NHS England

Please note: NHS England was known as the NHS Commissioning Board until 1 April 2013.

NHS England has now released its national and local area team structures. NHS England will also have responsibility for the authorisation of clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) and will also directly commission GP services.

The majority of services within the responsibility of NHS England will be commissioned by local area teams though some highly specialist functions will be commissioned nationally.

NHS England will have around 6,300 whole time equivalent staff in its operations directorate with a headquarters based in Leeds. In addition to this, approx 2,300 staff will "lift and shift" from Family Health Services (FHS).

NHS England is listed as an employer under the Agenda for Change handbook and will be an employer for the NHS pension scheme.

Transferring pensions

Though guarantees have previously been given that all staff transferring to NHS England will have their current pension transferred without any detriment, there have been a number of questions raised around members' ability to maintain special classes status on their pension.

Special classes status may apply to somebody who joined the pension scheme before 6 March 1995, and undertakes the majority of their work within a registered nursing role. Special classes status permits somebody to retire at the age of 55 without a penalty being applied for retiring ahead of the normal retirement age of 60. NHS England has issued an update note (PDF 92KB) where they guarantee to maintain this in roles where they believe this applies.