Councillor Christine Jones introduced a report which informed that social care services played an important role in enabling vulnerable people to maintain independence and keep well in Wirral. The cost of Adult Social Care was, however significant and it did not operate in isolation. The inter-dependency between Health and Care systems had become increasingly clear over recent years. Nationally, Councils were faced with increasing demand on social care services which presented as a challenge to meet within the available resources. Central Government had directed Local Authorities and NHS providers to integrate social care and health services locally to provide both sustainability and a better experience for people who use those services.

In Wirral, the proposal was to create an integrated commissioning hub to pool social care and health resources and to jointly commission services. The commissioning hub initiative would enable the health and care system to use Wirral’s resources together to jointly create a sustainable health and care system. A further proposal was to integrate the frontline assessment and support planning process which would contribute to meeting the challenges of growth and demand, and provide an improved service for local residents. The integrated front line service would deliver the assessment and support planning function for older people and adults and the proposal was that this service would be provided by the NHS Wirral Community Foundation Trust (WCFT) who provided community health services in Wirral. This would involve the transfer of social care staff to the NHS in order to provide joined up seamless health and social care delivery services for older people and adults. A separate proposal for an all age disability, and all age mental health integrated service was planned for 2018.

The report set out key aspects of the integration programme which was focussed on improving outcomes for residents with the aim of delivering the right care in the right place at the right time. It also covered key transformation costs and outlined the main elements of the proposed transfer for staff consultation and detailed the Key Strategic Outcomes.

Councillor Ann McLachlan made reference to the social care crisis, the chronic underfunding by the Government and its huge missed opportunity to address the immediate funding pressures in last year’s Autumn Statement. Consequently, she considered that it was very timely that the Cabinet was considering this report.

Councillor McLachlan referred to the Notice of Motion – Crisis in Social Care considered by the Council at its meeting on 19 December 2016 and the decision that had received all party support, to lobby the Secretary of State for Health requesting an urgent meeting to secure the additional funding needed for social care. She informed that the Integration Project  ...  view the full minutes text for item 85