Agenda and minutes

RESOLVED:  That all items of business be considered in public. 

It was noted that Detective Chief Superintendent Nick Downing had been appointed as the West London Commander on a temporary basis. 

RESOLVED:  That the minutes of the meeting held on 15 March 2016 be agreed as a correct record. 

Ms Joan Veysey, Acting Chief Operating Officer for the Hillingdon Clinical Commissioning Group (HCCG), advised that the NHS had provided a standard template and schedules which needed to be completed as the formal Better Care Fund (BCF) Plan.  Members were assured that messages communicated from the Plan would be in a much more user friendly format. 

The draft Plan had been agreed by the Hillingdon Health and Wellbeing Board (HWB) and had also been agreed by the HCCG Governing Body in a Part II meeting (as this meeting had taken place before the Plan was considered by the HWB).  The Plan would be considered by the Social Services, Housing and Public Health Policy Overview Committee at its meeting on 20 April 2016.  Comment on the Plan was now awaited from NHS England (NHSE). 

The BCF was a national scheme intended to encourage health and social care to work together more closely, as required by the 2014 Care Act, with the expectation of a three year Plan from April 2017 to achieve "full integration" by 31 March 2020.  It was anticipated that the definition of "full integration" would be included in the guidance that was expected to be issued by the end of the current quarter.  Mr Gary Collier, the Council's Better Care Fund Programme Manager, advised that he would forward a copy of the guidance to the Committee once it had been received.  Officers would start to identify the needs of the Borough and start a local dialogue by the end of this quarter.  This information could then be manipulated to fit the Government requirements. 

It was noted that BCF funding was not new money.  For the 2016/2017 Plan, HCCG and the Council were pooling £22.5m, which was more than the required minimum value of £20m.  Government had allocated £1.5bn of new money for the three year plans.  It was anticipated that this would be performance related and that the majority would be allocated in the last two years of the three year plans. 

The 2016/2017 Plan would focus on older people with a view to helping them maintain their independence and remain at home and in the community for longer.  It was noted that most of the 2015/2016 schemes had been rolled forward into the current year. 

Achievements in 2015/2016 included:

·         A reduction in the number of emergency admissions;

·         A reduction in the number of falls-related emergency admissions;

·         A reduction in the delayed transfers of care;

·         A reduction in the number of permanent admissions to care homes - although a target of 104 had been agreed with NHSE, this had later been revised to 150 and agreed by the HWB;

·         An increase in the number still at home 91 days after discharge from hospital to the Reablement Service - this had been quite a challenge, given the needs of the service users; and

·         Improved working relationships across health and social care - a self assessment  ...  view the full minutes text for item 52.

Consideration was given to the Committee's Work Programme.  The Committee's final meeting of the 2015/2016 municipal year would consider the Quality Account reports of the local Trusts.  As the meeting tended to be lengthy, the Trusts had been asked to keep their presentations to no more than 12 slides and that they should take no more than 10 minutes each.  It was suggested that attendees at similar meetings in the future be asked to present for 5 minutes (and no more than 5 slides) or advise that they not to provide a presentation at all.  It was agreed that the traffic light system be used at the Committee's next meeting to try to keep the presentations to the given timescales.  It was anticipated that, by keeping the presentations time limited, it would provide Members with more time to ask questions of each Trust. 

Consideration was also given to two Members leading on each of the Quality Account reports at the meeting.  This approach would still enable other Members to ask questions on all of the reports to tease out what action would be taken as a result of the Quality Account reports.  It was also suggested that Members only asked questions after every two presentations.

The Democratic Services Manager agreed to email Members with copies of the two Quality Account reports that had already been received.  This would give Members more time to read and digest the content prior to the meeting. 

RESOLVED:  That:

1.    the Democratic Services Manager email the Quality Account reports to Members; and

2.    the Work Programme be noted.