AN NHS organisation has been taken out of special measures after improving its performance.

Brighton and Hove Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) was placed in legal directions last August after being branded inadequate by NHS England.

This meant the CCG has less control over the decisions it made to commission local services for patients.

As part of having legal directions lifted, the CCG had to achieve in five areas.

These were to improve the leadership of the organisation, develop a capacity and capability action plan and undertake a review of its governance.

It also had to develop a credible commissioning plan and draw up a plan to improve waiting times for treatment and accident and emergency department performance.

The announcement to lift legal directions comes a month after the CCG was rated as ‘good’ by NHS England following another check.

Accountable officer Adam Doyle joined the CCG in October at the same time as clinical chairman David Supple.

Mr Doyle said: “To get out of legal directions has not been easy and we have had to change a lot of things within the organisation very quickly.

“This has been tough but our staff have risen to the challenge and I would like to thank them all for their continued hard work and for the support of our partners across the local health system.

“Alongside the changes we have been making within the CCG, we have also been working hard on plans to transform and improve local services across the city for the future.

“We will now be putting all our energy in developing and delivering these plans.

“This comes alongside the large amount of public engagement we are doing as part of our Big Health and Care Conversation, to ensure local residents continue to have access to sustainable services for years to come.”

Dr Supple said: “This is very positive news for our organisation but it is also good news for our patients as we can now concentrate more freely on what improvements we can make to meet the needs of the population.”