Meeting documents

1 THE ISSUE

1.1 The Bath and North East Somerset Health Improvement and Modernisation Programme (HIMP) is a three year rolling programme updated annually. This paper presents the final draft of the HIMP for 2002-2005. The HIMP is one of the plans reserved for endorsement by the whole Council.

2 RECOMMENDATION

2.1 That the Council Executive endorses the Bath and North East Somerset Health Improvement and Modernisation Programme 2002 - 2005 and recommends it to Council.

3 FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS

3.1 Council expenditure against specific Government grants for health and social care services are detailed in the Programme.

4 BACKGROUND

4.1 National Guidelines on NHS Planning requires the Primary Care Trust to produce a three-year rolling Health Improvement and Modernisation Programme (HIMP). The HIMP is a framework which shows how the Primary Care Trust plans to work together locally across the health and care community to provide the care people need, modernise local health services, and improve the health of local people in Bath & North East Somerset.

4.2 Primary Care Trusts are given the lead responsibility for developing and producing the HIMP as the main strategic plan for the NHS and its partners and in particular local authorities. As such HIMP represents an emerging medium term strategy for health and social care in Bath & North East Somerset. It is a document which covers the whole population and encompasses the work of a range of commissioning and providing bodies.

4.3 As a three year programme the HIMP is the medium term strategy for the health community but currently it places greater emphasis on plans for year one with less detail on future years. It is recognised that the ability of the HIMP to deliver planning over the medium term comprehensively is still evolving and that further work is required to develop both the planning process and the document to achieve this.

5 PROCESS AND INVOLVEMENT

5.1 This HIMP document represents the outcome of a planning process stretching over several months, which has been subject to wide discussion and consultation. The PCT has adopted a principle of working towards achieving consultation and involvement within the service development groups, which lead the individual areas of the planning process. While this is still developing, and groups are at different stages, most groups have methods of involving users carers and voluntary sector partners in the ongoing discussions regarding planning and prioritisation that features in the HIMP. In addition to this individual programme area work the PCT and Local Authority have involved the Partnership Board throughout the processes that have led to the completion of the HIMP. Other opportunities have also been taken to involve the Community Health Council, Carers organisations and voluntary sector representatives in discussing drafts.

5.2 During the latter part of 2001 managers responsible for programme areas were asked to review their progress against the targets and initiatives outlined in national guidance such as Joint Investment Plans, National Strategic Framework action plans and individual service action plans and to balance this with the current local position. This work was developed in multi-organisational, multi-disciplinary service development groups, which are increasingly taking the lead in recommending priorities and taking responsibility for performance review. The outcome of this process led to the creation of individual action plans from which the priority tasks in the HIMP are drawn.

5.3 The HIMP is therefore an important partial snapshot of much more detailed work that is taking place within a wide range of programme areas. It is able to express an overview of the work taking place and to put this within a local and national context.

5.4 The HIMP also describes the health of the population in B&NES, how the agencies work together, how they plan, how priorities are set and describes the financial resources available to deliver services. In addition a section is included which highlights the key issues and challenges, which face the Primary Care Trust and its partners in working towards their joint objectives. In summary these are:

6 ACTION PLANS

6.1 The action plans of the HIMP cover 29 topic areas, which are listed under the headings of:

6.2 Each of the 29 areas states the objective, key local and national issues, key targets for this year, plans for the future and progress against the NHS plan. As explained above the key tasks relate to more detailed individual plans and these are signposted to at the end of each section.

7 MONITORING PERFORMANCE

7.1 The HIMP also provides us with a framework of service development targets by which progress can be monitored and performance managed. In line with our approach to other areas of performance monitoring it is proposed that the HIMP is fully reviewed at mid-year and year end. Progress against targets are made available quarterly to all members of the Health Improvement and Modernisation Partnership Board, on which the Local Authority is represented.