Issue - meetings

S75 Update: Better Care Fund Update

Meeting: 09/06/2020 - Cabinet (Item 7)

7 S75 Update: Better Care Fund pdf icon PDF 89 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Background:

 

The Cabinet agreed to accept this report as urgent to ensure that it could finalise the Better Care Fund S75 Agreement at the earliest opportunity to ensure the continuation of the services funded by the Better Care Fund and the delivery of coronavirus funding from Central Government.

 

This report provided details of the Better Care Fund S75 agreement for 2020/21 which had been updated to reflect the new Kent and Medway CCG arrangements. In addition, this report set out a proposal for a variation to the S75 agreement for 2020/21 to include the Covid 19 (Coronavirus) funding in relation to hospital discharges and out of hospital work, as detailed in section 4 of the report.

 

The report also provided details of the proposal to extend the existing Better Care Fund arrangements of 2019/20 until the new policy framework and planning guidance was issued for this financial year.

 

Decision number:

Decision:

62/2020

The Cabinet agreed the revision of the S75 arrangements to include reference to the new Kent and Medway CCG and to pool the Coronavirus funding as detailed in section 4 of the report for the period from 1 April 2020 to 31 March 2021.

63/2020

The Cabinet agreed an extension of the existing BCF plan to cover the interim period until planning guidance is issued and to delegate authority for the development and delivery of Medway’s Better Care Fund programme during 2020/2021 to the Director of People - Children and Adults Services, in consultation with the Medway NHS Clinical Commissioning Group Deputy Managing Director, Chief Legal Officer and the Portfolio Holder for Adults’ Services.

 

Reasons:

 

The extension of the existing BCF Plan and S75 arrangements to cover the period from 1 April 2020 to 31 March 2021 will enable the arrangements and services that sit within the Better Care Fund to be dealt with as seamlessly as possible as soon as the policy framework and planning guidance from Central Government is received. This has been delayed due to the Coronavirus Pandemic.

 

Given the severity of the Covid-19 pandemic and the funding available to Medway Council it is appropriate for the Council to introduce these measures.