Agenda and minutes

There were no disclosable pecuniary interests.

a.  To note the minutes of the meeting held on 17^th February 2015

b.  Matters arising

The minutes of the former Cabinet Member (Health and Adult Services) meeting held on 17^th February 2015 were noted.

Report of the Director of Public Health

The Cabinet Member considered a report of the Director of Public Health, which set out the current position and the work that was being undertaken to ensure the safe transfer of the commissioning arrangements for the commissioning of 0-5 public health services post October 2015.

As part of the Health and Social Care Act 2012, it was agreed that the commissioning responsibility for 0-5 public health would transfer to the NHS National Commissioning Board until April 2015, which was then extended until October 2015.  This responsibility in the main covered the Health Visiting and Family Nurse Partnership services (FNP).  The services were currently commissioned from Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership NHS Trust (CWPT) and cost in the region of £5.35m per annum.

The transfer would join up public health services for children (0-5) and young people (5-19) to ensure seamless transition between services and that children were given the best start in life to maximise their potential.

Guidance had recently been published by the Department of Health to support the transfer of the contracts for the services from the NHS to Local Authorities and financial allocations for Local Authorities from October 2015 were subject to consultation earlier in the year and finally published in March 2015.  The contracting guidance included two options regarding the transfer of the commissioning responsibilities – to agree one contract for 2015/16 with a mid-year legal transfer (novation) or to agree 2 separate six month contracts.

Following legal advice on the guidance, it was considered that Option 1 should be pursued for 2015/16.  This would mean that one contract is agreed for 2015/16, which would initially be held by NHS England and legally transferred to the Local Authority in October 2015.  The contract would be a NHS Standard contract, similar to those that transferred to the Council as part of the Public Health transfer in April 2013.  It is suggested in the guidance that this option is used if the Local Authority intends in the short term to commission the same range of services from the same provider as NHS England.

Work had therefore been undertaken with NHS England to negotiate a contract for 2015/16 with the provider that mets the needs of both commissioning organisations and ensured that the financial allocation would cover the contractual costs which would be incurred by the Authority.  It was proposed to undertake a “lift and shift” approach for 2015/16 and a minimum floor was being applied to ensure no local authority would be funded below an adjusted spend of £160 per head (0-5).

RESOLVED that the Cabinet Member for Health and Adult Services notes the current position and requests the Director of Public Health to provide a further update to the Cabinet Member post transfer to confirm the position and highlight any areas of concern/risk to the Authority.

There are no outstanding issues.

There were no outstanding issues.

There were no other items of public business.