Issue - meetings

Purpose: To approve the Better Care Fund Plan submission for West Berkshire.

Maria Shepherd presented the report on the Better Care Fund Plan (Agenda Item 9).

The policy framework had not been published until October 2021 and local authorities had been required to submit their plans to NHS England by 16 November - this had been done with delegated authority from the Chairman. The Plan built on work done in previous years, whilst supporting partners in recovery from Covid and winter planning. It consisted of a narrative and planning template that detailed income and expenditure together with targets. To comply with national conditions, the plan had to be agreed between Health and Social Care, and signed off by the Health and Wellbeing Board. The plan had also been signed off by the Clinical Commissioning Group’s accountable person, Dr James Kent.

There were four national metrics, two of which had remained unchanged - the reablement target and permanent admissions to care homes. There were also two new targets. The target for avoidable admissions had been set at 618, which was slightly below the 2019/20 figure, but remained challenging given the pressures on the NHS. The target on Delayed Transfers of Care had been suspended in March 2020 due to Covid and had been replaced with targets for reducing the length of stay in hospital and increasing the number of people discharged to their normal place of residence. These targets only related to quarters three and four of the municipal year. NHS England had asked for targets to be stretched and it had been agreed that targets would be similar to last year, which were considered to be challenging given current issues in the care market and Covid coinciding with the winter flu period.

Councillor Jo Stewart thanked staff for putting the plan together at short notice. She agreed that the best option was for people to be discharged to their own homes where possible, but acknowledged that there were issues in sourcing care staff. She asked about how residents could return care equipment if they could not get to hospital.

Maria Shepherd suggested that MRS would be able to pick up equipment. However, Andrew Sharp highlighted that they could only pick up a limited range of items.

RESOLVED: The Better Care Fund Plan for 2021-2022 was approved.