North East London Health & Care Partnership logo
circles circles

Host commissioner arrangements

NHS England and NHS Improvement published Host Commissioner guidance in January 2021.  This sets out the responsibilities of the host commissioner.  The host commissioner is the ICB in whose geographic patch the specialist mental health inpatient unit which provides care commissioned by ICBs to people with a learning disability, autistic people or both is located. This includes assessment and treatment units, long term rehabilitation units, and other specialist inpatient units.

There are 8 inpatient services in North East London that may support people with a learning disability and autistic people. The services may also provide support people who have been placed by different Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) into North East London. A list of the services is provided at the end of this page.

Further information can be found in the Host Commissioner guidelines for people with a learning disability and autistic people. 

The role of the host commissioner

The role of the host commissioner includes:

  • being the point of contact for all placing ICBs in relation to quality and patient safety
  • keeping an oversight of concerns in relation to the provision in the North East London
  • collating intelligence and triangulate information to address any quality or safety issues
  • sharing and requesting intelligence across commissioners placing people in our area

The role of ICBs placing in North East London

ICBs placing in North East London should:

  • talk to us prior to admitting a person into North East London
  • commission and oversee the individual’s hospital placement and pathway of care back into the community, undertaking regular commissioning reviews of the individual patient
  • retain oversight for the clinical care of people you place in our area and ensure your contingency plans are robust
  • talk to us about any quality or governance concerns you identify within North East London services.
  • collaborate with us when we set up collaborative assurance meetings across ICBs. The purpose of these is to share information across stakeholders and work together to support providers to maintain quality, mitigate risk and resolve concerns

How to tell us about a concern

It’s important that ICBs placing in North East London talk to us about issues relating to quality and patient safety. This will help us triangulate information and address any identified concerns as host commissioner. We also encourage our independent providers to talk to us about concerns that arise. It remains the responsibility of the placing ICB to deal with any concerns as they arise.

You can email us at nelondonicb.qualityandsafety@nhs.net – please ensure ‘host commissioner’ is included in the subject of the email. When contacting us please do not include person identifiable information in your emails. We will never ask for identifiable information about people you place in our area.

In North East London we have host commissioning responsibilities for the following inpatient units:

  • Newham Centre for Mental Health, East London NHS Foundation Trust
  • Coborn Centre for Adolescent Mental Health, East London NHS Foundation Trust
  • Tower Hamlets Centre for Mental Health, East London NHS Foundation Trust
  • City and Hackney Centre for Mental Health, East London NHS Foundation Trust
  • Cygnet Hospital Beckton, Cygnet
  • Brookside, Goodmayes Hospital, North East London NHS Foundation Trust
  • Sunflowers Court, Goodmayes Hospital, North East London NHS Foundation Trust
  • Woodbury Unit, North East London NHS Foundation Trust
circles circles