Agenda item

Social Care and Health Integration

Minutes:

Jason Oxley (Assistant Director, Health and Care, Wirral Council) and Val McGee (Chief Operating Officer, Wirral Community NHS Foundation Trust) introduced their report and presentation that, as requested by the Chair of the Health and Care Overview and Scrutiny Committee, provided members with an update on the early progress of the Integrated Social Care service provided by Wirral Community NHS Foundation Trust (WCT) on behalf of Wirral Council. The report described progress from the perspective of both Wirral Council (as commissioner of the service) and WCT as the service provider.  The appendices to the report contained the Quarterly Performance Report, 100 Day Plan and Staff and Service User Feedback.

 

Jason Oxley (Assistant Director, Health and Care, Wirral Council) and Val McGee (Chief Operating Officer, Wirral Community NHS Trust) set out the background to the report and explained that Wirral Council was undergoing a major transformation in the way in which it provided social care services to local people. The Council recognised the benefits of integrating health and care services and the opportunity that this brought to provide better, more joined up services to people who need them.  Integration made it possible for services to be developed more effectively to meet the needs of local residents. With social care and health staff working within one organisation it was possible to streamline assessment processes, reduce duplication of multiple professional involvements, and develop a single point of access and single social care and health support planning.

 

In March 2017 Cabinet had approved the creation of an integrated social care service for adults and older people and the transfer of services to WCT.  This had been implemented in June 2017. Under the new arrangement, WCT now provided statutory adult social care services on behalf of the Council under a contractual agreement. Services provided included the delivery of assessment, support planning and case management services for older people and adults.  The Council retained the care budget (budget of £57m) and market management duties, but commissioned WCT to carry out the statutory Care Act (2014) functions related to assessment and case management on its behalf. The functions mainly comprised of: assessment, support planning, care arrangement, review, case management, safeguarding and referral handling.  The Council retained the statutory duties.  Val McGee indicated that it was still early days and there was still a great deal of work to be done however the first 6 months showed a great deal of good progress and there were early signs of benefits.

 

Members raised a number of questions and thanked Jason Oxley and Val McGee for a very detailed report.  Councillor Wendy Clements indicated that she had taken a tour to look at the work of integrated services at WCT and had been pleased with the progress to date and Val McGee offered members of the Adult Care and Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee the opportunity to also do this if they wished.

 

Resolved – That;

 

1  the report and presentation be noted.

 

2  that members wishing to take up the offer of a visit to see the work of integrated health and care services at WCT contact Val McGee via Alan Veitch, Scrutiny Officer, in the first instance.

Supporting documents: