Agenda item
Cabinet Member Update
The Cabinet Member will update the Select Committee on any relevant issues. Select Committee members may ask questions on the update provided.
Minutes:
The Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care & Health, Councillor Vic Pritchard addressed the Select Committee, a summary of his update is set out below.
B&NES Better Care Fund Plan 2016/17
The 2015 Autumn Spending Review set out an ambitious plan so that by 2020 health and social care are integrated across the country. Every part of the country must have a plan for this in 2017, implemented by 2020. The Better Care Fund (BCF) is seen as a key enabler for local integration of health and care services.
Further details on how the BCF is to be used in 2016/17 were set out by NHS England in the 2016/17 Better Care Fund Policy Framework with detailed guidance on the requirements published on 23rd February 2016. Local BCF Plans must be jointly agreed and signed-off by the Health and Wellbeing Board. Timescales for developing, agreeing and submitting plans are challenging with the requirement for a “brief narrative plan” to be submitted on 21st March and final submissions due on 25th April 2016.
B&NES BCF Plan 2016/17, which was presented in draft form to B&NES Health and Wellbeing Board on 23rd March, reflects the vision and strategic priorities for integrated health and care set out in and evidenced by existing plans including the Better Care Plan 2014/15-2018/19, CCG 5-Year Strategic Plan 2014/15-2018/19, Health and Wellbeing Strategy and plans associated with the Council and CCG’s joint review of Community Services “your care, your way”.
Investment in Out-of-Hospital Services
Within the Home from Hospital schemes heading, the Handyperson service which expedites minor adaptations in the home to support hospital discharge is to transfer from the current provider, Somerset Care and Repair to an alternative provider, West of England Care and Repair under an established framework contract to secure the level of service needed and achieve improved value for money. This change follows a review of the pilot service provided by Somerset Care and Repair. There will be no adverse impact on the service and, indeed, the change of provider may result in an improvement to the number of people accessing the service as a result of greater awareness of the service and a simplified referral pathway. Similarly, the support provided to the Royal United Hospital and hospital discharge process will not change.
An urgent domiciliary care response service, supporting people waiting to be discharged from hospital to home will be commissioned to further test an approach piloted on a small scale in 2015/16. The service will complement the reablement and Discharge to Assess schemes and the aim is to reduce the number of days that patients are delayed in hospital, waiting for their care package to begin. Building on the 2015/16 pilot, the intention is to further develop and test this approach during 2016/17 to evidence its impact and value.
Delayed Transfers of Care Action Plan
The DTOC action plan has been developed using feedback from a recent multi-agency review of managing hospital discharges over the Christmas and New Year period. Its title “Everyone’s Issue” was coined at the event and describes the nature of the plan, which sees accountability and responsibility for improving the numbers of patients delayed in hospital shared across a range of agencies.
It sets out plans for: improving capacity within key services such as domiciliary care and reablement; supporting complex discharges; and agreeing escalation procedures so that when the answers are not straightforward, the issue can be escalated to senior managers to make a decision. It starts with a recommendation that patients delayed in all aspects of services are counted, rather than just in acute hospital beds. This will allow the true picture and capacity required to be clear to all partners and plans to be strengthened as a result.
He said that a target of reducing delayed transfers by 8% had been set
The Director of Adult Care and Health Commissioning added that it would be a significant challenge to achieve the target of 8%.
Councillor Tim Ball asked how the Plan would enable patients to be allocated the correct care packages.
The Director of Adult Care and Health Commissioning replied that there was a proposal to extend the number of Care Navigators within B&NES, to seek volunteers to pass on information to those patients that require help and to remind them that they are entitled to an assessment.
Councillor Geoff Ward asked how the Council would use the 2% precept that it had agreed in this year’s budget.
Councillor Vic Pritchard replied that the bulk, if not all of it would be used this year to meet the national living wage. He added that he hoped that the precept would remain in place for the life of this current Council and that in future years it could be used to ease demographic pressures.
The Chair thanked him for his update on behalf of the Select Committee.