Agenda item

Jon Tomlinson, Assistant Director Commissioning (Adults), to present

Jon Tomlinson, Interim Assistant Director Commissioning, gave the following update on the Better Care Fund:-

Background

-          The Select Committee has previously received updates about progress with the Better Care Fund (BCF)

-          Rotherham has successfully established robust governance and submitted returns to NHS England in a timely manner

-          The BCF remains a key vehicle for integration between the NHS and local authorities

-          The original BCF plan was developed around 2 years ago

-          NHS England recommend that partners review their plans to ensure that progress is maintained and that funds are effectively targeting the right areas

-          An initial review has been carried out on our plan and the outcomes are as follows

BCF Review

-          The original BCF plan had 72 lines of funding and 15 themes

-          The revised plan has 33 lines of funding with 6 broad themes

-          The 6 themes cover:-

Mental Health

Rehab/Re-ablement and Intermediate Care

Social Care Purchasing

Case Management and Integrated Care Planning

Supporting Carers

BCF Infrastructure

-          Each theme has then been rag rated in relation to strategic relevance, service specification in place, performance framework in place and are there any performance issues

-          There are then recommendations about each service within the theme

-          The schedule of reviews have been programmed and will take place between now and October dependent on priority

-          These reviews cover 18 BCF schemes and where there are funding or performance issues or where there are concerns regarding strategic relevance

Other BCF Development

-          A joint visioning event has taken place between the NHS and RMBC to further strengthen work around integration

-          Our latest submission confirmed that national targets are being met

-          We continue to perform well against a number of the metrics

-          The BCF has increased by £1.3M from £23.2M to £24.5M

-          Additional funding will be invested in Community Services

-          New integration measures were introduced for the Q3 submission

-          Further planning guidance has been received during February and March and officers are responding to it

-          A BCF Service Directory is almost finalised

Discussion ensued with the following issues raised/clarified:-

·           Currently in the Assurance period for the 2016/17 plan.  Guidance had been received regarding what was required to meet assurance in terms of the plan and it was currently being written.  The second stage of the Assurance process would be updated shortly with the final plan being submitted to the Health and Wellbeing Board for sign off on 20^th April and NHS England on 25^th April

·           In order to achieve Assurance, it had to been ensured that the Plan was responding to the Key Lines of Enquiry.  It was a fairly extensive process at the moment and was being reviewed through the BCF Executive by senior managers of both RCCG and RMBC to ensure the budget submitted in April responded effectively which would gain Assurance.  The plan would be assessed and there would be a decision taken as to whether or not it was in full compliance and doing the right things to meet the needs of the citizens in the area.  If not, some support would be offered.  In terms of reviewing and assurance of the plan, the Local Government Association, Monitor and others took part in the assurance and there was mediation across all the plans to ensure they were acceptable

·           The needs of carers, whether adults or young people, needed to be responded to.  It was the plan’s ambition to ensure it responded to all carers and supported them

·           The Health and Wellbeing Board was responsible for the governance of the plan.  One of the Board’s key responsibilities was to ensure it was an effective plan and whether it was an effective and integrated service.  There was then a governance system with involvement of Board and senior managers as well as a strategy group, executive group and an operational group.  The operational group included all the managers who were involved in delivering the projects/schemes and services.  It was proposed that the strategy group develop into a programme board to ensure that the integration plans were progressing effectively.  Each group had its own terms of reference

·           There was multi-agency support in terms of supporting young carers as well as a multi-disciplinary response.  There was a joint post in CYPS and the CCG for commissioning services

·           There was much more detailed information available for the 6 BCF themes

·           Generally speaking all the Indicators were performing pretty well

·           All the organisations in the care system welcomed feedback to improve where partners needed to be and had to be prepared to decommission as well as commission if something was not effective

·           Much of the Care Act talked about early intervention and preventative services.  Every Rotherham pound had to be spent effectively consideration had to be given as to whether some of the things being delivered were effective and did they need to be changed 

·           It was difficult to give a timeline as to when data sharing across IT systems of health partners and social care would include Mental Health.  The data sharing that was described in terms of the BCF at the moment was with regard to a particular cohort of citizens.  In terms of extending it, consideration would be given as to how the work had moved forward but would look to using the NHS number as the main indicator

·           The locality pilot was very much part of visioning events.  The original visioning event had been held in early December at which time the locality discussions were already taking place.  The visioning events were agreeing a high level set of outcomes to achieve across the system of which part of would be good locality working

·           The 7 day Service was progressing well and being monitored through the BCF Executive.   The Social Care Team that responded to requests for assessment was in place and had been since December.

Resolved:-  (1)  That the presentation be noted.

(2)  That the Chair liaise with Adult Social Care with regard to the scheduling of future agenda items in the 2016/17 work programme.