Agenda item

Report of the Deputy Chief Executive

The Board considered the report of the Deputy Chief Executive that provided background information on the Better Care Fund (BCF) (formerly the Integration Transformation Fund) and outlining the approach being taken in developing Sefton’s Better Care Plan. The report also noted that the funding within the BCF was not new money.  It was a transfer of money from the NHS to Local Authorities which was already committed to services including substantial Local Authority service provision.  The funding was intended to be used to support adult social care services which also had a health benefit

The report indicated that BCF required Councils and Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) to deliver five year local plans for integrating health and social care; that the first stage of the process was that a BCF template had to be submitted by 14 February 2014 to NHS England (North), which would then be assured by that organisation, with support from the Local Government Association, to assess whether Sefton’s BCF was sufficiently robust to deliver the governments vision for the integration of health and social care; that whilst BCF did not come into full effect until 2015/16, the intention was for CCGs and local authorities to build momentum during 2014/15, using the £200 million (nationally) due to be transferred to local government from the NHS to support transformation; that plans for use of the pooled budgets must be agreed by CCGs and local authorities, and endorsed by the local Health and Wellbeing Board.

The report also detailed how payment of BCF funds would be linked to performance; and recommended that the following metric from the NHS Outcomes Framework be adopted as the local metric for the Sefton Better Care Plan: Proportion of people feeling supported to manage their (lomg term) condition.   

The report concluded that preparations for the development of a Better Care Plan, as part of the Southport and Formby and South Sefton CCG’s 5 year Strategic Plans were underway; that once feedback, both from the assurance process and from continued engagement on the first cut of the Better Care template and the CCG’s draft 5 year strategic plans was received, a more detailed revised plan would be submitted to the Health and Wellbeing Board and Cabinet; and that the guidance on the BCF had been changed during the process of development, and that it was anticipated that it would continue to be firmed up over coming months as the assurance process validated whether the BCF templates were robust enough in terms of vision, ambition and schemes, to draw down funding. 

Attached as an appendix to the report was the BCF planning template that identified the plan details, the vision and schemes, the national conditions and the risks and mitigating actions to be taken.

RESOLVED: That

(1)            the first version of the Better Care Plan, as set out in the  template attached to the report (and as agreed by the Chair of the Health and Wellbeing Board in consultation with the Cabinet Member - Older People and Health, the Chief Officer of the Southport and Formby and South Sefton CCGs and the respective Chairs of those Boards, and submitted to  Government on the 14 February 2014) be approved,  subject to confirmation by Cabinet on 27 February 2014; and

(2)            it be noted that there is no new money attached to the Better Care Fund.