Issue - meetings

10 minutes

Lucy Lang (Commissioning Programme and Project Manager) to give an update on the Better Care Fund return and timeline for the annual plan submission following the National Planning guidance received on 5 April.

Lucy Lang (Commissioning Programme and Project Manager) gave an update on

the Better Care Fund return and timeline for the annual plan submission:

1.  5 April - BCF 24/5 Planning Refresh Requirements Published

2.  13 May - Optional Draft Planning Submission

3.  10 June – Full Planning Submission

4.  15 July - Scrutiny of Plans by Assurance panels/Moderated Outcomes sent to regional BCF teams

5.  End of July - Cross Regional Calibration

6.  August - Approval Letters Issued

7.  30 September - All Section 75 Agreements to Be signed and In place

She confirmed key updates for 24/25:

1.  Addendum to the 2023-25 Policy Framework and Planning Requirements published which confirmed the requirements for plan updates in 2024-25.

2.  Areas would be expected to submit plan updates around the following areas:

·  Ambitions for national metrics

·  Capacity and demand plans

·  Spending where applicable. Changes to 2024-25 spending plans as a result of:

o  Agreement to vary spending plans

o  Updates to/confirmation of allocations for the year

·  Demonstrating value for money

3.  Due to some changes to data collections in 2024-25, the BCF metrics had been updated for this year. The national metrics that remained the same were:

·  Falls

·  Discharge to usual place of residence

·  Unplanned Admissions

4.  Areas were asked to set ambitions for the long-term admissions to residential care metric using the guidance for deriving existing SALT and ASCOF measures from CLD, which was published by NHS England.

5.  The metric on percentage of people 65 and over still at home 91 days after discharge would be stood down. The Addendum committed to introducing a replacement for this later in the year. 

6.  Increased significance of Capacity and Demand planning

·  Additional data in hospital discharge planning aspect of the template on

o  Average time to commence service 

o  Average Length of stay in intermediate care

·  Requirement to set out how BCF Capacity and Demand planning, NHS Demand Capacity and Flow planning and MSIF capacity planning had been aligned.

Board Members raised the following comments:

1.  It was noted that the metric on the percentage of people aged 65 and over still at home 91 days after a discharge was being stood down due to the quality of the data not being reliable.

2.  The 3 metrics that remained were national priorities, but metrics were just one element and a local narrative could be added to give a complete picture.

The Board RESOLVED to note the update.