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The Associate Director of Finance and Performance (Wirral), NHS Cheshire and Merseyside, presented his report. It related to a model started in June 2021, when the NHS Wirral Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) agreed to commission a new Discharge to Assess (D2A) bed-based model for “people who are clinically optimised and do not require an acute bed but may still require care services provided with short-term, funded support”. The main component of this model was to consolidate existing intermediate care beds provided across five existing sites into three wards comprising of 71 beds at the Clatterbridge Hospital site. The contract for the provision of those beds was to cease on 1st September 2023. The contract needed to be extended to ensure capacity was available for winter 2023/24. This would enable a review of the existing service provision, capacity, delivery of expected outcomes and return on investment to be undertaken. This needed to take place alongside a longer-term place-based capacity and demand modelling exercise was undertaken to inform future commitments to intermediate care provision in Wirral. NHS Cheshire and Merseyside’s Scheme of Reservation and Delegation (SORD) meant that a decision on this contract sat with the organisation’s Finance, Investment and Resources Committee (FIRC) which was to sit on 27th June 2023. As this was a jointly commissioned service, Wirral Council needed to influence this decision and the Joint Strategic Commissioning Board (JSCB) was the meeting through which this needed to take place.

Two options were presented – extend for 12 months and extend for 3 years with a break clause at 22 months. It was noted that there was more than one provider interested in providing the service. It was also noted that as the service met the needs of more complex patients, costs had increased, and that at the Clatterbridge site the service worked alongside reablement, home first, urgent response and virtual ward teams.

Members and attendees debated the advantages and implications of the options.

On wording proposed by Councillor Simon Mountney and seconded by Councillor Tony Murphy it was unanimously:-

Resolved – That the Joint Strategic Commissioning Board (JSCB) recommends that the Integrated Care Bboard notes the views expressed by the JSCB and all partners within the health and social care system and considers all options available when making a decision in relation to extending the current contract and the length of the extension agreed ensures the stability of the service and that the review and commissioning of a new intermediate bed-based model is progressed as expeditiously as possible and a further report is brought back to the JSCB following that review.