS England.
The sub-committee will not reserve any delegated decision making in relation to procurement and award of primary medical services and will make recommendations to the board or Executive Committee in line with those delegated limited sets out in the Operational Scheme of Delegation.
The sub-committee will also provide assurance in relation to quality and safety, access to services and patient experience to the Quality and Outcomes Committee and performance against contracted activity to the Finance and Contracting Committee.
To support the sub-committee in discharging its duties it has five sub-groups with delegated decision-making responsibilities:
- Primary medical services group
- Primary dental services group
- Pharmaceutical services group
- Primary optometric services Group
- Capital working group
The groups also have interdependencies with other committees and groups within the ICB which have the responsibility for primary care quality, performance and transformation, including:
- Primary care quality group
- Primary and integrated neighbourhood care transformation programme group
The primary care contracts sub-committee will operate in an open and transparent way and in accordance with the principles within the ICB strategy for working with people and communities. As such the following arrangements will be put in place for meetings:
- Plain-english information about the committee and the membership will be published on the ICB website, along with meeting papers, which will be easy to access
- Papers for the meeting will be published five working days prior to the meeting taking place on the ICB website. This will be promoted on the ICB website and social media channels
- Members of the public will be able to ask questions in writing prior to the meeting on agenda items. Every effort will be made to respond to these within the meeting.
- A glossary of terms will be available and updated on a regular basis to support members of the public understand any acronyms or jargonistic language within reports
Submitting questions in advance
If you have any questions to put to the committee relating to items on the agenda, we ask for these to be submitted in advance of the meeting by completing the contact us form three working days before the meeting. Where relevant, questions will be addressed in the meeting and a written response will be sent directly to the individual who raised the question within 20 working days.
Further information on attending our committee is included on the meetings and papers page.
