Agenda item

Report of the Assistant Director, People.

The Board received the report of the Assistant Director of People which informed Members that the Better Care Fund (BCF) final plan was to be submitted to NHS England on 4 April 2014. The assurance process set out by NHS England required the submission of a draft BCF plan on 14 February 2014. This initial submission identified concerns from NHS England relating to the statistical significance of the City of London’s outcomes and compliance (due to limited scale) with the recording systems put in place.

Members noted that the City’s BCF plan set out how it would deliver the national conditions set by government, identify measurable improvements in performance against key metrics, and describe the proposed actions and initiatives to deliver the City’s vision for better outcomes and experience for our residents. The detailed development work that would support the delivery of the City’s BCF plan would take

place in 2014/15 to enable full implementation in 2015/16.

The £3.8bn Better Care Fund (BCF) was announced by the Government in the June 2013 spending round, to ensure a transformation in integrated health and social care. The Better Care Fund (BCF) was a single pooled budget to support health and social care services to work more closely together in local areas. The City’s BCF allocation is £776k.

The City’s BCF plan would deliver the national requirement to:

• protect social care services

• provide 7-day services to support hospital discharge

• share data between services, and

• provide joint assessments and an accountable lead professional.

The impact of the City’s BCF plan will be measured against improved performance in relation to:

• delayed transfers of care

• emergency admissions

• effectiveness of reablement

• admissions to residential and nursing care

• patient and service-user experience, and

• effective support to carers (local metric).

Members noted that there would be a number of implications arising from this fund and the proposals that would emerge. Principally, it would change the funding streams to Adult Social Care with the creation of one fund that comprises the Carers Grant, Disabled Facilities Grant, CCG reablement funding and transformation funding.

The intention from the Government was that CCGs and local authorities would

create pooled budgets in order to facilitate integration. Given that the City’s

population is so small, having separate pooled budgets for each integration

project would likely not be viable. However, there was the possibility of

combining the whole fund into one pooled budget to have a City-specific

pooled budget with the CCG. If there were any joint-funded posts as a result of the fund, this would also require HR advice on management arrangements.

Resolved: That Members:

• Approved the final BCF plan for submission to NHS England.

• Delegated authority to the Director of Community and Children’s Services

in consultation with Chairman to approve minor changes arising from

discussion at the Health and Wellbeing Board.