Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Stuart Whittingham.

Members are asked to consider whether they have any disclosable pecuniary interests and/or any other relevant interest, in connection with any item(s) on this agenda and, if so, to declare them and state the nature of the interest.

Councillor Chris Jones declared a personal interest in the agenda by virtue of her employment with the Cheshire and Wirral Partnership NHS Foundation Trust.

To confirm the minutes of the meeting of the Joint Strategic Commissioning Board held on 21 August 2018 as a correct record. (Copy attached.)

Dr Sue Wells stated that the NHS Wirral Clinical Commissioning Group was quorate at the meeting as a Governing Body and was therefore in a position to make decisions at this meeting.

Subject to the deletion of one of the entries for Mr Simon Banks being present (as he was referred to twice), Dr Sue Wells being shown as present, and the ‘NHS Wirral Members’ being referred to as ‘NHS Wirral CCG Members’ in minutes 13, 14 and 15, the minutes of the meeting of 21 August, 2018, were agreed as a correct record.

Resolved – That the minutes be agreed, subject to the above amendments.

The Report of the Interim Senior Programme Manager is attached.

Jason Oxley, Assistant Director – Health and Care Outcomes, introduced a report which sought approval to commence a procurement exercise to support the creation of a single Liverpool City Region (LCR) flexible purchasing system (FPS) for care and support services for adults with complex needs. The FPS would be made available to the six LCR Councils as well as NHS Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) operating across LCR.

The NHS Wirral CCG Members and Wirral Borough Council’s three Cabinet Members, sitting as a Committee of the Cabinet –

Resolved –

(1)  That the creation of a LCR Complex Care FPS for use by Wirral Health and Care Commissioning; the other five LCR Councils and Clinical Commissioning Groups in the LCR, be approved.

(2)  That authority be delegated to Wirral Health and Care Commissioners to procure and award contracts for care and support services within the LCR Complex Care FPS, once established, throughout its duration as required.

The report of the Healthy Wirral Programme Manager is attached.

Simon Banks, Chief Officer, NHS Wirral CCG, introduced a report on the Healthy Wirral Programme Memorandum of Understanding. The programme sought to deliver the health and care related components of the Wirral Plan. The Healthy Wirral vision was, ‘To enable all people in Wirral to live longer and healthier lives by taking simple steps of their own to improve their health and wellbeing’. The report gave details of how this was to be achieved through an agreement by all Partners on the Wirral that the future sustainability of health and care services was entirely dependent upon commissioners and providers collaborating and developing new models of care to enable more integrated place based care. The Healthy Wirral Partners Board acted as ambassadors of system and place based care, and had identified that the commitment, roles and responsibilities of all partners should be enshrined within a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU).

The NHS Wirral CCG Members and Wirral Borough Council’s three Cabinet Members, sitting as a Committee of the Cabinet –

Resolved – Having reviewed the detail provided within the MOU and its application to corporate governance the MOU was approved and the organisational commitment as signatories to the MOU were endorsed.

The report of the Chief Finance Officer, NHS Wirral CCG and Wirral Health and Care Commissioning is attached.

Graham Hodkinson, Director for Adult Care and Health, introduced a report on Wirral Health and Care Commissioning Pooled Funding Arrangements. The report was about the joining up of services to enable people to navigate what was a very complicated system; so that people told their stories only once, potential delays were reduced and people didn’t get lost in the system.

Wirral Health and Care Commissioning (WHaCC) had been in operation since May 2018. This was the contemporary name for the Integrated Commissioning Hub referred to in reports dated before May 2018. WHaCC was a formal strategic partnership created on behalf of Wirral Council and Wirral CCG. The partnership was created following agreement to progress into a formal partnership by Wirral Council Cabinet in November 2017 (minute 62 (27/11/17) refers) and NHS Wirral CCG’s Governing Body in December 2017.

This report presented the detail of how the agreement to create a single care and health commissioner for Wirral had been taken forward in terms of financial governance and decision making. The Section 75 pooled fund agreement (Appendix 3 to the report) set out the budget areas that were being pooled in 2018. It also referred to a shadow pool which referred to budgets that were not being pooled in 2018, in order to minimise exposure to financial risk. Financial and governance arrangements were included within the Section 75 agreement.

Importantly the key risks and mitigations had been considered and responded to by WHaCC in setting up pooled fund and financial governance arrangements.

He acknowledged that concerns had been expressed from a number of sources and further scrutiny of the risks as well as the benefits would need to happen before any further pooling was considered. The Board were being asked to agree to the pooled arrangements for 2018/19 only after which he proposed that there would be a pause whilst further scrutiny took place on any proposed expansion of the pooled fund.

In September 2017 a due diligence exercise was undertaken by Price Waterhouse Cooper (PWC). The report illustrated the benefits of integrated commissioning and set out their view of potential risks and mitigations on behalf of Wirral Council and Wirral CCG. The report was considered in advance of the decision to create WHaCC, but had not previously been in the public domain. At this stage the report could be read in conjunction with the arrangements that had been put in place to respond to the highlighted risks. He stated that some of the language used in the PWC report in relation to ‘accountable care organisations and accountable care systems’ was something which had not been adopted in Wirral. Wirral’s focus was on integrated care, collaboration and NHS providers working together and was not on the creation of an Accountable Care Organisation.

Mike Treharne, Chief Financial Officer, Wirral NHS CCG then spoke to the report and expanded further on some of its details. He referred to the key risks and mitigations appendix in the report and stated that the risks were  ...  view the full minutes text for item 22.

The report of the Parenting Co-ordinator, Cheshire and Wirral Partnership is attached.

Paul Boyce, Corporate Director for Children’s Services, introduced a report which outlined the case for a Wirral-wide parenting strategy and pathway to better meet the needs of children, young people and their families.

An agreed multi-agency pathway would distribute responsibility and resource more evenly across agencies to ensure the right experience and expertise depending on identified needs. A common approach to parenting would improve service-user experience as all agencies would use a common language, approach and engagement with services throughout the child’s lifetime would build upon a common foundation. Details were given of a number of key points including support based on the THRIVE model.

Councillor Bernie Mooney commented that this was a good example of services coming together and much of the time partnership working was underpinned by legislation from Government.

Simon Banks referred to the reference to THRIVE, which was an acronym for ‘Timely, helpful, respectful, innovative, values based and efficient’, a nationally recognised approach. He was pleased to see the report on the agenda as there was a need to have more issues on the agenda for children and young people as the JSCB was for people of all ages.

Nesta Hawker welcomed the positive report and referring to the increasing work being undertaken with neighbourhoods asked for future reports to consider these issues as different neighbourhoods did have varying needs.

Lorna Quigley welcomed the multi-agency approach in the report which was definitely the right way forward.

The NHS Wirral CCG Members and Wirral Borough Council’s three Cabinet Members, sitting as a Committee of the Cabinet –

Resolved – That the development of a multi-agency, borough-wide parenting strategy and pathway for Wirral, led by a multi-agency project board, be agreed.

To note that the next meeting of the Joint Strategic Commissioning Board will be held at 2pm on Tuesday, 4 December 2018 in the Council Chamber of Birkenhead Town Hall.

Resolved – That it be noted that the next meeting of the Joint Strategic Commissioning Board is scheduled for 2pm on Tuesday, 4 December, 2018 in the Council Chamber of Birkenhead Town Hall.