Agenda and minutes

To remind Members of the need to record the existence and nature of any Personal, Disclosable Pecuniary or other interests in items on the agenda, in accordance with the Members’ Code of Conduct.

Councillor Gordon Lundie declared an interest in all matters pertaining to Health and Wellbeing, by virtue of the fact that he was a director of the pharmaceutical company UCB, but reported that, as his interest was not personal, prejudicial or a disclosable pecuniary interest, he determined to remain to take part in the debate and vote on the matters where appropriate.

Purpose: To update Health and Wellbeing Board of the Better Care Fund and seek agreement to the high level plan as to how the single pooled budget will be used.

Rachael Wardell introduced the item to Members of the Health and Wellbeing Board. The purpose of the report circulated was to update the Board on the Better Care Fund (BCF) and seek agreement to the high level plan as to how the single pooled budget would be used.

The BCF was originally known at the Integrated Transformation Fund (ITF), which supported the integration of health and social care services. Included within the guidance when the BCF became the ITF was that some of the money would be required to meet the obligations of the Care Bill.

BCF plans had to deliver on the following national conditions:

• Protecting social care services:
• Seven day services to support discharge:
• Data sharing and the use of the NHS number:
• Joint assessment and accountable lead professional:

The proposed use of the BCF was outlined from paragraphs 4.2 to 4.9 of the report.

4.2: Direct Commissioning of Care by Community Nurses and other community clinicians: This created a single pathway and reduced the delay for patients accessing a package of care.

This built upon an expectation of professional trust. Steve Duffin reported that each proposal could be viewed in more detail under page 18 of the report. It was acknowledged that staff training would be required.

4.3: Access to Health and Social Care services through the HUB: This hub was already in existence in a sense however, there was a growing need for a single Health and Social Care Hub. The aim would be to reduce four points of access down to one. Rachael Wardell reported that there was reference to the Hillcroft front door within the report as there were already aspects of a hub in place there. Councillor Marcus Franks noted that the sum of £279k capital monies was a minimal amount. It was confirmed that £279k represented the total capital available from the BCF and not the total available within the system for development.

4.4: Creating the role of a Personal Recovery / Key worker: This was referring to individuals within the community who were often labelled as a key person/worker.

It was asked why this key person would not be a general practitioner (GP). GPs were an expensive part of the system and it was therefore unwise to maximise their capacity.

Councillor Gordon Lundie queried if additional people would need to be recruited for this role and it was confirmed that there would be an element of new staff but also current staff through redeployment.

Dr Bal Bahia queried if steps were be taken to map what was currently available and whether the third sector were being approached. Rachael Wardell confirmed that it drew upon the strength based approach of the family group conferencing model.

4.5: Joint Care Provider: This involved combining the care assessment and delivery units of the Council’s Maximising Independence Team, Homecare Team and the Berkshire Healthcare Trust’s Intermediate Care as all provided similar care.

4.6: Social Care seven day working: Councillor Lundie asked if this was different to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 82.