Agenda item

4.1

The Board considered a joint report of the Executive Director, People Services, Sheffield City Council, and the Director of Delivery, NHS Sheffield CCG, providing an update on the delivery of Sheffield’s Better Care Fund (BCF).

4.2

The report, in asking the Board to consider progress against its ambitions, and to support the key next steps in relation to integrated commissioning, posed the following questions:-

·         Is the Board satisfied that these plans will progress the Board’s ambition to transform the health and care landscape, reduce health inequalities and deliver better outcomes for Sheffield people?

·         How can the Board contribute to the development of priority areas and enablers to support transformation at pace and scale?

4.3

The report was jointly presented by Jennie Milner (Better Care Fund Programme Manager), Phil Holmes (Director of Adult Services, Sheffield City Council), and Nicki Doherty (Director of Delivery, NHS Sheffield CCG), with (a) Jennie Milner outlining the history of the Better Care Fund and highlighting successes to date, (b) Phil Holmes referring to and commenting upon the proposals for utilising the Improved Better Care Fund (iBCF) in 2018/19 and (c) Nicki Doherty outlining the ongoing priorities for the Better Care Fund in 2018/19 and the work to develop Sheffield’s approach to integrated health and social care commissioning and improving outcomes for Sheffield people, referring in particular to the continued focus on reducing demand on hospital services, including delayed transfers of care, and the scaling up of good practice.

4.4

In response to questions from Councillor Jackie Drayton regarding the funding for mental health services and community support workers, and regarding the governance of the BCF, Nicki Doherty commented that funding for these services was allocated from the wider BCF and that, although this didn’t include children’s mental health services, those services were to form part of the overall integrated commissioning plans.  The BCF’s governance arrangements were outlined and it was confirmed that the Board was responsible for overseeing the strategic direction of the Fund.

4.5

In response to a query from Dr Nikki Bates, Nicki Doherty undertook to provide her with performance data for the core cities, and Phil Holmes confirmed that, generally, the core cities’ performance was below the national average.

4.6

Councillor Chris Peace commented on the importance of the prevention and early intervention agenda, addressing delayed transfers of care, and providing support for joint workforce development.  In response, Nicki Doherty acknowledged that different working cultures existed within health and social care and it was important to build up trust.  Joint workforce development and closer working arrangements and integration, for example in the Active Recovery Service, would assist this process.

4.7

In response to a suggestion made by Judy Robinson, Nicki Doherty undertook to incorporate reference to the recommendations from the recent Care Quality Commission’s Local Area Review of Sheffield, within the Better Care Fund Plans.

4.8

The Chair (Dr Tim Moorhead), in referring to the need to have clear objectives for the BCF, asked how success would be measured, and in response, Nicki Doherty commented that the BCF Plan set out clear objectives, the outcomes ambitions, CQC metrics, etc, which would enable performance to be measured and assessed, and indicated that performance monitoring information could be included in future update reports to the Board on the BCF.

4.9

Alison Knowles referred to the need for data on trends to be made available to assist the process of assessing performance, and, in referring to the recommendation in the report that final approval of the BCF submission be delegated to the Executive Director, People Services (SCC) and Director of Delivery (CCG), she queried whether the Board was in a position to do this, given that the report does not provide details of the resources available within the overall BCF.  In response, it was reported that discussion on the overall BCF had been held at the previous meeting of the Board on 29^th March.

4.10

RESOLVED: That, following consideration of the information contained in the report now submitted, and as now reported:-

(a)        continued delivery of the Better Care Fund plans be formally approved;

(b)        approval be given to the proposed allocation of the Improved Better Care Fund funding for 2018/19, as outlined in the report;

(c)        final approval of the BCF submission be delegated to Jayne Ludlam (Executive Director, People Services, SCC) and Nicki Doherty (Director of Delivery, CCG), and details be circulated to Board Members following its submission;

(d)        arrangements be made for the Board, at a future meeting, to discuss in more detail how integration can support strategic priorities; and

(e)        performance monitoring information be included in future update reports to the Board on the BCF.