NHS Kernow is the clinical commissioning group for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. The Group is formed of 69 local practices who are themselves formed into locality groups which have been involved in local commissioning for many years.

Our principal work is to buy health services on behalf of local people. We are responsible for buying:

• hospital care (for example Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust)
• mental health care (for example Cornwall Partnership NHS Foundation Trust)
• children's care (for example Cornwall Partnership NHS Foundation Trust)
• community health services (for example Peninsula Community Health)
• GP out of hours services (for example Serco Health)

There are many more service providers from the charitable, voluntary and private sectors that allow many patients wider choice of service location and type. To find out more about choice go to our information pages.

The Governing Body is made up of a Chair, two Executive Directors, two Lay Members, two Clinical Members and six GP members. For more detail on this see the Governing Body.

The Governing Body is the key decision-making body of the CCG and will become statutorily accountable for its activities from 1 April 2013. On 11 December 2012 the Group became a legal entity after it was authorised by the NHS Commssioning Board.

NHS Kernow is made up of ten GP localities and each locality has a GP Lead. For more detail on this see GP Leads and localities. All executive directors and the 10 GP locality leads make up the Network Leadership Group which manages the day-to-day operations of the CCG.