Commission for Patient and Public Involvement in Health

The Commission for Patient and Public Involvement in Health (CPPIH) is an independent, non-departmental public body, sponsored by the UK Department of Health. , . The Commission was established by and act of Parliament on 10th December 2002 with a remit to "to establish a new system of patient and public involvement in health for England involving traditionally hard to reach groups".

Background
The Commission was formally declared 'live' on the 1st January 2003 - however there was no agreed budget or management structure in place at that time.

Despite its recent set up and ongoing successes, the Commission was included in the Department of Health's "Arm's Length Body Review" (starting November 2003, ending March 2004) and was included in the list of ALBs listed for abolition. In the original review, the Department of Health stated that "Patients’ Forums will remain the cornerstone of the arrangements we have put in place to create opportunities for patients and the public to influence health services" and that the "NHS Appointments Commission will appoint Forum members in the future." However it soon became clear that the Appointments Commission did not want to take responsibility for this, and the CPPIH continues to recruit members to the Forums.

The Regions
Initially the nationwide structure of the CPPIH consisted of nine 'regional' centres and one national centre in Birmingham. The nine regions were:
 * North-east - office in Gateshead
 * North-west - office in Warrington
 * Humberside/Yorkshire - office in Leeds
 * East Midlands - office in Nottingham
 * West Midlands - office in Birmingham
 * East of England - office in Cambridge
 * South-east - office in Guildford
 * South-west - office in Exeter
 * London - office in London

Following the 2006 restructure, these regions were rationalised to four: North (previously North-east, Humberside/Yorkshire and East Midlands), West (West Midlands & North-west), East (East of England and London) and South (South-east and South-west). The individual regional offices were maintained due to contractual restrictions; the majority of the offices had been opened on long-term leases that CPPIH were unable to buy-out or cancel.

The Forums
In order to involve patients and the public in its statutory mandate, the CPPIH was structured so that each Primary Care, Ambulance, Mental Health and Hospital Trusts within the NHS had a 'Forum' working with them. The 572 Forums were made up of a volunteers, initially recruited prior to 1 January 2004.

Each Forum was initially required to have seven members, with a view to recruiting on to a total of 10-15 members. However, due again to budgetary restraints, many Forums did not maintain their initial membership, and further recruitment was slowed to allow issues such as diversity and geographic location to be taken into account.