Agenda item

This report presents Medway’s Better Care Fund plan for 2017 – 2019.

Discussion

The Head of Adults’ (25+) Partnership Commissioning and the Better Care Fund (BCF) introduced the report. The Narrative Plan Template (Appendix 1 of the supplementary agenda) set out the detail of the Better Care Fund (BCF) Plan 2017-19. There were four national conditions that the BCF Plan must meet including the requirement for it to be jointly agreed between Medway Council and NHS Medway CCG and endorsed by the Health and Wellbeing Board. Risk management was an integral part of the Plan.

The Narrative Plan template had already been submitted to NHS England as the submission deadline for this was 11 September. Confirmation of whether NHS England had assured the Plan was due in early October with the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services supporting the assurance process. The Plan also set out additional iBCF funding allocated to local authorities. 

The five priority areas set out within the Plan were local models of care; rationalisation of estates, including the co-location of frontline and back office staff; joint commissioning; digital road map and; communications and engagement.

Future plans included further work on the community discharge process with a focus on reducing Delays to Transfer of Care (DToC), the move to the provision of 7 day services and the introduction of trusted assessments as part of the discharge process.

The Assistant Director of Commissioning, Business and Intelligence informed the Board that the Narrative Plan Template had been provided late because of the significant delay in NHS England providing the information to enable its completion. The Plan had been due to be presented to the Board in advance of submission to NHS England but this had not been possible due to the delay. NHS England had therefore been advised that confirmation of whether the Board had supported the Plan would be provided separately.

A Board Member asked what the Three Conversation Approach was. The Interim Assistant Director of Adult Social Care advised that this was an evidence based approach that focused on what service users could do rather than on what they could not. The first conversation considered how the person could be supported to maintain a good quality of life. The second conversation was for those in crisis to enable urgent matters to be dealt with until they became stable again. The third conversation was for those with ongoing support needs. A 13 week pilot had been undertaken and the outcomes of this had been positive.

A Member considered the development of the Plan to be a good piece of work. They were concerned about long term financial stability and asked whether Medway’s monetary contribution was funded by Government grant.

Officers advised that before the introduction of iBCF, all funding was from existing budgets. The iBCF funding announced in the Budget was additional funding that had been included in the overall budget of the BCF.

A Member expressed concern that GPs appeared to be being moved from  Balmoral Healthy Living Centre to Medway Hospital and that this impacted on the Medway Model that had been included in the BCF papers. Officers advised that their understanding was that urgent care provision was being relocated to the front door of A&E and that the overall model of six Integrated Care and Wellbeing hubs would not change. Officers would seek clarification for the Chairman from the CCG. The concerns would also be raised at a forthcoming meeting of the Primary Care Commissioning Committee. Officers also advised that the Medway Model diagram included within the BCF was not linked to the funding and that the diagram could be removed.

Decision

The Board noted the report and supported Medway’s BCF plan for 2017-19, subject to confirmation being provided by NHS Medway CCG in relation to the changes at the Balmoral Healthy Living Centre.