Agenda item

5.1

The Committee received a presentation from NHS Sheffield Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) which provided some context and detail for the Neighbourhood Working approach, geographic populations of approximately 30,000-50,000 people being supported by joined up health, social, voluntary sector and wider services to enable people to remain independent, safe and well at home and in the community.

5.2

Present for this item were Nicki Doherty, Director of Delivery - Care Outside of Hospital, and Dr Anthony Gore, Clinical Director - Care Outside of Hospital.

5.3

Members made various comments and asked a number of questions, to which responses were provided as follows:-

·         With regard to the rationale for the size of neighbourhoods, Dr Gore confirmed that evidence had been gathered from around the world which demonstrated that care provided on that scale was the best in ensuring effective engagement and service delivery.

·         In response to a question about outcomes, Ms Doherty advised that numerous programmes were being implemented which sought to increase healthy life expectancy and reduce the inequality gap. The neighbourhood approach was a way of working that incorporated those programmes, adapting local service provision to address the needs of the local population, not just regarding health but also care and community initiatives.

·         A further challenge would be assessing whether these programmes had been effective, proving services were better integrated and evaluating whether people were experiencing a better service.

·         With regard to patient experience, Dr Gore advised that access should be seamless; patients wouldn’t necessarily notice any change in how they accessed care, instead the neighbourhood approach sought to ensure better communication and  joined-up working between service providers ‘behind the scenes’.

·         Ms Doherty advised that, through previous reorganisations, professional networks of communication had broken down and that this approach was trying to re-establish the relationships between services to build trust and ensure better continuity of care.

·         Dr Gore confirmed that the neighbourhood working approach was not changing any service provision and that when a service was being changed (unrelated to the neighbourhoods approach) consultations were being carried out.

·         In response to a question regarding community partnerships, CCG officers confirmed these were recognised by neighbourhoods who were liaising closely with them, and were also linked in with ‘People Keeping Well’, an important strand of Sheffield City Council’s approach to integrating health and social care services.

·         In response to a question regarding Unified Patient Records, Dr Gore advised that technology was being developed and piloted to enable key pieces of information such as care planning information to be shared between service providers as necessary.

·         With regard to the incoming General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), this shouldn’t affect data-sharing as there would be justifiable reasons for sharing that data. Dr Gore confirmed that when systems integrate the patient would still need to give permission for data to be shared, generally at point of care.

·         With regard to investment, Ms Doherty advised that neighbourhoods were predominantly still working within the limited health and care budget, but there were opportunities that would be explored.

·         In response to a question about the closure of the Duke Street clinic, Ms Doherty and Dr Gore advised that ear, nose and throat care was being looked at on a City-wide scale, with services then being configured in a cost-effective way, and undertook to obtain further detail as to why this specific provision was being replaced and what that replacement care was.

·         Ms Doherty advised some mature neighbourhoods such as Darnall and North 2 were further along in co-producing solutions to the health needs of the local area through engagement with voluntary sector organisations, but confirmed that this could be improved with further engagement with patients, ensuring a bottom-up approach to health and care provision. 

·         It was noted that neighbourhoods had been allowed to self-brand, but that some names didn’t describe the area they represented very clearly and therefore might make it harder for voluntary and community organisations to engage. Dr Gore advised that the neighbourhoods would have an opportunity to change their names in order to address this.

·         Although one of the intentions of this approach was to empower service providers to work differently, CCG officers took the challenge to similarly empower local people to engage with this approach through informing and communicating with them, and Ms Doherty welcomed Councillors’ involvement with this.

5.4

RESOLVED: That the Committee thanks those attending for their contribution to the meeting and notes the contents of the presentation and the responses to the questions.