Agenda item

Integrated Health and Social Care Proposed Commissioning and Delivery Arrangements 2015

Minutes:

Councillor Chris Jones introduced a report by the Strategic Director - Families and Wellbeing which informed that closer integration of health and social care had been a central driver within National policy.  It was underpinned by the Better Care Fund and remained a key theme in the ‘Five Year Forward View’, which stated that the NHS would need to “take decisive steps to break down the barriers of how care is provided”.  The Cabinet noted that locally, the Vision 2018 programme had been established to provide a health and social care sector response to the significant system wide pressures in Wirral and the £150m reduction in collective resources by 2018.  It was clear that a greater sense of collaboration between commissioners was vital in responding to these challenges and creating a cohesive whole system of care.

 

Work on the BCF business case, and agreements in relation to key commissioning priorities had shown the value of very close collaboration.  The level of collaboration and joint strategic decision making could be further improved by integrating the commissioning response working effectively across the health and social care economy.  To this end, colleagues from Wirral CCG and Adult Social Care had been working closely together to explore how the above organisations could work together in greater alignment, moving towards full integration over time, specifically in the areas of joint commissioning, quality assurance and commissioning support arrangements.

 

The Strategic Director’s report informed that in addition to the drive to integrate commissioning arrangements, a key work stream under Vision 2018 had focused on creating a model for the full integration of community Health and Social care teams based within the constituency model.  The Integrated Co-ordinated Care Teams would fulfil the delivery functions carried out by social workers and nurses to offer a fully integrated response to meeting people’s needs more effectively providing a range of flexible responses closer to home and with a focus on avoiding unnecessary hospital admissions.

 

The Strategic Director’s report outlined progress that was being made towards greater integration of both leadership and management arrangements across health and adult social care, specifically focusing on commissioning and quality assurance, and the operational delivery of social work and support planning.  The Cabinet noted that these changes were being made in the interests of providing a single cohesive approach across health and social care services to benefit the people of Wirral and to use resources more effectively.

 

Councillor Phil Davies informed that this report was very important in terms of the future direction of travel.  It was important that the Council used existing funding that it and the NHS had and pooled their budgets etc.  This was the right approach and it should be pursued as quickly as possible.

 

RESOLVED: That

 

(1)  the Cabinet notes the direction of travel towards greater integration in relation to; the commissioning and quality assurance of health and social care, and the direct delivery of social work support planning and community nursing services;

 

(2)  the Cabinet supports the formation of a formal Management Agreement between the CCG and the Council setting out how, in practical terms, the Director of Adult Social Care will fulfil statutory duties through working across both organisations to drive more effective commissioning outcomes in the areas set out in the report. This is subject to further discussions with Legal and HR Services; and 

 

(3)  the Cabinet supports the next steps as set out in section 2 of the report including the further development of the specification for the operating model for the integrated teams, including the aims and objectives for integrated community services.

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