Agenda item

This paper seeks to provide a progress report on:

·       the development of the Kent and Medway Integrated Care System;

·       the development of the Medway and Swale ICP (M&S ICP); and

·       the anticipated next steps for the development of the ICP.

Discussion

The Senior Responsible Officer for the Medway and Swale Integrated Care Partnership (ICP) introduced the report. The ambition was for the ICP to ensure the provision of more integrated health and care services across the system. A Partnership Board had been formed in July 2019 with the development of local care being a priority. This included the development of Healthy Living Centres. Preparations were currently taking place to deal with winter pressures, a possible second wave of Covid-19 and EU Exit. The ICP had set itself three objectives to measure success against. These included embracing use of digital technology, ensuring appropriate and safe hospital discharges and ensuring that the outcomes of one patient were improved each week. The Chief Executive of MFT added that the development of the ICP would help to ensure that the needs of people in Medway and Swale were prioritised and that money spent benefitted patients. The Director of Communications at MFT said that the development of the ICP had recognised the importance of the patient voice but that engagement work had needed to be paused due to Covid. It was recognised that there was a need to consider how engagement could be undertaken virtually and to look at how face-to-face engagement could resume. A regular bulletin had been produced on engagement activity and this could be circulated to the Committee.

Members raised a number of questions which included:

Care close to home and engagement – in order to ensure that people could be cared for at home or close to it, it was suggested that there needed to be better training for and engagement with the domiciliary care sector. It was suggested that digital engagement could be beneficial but that barriers to this needed to be addressed through the provision of equipment and appropriate support. In relation to patient engagement, patients needed to be confident that their views would be taken seriously and acted upon and concern was expressed that young people were not represented effectively during engagement activity.

The Senior Responsible Officer recognised that there was a need to enhance joint working between organisations and to support people with IT in the home. A Care Wheel was being piloted and some service users were being provided tablets. Work with wHoo Cares on the Hoo Peninsula involved the provision of IT support for patients. The Chief Executive said that more work was needed to consider how care would be provided, how to utilise the workforce and support services and how to strengthen the offer of care providers and Health Living Centres. The Director of Communications said that there was already engagement activity with young people via schools and the Youth Council but that it was recognised that a new, more creative approach was needed. Communications and engagement colleagues from across the sector and Healtwatch were working together to progress engagement activity. The Director of People – Children and Adults said that work had been undertaken with domiciliary care providers in relation to areas such as training and provision of PPE and it was concerning to hear that there were still issues.

Representation and support of the voluntary sector – in view of the number of organisations represented on the ICP, it was asked how equal representation would be given to these organisations and how the voluntary sector would be supported.

The Senior Responsible Officer acknowledged that ensuring equal representation would be a challenge and that work was ongoing in this area. Wider engagement across stakeholders was envisaged and the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment Professional Clinical Advisory Board was looking at how to deliver services locally, including the development of a wider clinical strategy for the healthcare system. There was a need to ensure the existence of a vibrant voluntary sector. Medway Community Healthcare was working as part of a community interest network of organisations across the sector and work was taking place with voluntary organisations such as Medway Community Action to facilitate engagement with smaller organisations.

Engagement with Voluntary Sector – concern was expressed that engagement with the voluntary sector to date had been limited and that similar groups of people were engaged with repeatedly. It was questioned how a vibrant voluntary sector would be created in the context of the struggles it had faced during Covid. A comment was also made that some voluntary sector organisations were struggling for volunteers.

The Senior Responsible Officer said that there had been some examples of work with the voluntary sector but it was acknowledged that this needed to increase and suggestions in this area would be welcome. The Director of Communications said that Citizens Juries were being developed. This work had paused due to Covid with consideration being given as to how they could be restarted. Engagement had taken place with voluntary sector groups previously but there were many organisations so it had not been possible to reach all of them.

Risk Factors – it was asked whether there was confidence that all the risk factors set out in the report would be adequately mitigated. The Committee was advised that there was confidence of this and that risks would be taking into account during contract development. The ambition was for organisations to work together more collaboratively than they had done so previously. Effective data sharing between organisations and the use of a single data source would reduce bureaucracy and maximise funding available for patient care.

Decision

The Committee noted and commented on the report and requested that a briefing note be provided to the Committee in relation to Care Wheel pilot areas.