Agenda item

Purpose: The Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West Integrated Care Board (BOB ICB) have been invited to present a report on All Age Continuing Care (AACC) and the AACC transformation programme.

Daphne Barnett (Interim Associate Director Complex and All Age Continuing Health Care, BOB ICB) gave an overview of the report on All Age Continuing Care. It was highlighted that Berkshire West continued to be an outlier in relation to Continuing Healthcare (CHC) eligibility despite many audits commissioned to understand the variation.  It was advised that the BOB ICB were committed to ensuring a good, consistent service and that a number of actions were in progress to do so. This included working in partnership with the Council.

Paul Coe (Executive Director – Adult Social Care and Public Health) noted that this inconsistency had been occurring for a very long time. There were reassurances from the BOB ICB that it would be addressed and that there needed to be fair decisions for eligibility in West Berkshire. AnnMarie Dodds (Executive Director - Children's Services) agreed noting the importance of clarity and transparency around decision making. It was highlighted that changes needed to be made swiftly.

It was advised by Daphne Barnett that a change would start to be seen by the end of Quarter 1 in 2025/26. The biggest constraint they had was with recruitment, establishing teams and consistency. It was noted that there was best practice in Buckinghamshire that could be used and that more reviews and deep dives were not solving the problem.

It was confirmed that disputes policy was in the process of being implemented along the NHSE national policy. It was drafted and soon to be signed off.

Members asked for clarification around joint training to address inconsistencies. It was advised there was a new structure and dates for training were being confirmed, however it was not certain whether the training would be joint due to the resource constraints.

It was asked whether previous applications would be reviewed or reconsidered. It was advised that this was not yet determined. AnnMarie Dodds advised that there would be a review of applications and fresh applications may be made. It was confirmed that this was why a disputes policy was needed.

It was noted that the data provided was regarding Berkshire West rather than West Berkshire. It was clarified that the Management Oversight Group were looking at different presentations of data. The BOB ICB were receiving support from NHS England, and they aimed to provide a suite of consistent reports across BOB. It was confirmed that the Council would like to see visibility of local authority figures within the data.

Paul Coe advised the Committee that the Council would continue to gather feedback and understand the outcomes of individual cases. They worked with families to understand their experiences as well as the outcomes. It was important to keep this in view of the Health Scrutiny Committee to review how it progressed. It was confirmed that this should return to the Health Scrutiny Committee in 6 months.

Action: All Age Continuing Care to be added to the work programme for the Health Scrutiny Committee in June 2025.

Action: The BOB ICB to update the Health Scrutiny Committee when the disputes policy was in place.

RESOLVED to note the report.