Agenda item

 The Health and Social Care Integration Manager and the Managing Director from the Hillingdon Clinical Commissioning Group introduced the report on the Better Care Fund Plan (BCF) and provided an oral summary of the key highlights.

It was explained that the BCF was a government initiative introduced in 2014/15 that was intended to improve efficiency and effectiveness in the provision of health and care to deliver better outcomes for residents. The 2019/20 plan was Hillingdon’s fourth and focussed on improving care outcomes for older people, people with learning disabilities and/or autism and children and young people. Previous plans had focussed on older people.

It was noted that some of the national and local metrics had not been met. A key success in the reduction in the number of delayed transfers of care and the fact that Hillingdon had the third lowest social care related delays in London was highlighted. The Committee was advised that the total projected number of delays for the year was expected to be significantly below the ceiling set for Hillingdon by NHSE.

The Committee was advised that stronger links had been established between Housing teams and both the Hospital and CNWL to avoid housing-related delays.  A query was raised about the delays shown in the report attributed to housing that concerned people whose needs did not fall within the Care Act. The people who fell into this category included asylum seekers, people from abroad, single homeless people or those with no fixed abode who did not have eligible social care needs.

It was explained that meeting some metrics, including emergency admissions, were challenging for a variety of reasons and the Committee felt that it would be helpful if future reports clarified the extent to which local performance was attributable to national and/or local issues. It was noted that some targets may be unrealistic given the demographics of the Borough and this would be taken into consideration when setting targets for 2020/21.

The Committee enquired about the initiatives in place to support older people who had fallen or who were at risk of falls and officers agreed to provide a summary to Democratic Services.

The Committee was informed that continuing data integrity issues meant that it was not yet possible to provide an update on the number of emergency admissions from care homes for the April to September 2019 period.  However, it was highlighted that advances in the information available about the reasons for admission from care homes to Hillingdon Hospital meant that it was possible for partners to target appropriate support to individual care homes.  This proactive approach was having a positive impact.

A query was raised by the Committee about two third sector engagement events held in June 2019.  These events were held in Uxbridge and Hayes Muslim Centre and attended by 63 locally based third sector organisations that have all subsequently had individual meetings with representatives of H4All. They had all signed up to the H4All Health and Care Network, which would help to improve information about what support was available locally for residents. It was noted that in the area of domestic abuse, the creation of a resources guide directory had increased awareness of the different types of services available to residents and relevant bodies.

Officers were thanked for the helpful and good report. Although national and local metrics had not been, the Committee considered that there was clear progress that had been made.

RESOLVED: That the delivery of the 2019/20 plan be noted.