Agenda and minutes

An apology for absence was received from Mr S Inett.

In accordance with the Terms of Reference, Ms N Scott had been appointed as substitute for Mr S Inett.

There were no declarations of interest.

The report on the Better Care Fund (BCF) was presented by Mr M Lemon (Kent County Council) and Ms Z Mirza (South Kent Coast Clinical Commissioning Group).

The Board was advised that as Kent was an Integrated Care and Support Pioneer it was well positioned for the challenge of redesigning health and social care services. The aim of the BCF was to provide more care for people outside of a hospital setting, where appropriate, in their own homes and local communities and to assist people in taking more responsibility for their own health and wellbeing.

As part of the BCF there would be five national and one local target that would need to be set at a measure that delivered improvements beyond the current service level.

The draft plan for delivering the BCF would be submitted to the Kent Health and Wellbeing Board on 12 February 2014 before its submission to NHS England. The final plan would need to be agreed by 4 April 2014. As part of the BCF Plan it would set out how the public would be engaged with.

It was recognised that there was a need for the BCF to be part of each CCG’s five year strategic and operational plans and for there to be co-ordination on a countywide basis due to the impact on social care and acute health services.

The key risks that could impact on the delivery of services were:

·         The need to have the right workforce with the right set of skills to deliver integrated models of care, including recruitment and retention of staff;

·         Ensuring that real improvement was measured;

·         The need to manage cultural change given there will be a significant shift in how services are delivered;

·         The need for proper communication with providers across multiple organisations as well as with the public;

·         The wider regulatory and legislative environment;

·         Clarity over the governance arrangements for funding streams; and

·         The lack of evidence as to whether the required benefits are cost effective and deliverable.

There was a need for Disabled Facilities Grants (DFG), which were to be part of the BCF funding stream, to be quickly passed onto district councils so that they could provide the necessary home adaptations to enable people to stay in their homes rather than at hospital.

It was agreed that there was a need to understand the totality of 2015/16 expenditure for the South Kent Coast CCG area. This would also allow organisations involved in local health and social care services to determine if additional funding or services should be added.

RESOLVED: That the report be endorsed.  

There were no items of urgent business.