This report looks at the new role of district health authorities as purchasers of services for their residents. The report shows that non-executive members have the following contributions to make to the work of their authorities: bringing a wider range of experience than is available among the executive members; ensuring that time and attention of authorities is focussed on `board-level' issues; appointing the right people to top management positions and appraising their performance systematically; building the authority's links with other agencies; helping to strengthen management at unit level and enabling directly managed units to make the transition to NHS status.