Agenda item - Chair's Communications

The Chair of the Board will start the meeting with a short update on recent developments on health and wellbeing.

13.1    The Chair gave the following updates. 

Better Care Fund

·       Revised guidance on elements of the Better Care Fund was released last Friday.

·       The most significant change is that the £1 billion ‘performance’ element of the BCF has been reconfigured so that payments are now wholly dependent on an area’s scale of ambition in terms of reducing emergency admissions. It is anticipated that local areas will have to plan for and achieve a minimum of 3.5% reduction in admissions to qualify for a share of a £300 million national pot.

·       The remaining £700 million of the BCF performance money will now be directly invested in NHS-commissioned out-of-hospital services – subject to local agreement.

·       These changes will require HWBs to revise and re-submit their BCF plans. The submission date is 19 September 2014. A revised local plan will be presented to the HWB for approval at the 09 September committee meeting.

·       Staff will be working over the summer to produce a revised plan, with the support of the NHS England Area Team and local government peers. A revised assurance process is also being put in place.

Trans Equalities Scrutiny

13.2    The council’s Overview & Scrutiny Committee recently considered a monitoring report on the implementation of the Trans Equalities Scrutiny recommendations. Although implementation was generally progressing really well, there had been a lack of movement in terms of recommendations relating to primary care, and in particular to specialised services commissioned by the NHS England Area Team.

13.3    In response to this the Chair had asked Geraldine Hoban to set up a meeting between the CCG, NHS England and a representative from the scrutiny panel. Geraldine had spoken to the Director responsible for direct commissioning at the Area Team and a meeting had now been arranged.

Brighton & Sussex University Hospitals Trust Bids for ICT Projects

13.4    The Council had only recently been made aware that BSUH was bidding for funding for two ICT projects: the first aimed at developing regional video and audio conferencing infrastructure; the second intended to improve the accuracy of patient data recording.

13.5    BSUH had informed the council that both these bids would need HWB support if they are to progress.  The Chair had therefore agreed to accept a late report seeking HWB support for these bids, and it was proposed to take this report as the first substantive item. Iain Kelly, Senior ICT Project Manager at BSUH was in attendance to answer members’ questions.

Update on Integrated Community Equipment Service

13.6    The Integrated Community Equipment Service is jointly commissioned by Brighton & Hove City Council and the Clinical Commissioning Group.  The service is managed by Sussex Community Trust, and has employees from the Trust & Brighton & Hove City Council.

13.7    In June Sussex Community Trust served notice on their contract to provide the Equipment Service as it does not align with their Clinical Care Strategy. They initially gave notice that they would cease provision in March 2015 but after further discussions have agreed to continue to provide the service until 31^st September 2015.

13.8    A new service will therefore need to be procured and a report will be presented to Health & Wellbeing Board in September identifying the options for sourcing an equipment service that meets the future requirements whilst demonstrating value for money.

Update on Day Services Review 

13.9    A decision had been taken to undertake an independent review of Learning Disability Services.  A briefing had been circulated to members of the Board and the information had been shared with service users and carers.