Agenda item

This report provides an update on the NHS Medway Clinical Commissioning Groups (Medway CCG) Community Services Re-Procurement Programme (CSR), following an initial overview report at the Committee meeting in June 2017. This report includes a summary of the due diligence service reviews that are being undertaken, the Health and Social Care profiles for Medway completed by Public Health to provides a summary of the population profiles for each of the six local care teams, and provides an overview of early engagement activities.

Discussion

The report was introduced by the Chief Operating Officer of Medway Clinical Commissioning Group. He was supported by the Head of Commissioning. It was noted that this was the second update presented to the Committee on the recommissioning of community health services. There was a requirement for services to be reprocured as current contracts expired. The reprocurement was closely linked to the Medway Model and local care developments. Public engagement work had started with two meetings having already taken place. It was anticipated that the Committee would be asked to determine at a future meeting whether the proposals amounted to a substantial development of, or variation to, the health service in Medway.

Work undertaken over the last few months centred around the due diligence exercise. This would provide a comprehensive understanding of costs and service models currently in use which would then inform the remodelling and reprocurement of services. This work was due to be completed in October. Work was taking place with the Council’s Public Health team to understand local demographics and implications for the services provided. It was noted that due to the need to get NHS England agreement of the assurance processes it was expected that there would be a six week delay in public engagement activity compared to the timescales set out in the report.

A Member said that it was a big undertaking to reprocure such a wide range of services and that services needed to be procured so as to minimise delays in referrals and to avoid people falling into gaps between providers. There was also a risk of services deteriorating if there were too many providers in the market. The Member also felt that engagement sessions tended to be dominated by professionals and that other types of engagement events may need to be considered in order to successfully obtain feedback from the general public.

The Chief Operating Officer said that risks had been identified as part of the work undertaken to date and that there would be mitigations to reduce risk and ensure that appropriate resources were put into the reprocurement.

A Committee Member asked if further ward level data could be provided in addition to the data contained in the report appendix. It was agreed that this would be provided to the Member outside the meeting.

In response to a Member who questioned how the voluntary sector would be supported to deliver services, the Chief Operating Officer recognised that there was a particular challenge in relation to the care navigation scheme. There was a need to ensure that people providing care navigation were fully trained and had appropriate skills. The voluntary sector would have a role but it was important to build upon the existing core of volunteers and ensure that there was not too much reliance on voluntary sector.

Decision

The Committee noted the CSR programme update and provided feedback and agreed that the next update would be presented to the Committee in January 2018. This would ask the Committee to determine whether the reprocurement of community health services amounts to a substantial development of, or variation to, the health service in Medway.