NHS South Sefton Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) is amongst the best performing in the country across a number of its key areas of work according to the latest assessment by health regulators.

NHS England’s annual Improvement and Assessment Framework (IAF) assessment measures all CCGs against 58 performance indicators in areas ranging from leadership and sustainability, to cancer and dementia. Results provide a benchmark for CCGs, so they can understand where they are doing well and where they need to do more in the year ahead.

NHS South Sefton CCG was awarded the highest rating for how well it engages local residents in its work, making it and neighbouring NHS Southport and Formby CCG the only two in Merseyside to receive the top ‘green star’ result.

The CCG achieved an overall rating of ‘outstanding’ for the quality of diabetes services. Local cancer services ranked fifth best in the country for patient experience. The results also recognised high survival rates of over 70% amongst patients one year on from their cancer diagnosis.

Additionally, the CCG was ranked amongst the top 25% in the country in the improving access to psychological therapies (IAPT) category.

Overall, the CCG has maintained a 'requires improvement' status for the fourth year in a row, reflecting the hard work to secure good progress across a number of areas amidst another challenging year for the local NHS commissioner. Whilst the CCG made progress in managing its budget, its ongoing financial positon remains challenging as demand for services continues to grow.

Dr Craig Gillespie, chair of the CCG, said: "Despite being rated as 'requires improvement', it is encouraging to have so many aspects of our work praised by NHS England and to see we are doing well in key areas of health for our residents.

"We will continue to build on these positives and look at those areas where we need to make quicker progress over the next 12 months, importantly ensuring that we continue to make improvements to our financial position.

"I want to thank all of our staff and member GP practices for the hard work they're doing to face these challenges and deliver improvements in care for our patients."

Key areas of improvement for the CCG include supporting the improvement of Better Health metrics for services such as falls and antimicrobial resistance and Better Care metrics for services such as dementia, maternity, mental health and primary care.

You can see the full IAF results for all CCGs on the MyNHS section of the NHS Choices website.