Agenda and minutes

The Board were advised of Councillor J Clifford and Ed DeVane’s retirement from the Board.  Thanks were extended to both Members for their contributions.

Minute 44 (End of Life Strategy)

·  Councillor J McNicholas declared he had an elderly relative who did not use social media

·  Councillor C Miks declared a relation had received end of life care

As neither declaration was a disclosable pecuniary interest, Councillors McNicholas and Miks remained in the meeting during the consideration of the item.

The minutes of the meetings held on 1^st February 2023 and 15^th February 2023 were agreed and signed as a true record.

There were no matters arising.

Report of the Director of Adults

The Board considered a briefing note of the Director of Adults regarding Coventry and Warwickshire Integrated Care System which was developing a 5-year Coventry and Warwickshire All Age Palliative and End of Life Care (PEoLC) Strategy 2023 – 2028.  The Strategy would be owned by the following organisations:

·  Coventry City Council (CCC)

·  NHS Coventry and Warwickshire Integrated Care Board (CWICB)

·  Warwickshire County Council (WCC)

The Strategy development was based on the National Ambitions for Palliative and End of life Care.  The 6 National ambitions were:

·  Each person is seen as an individual

·  Each person gets fair access to care

·  Maximising comfort and wellbeing

·  Care is co-ordinated

·  All staff are prepared to care

·  Each community is prepared to help

The delivery of the PEoLC Strategy would support the ICS partnership organisations to ensure PEoLC was prioritised and equitable across the system.

A brief for the proposed Strategy was presented to Coventry and Warwickshire Commissioning Group in June 2022 and agreement had been secured from WCC and CCC to partner the strategy. 

Four priorities had been identified for the Palliative and End of Life Care for Coventry and Warwickshire:

1.  Information – focus on identification of people in the last 12 months of life, early intervention, and support.

2.  Access – to timely palliative and end of life care, with support throughout.

3.  Supporting people – diagnosed with a life limiting condition and those who matter to them, carers, and community to prevent crisis.

4.  Improving the quality of personalised care and support planning for people with palliative care needs, including planning for the end of life.

Members of the Board, having considered the content of the briefing note and presentation, asked questions and received information from officers on the following matters:

·  Information on the Happy, Healthy Lives website

·  Access to end of life information to be available widely on both social media, in libraries and GP surgeries

·  Funding mechanisms and level of resource available to implement the Strategy

·  End of life services being mapped to identify gaps

·  End of life care being delivered through primary care

·  The Action Plan identifying and raising awareness of services available to residents in Coventry and Warwickshire and how they could work collaboratively with the voluntary and community sector within the funding means to service the needs of the population

·  All patients being identified as individuals

·  Patients dying without being identified as being in their last year of life - some end of life services not being accessed

·  Respect forms informing service providers of patients wishes

·  Medical, psychological, emotional and spiritual support being available to both patients and their families

·  Collaborative working between doctors, hospitals, families and patients being vital to the strategy

·  Pharmacies ensuring they have the correct medicines in stock when required

·  The Strategy engagement period during June/July 2023

·  Social Prescribers in Primary Care being a vital link

·  An end of life register which would communicate with every organisation

Members welcomed the Strategy, thanked officers for their work and suggested the following comments in  ...  view the full minutes text for item 44.

Report of the Director of Adults

The Board considered a report of the Director of Adults advising a key component of the Adult Social Care reform agenda was sustainability of the care market.  Part of the requirement was for Councils with responsibility for adult social care to undertake a Fair Cost of Care (FCoC) exercise to establish the median costs of care for two elements of the care market:  care homes for people aged 65 and over and home support for those aged 18 and over and to move towards payment of median fee rates.  A further mandate was for the delivery of a provisional Market Sustainability Plan (MSP).

The production of the MSP was required to ensure that the Council received financial support from the Government in relation to Fair Cost of Care in 2022/23 and was a condition of receiving the Sustainability and Improvement Fund in 2023/24.

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) required submission of a provisional MSP in October 2022 and the Council had submitted this to DHSC following approval at Cabinet on 11^th October 2022.  The final MSP was required to be submitted by 27^th March 2023 and including the following three sections:

Section 1:  requires assessment of the 65+ care home market and the 18+ home support market which will give a comprehensive and representative picture of the current situation.

Section 2:  an assessment of the expected market changes over the next 3 years.

Section 3:  plans for each submarket to address the sustainability issues identified including how funds would be used to move towards a fair cost of care over the next 3 years, any further actions the local authority planned to take to support market sustainability, how the plan complements other strategic documents and how the authority had engaged providers in the development of the plans.

Members of the Board, having considered the content of the report and presentation, asked questions, and received information from officers on the following matters:

·  Sources of funding in relation to the increase in inflation

·  Coventry’s allocation of funding

·  Less reliance on Housing with Care

·  The West Midlands Hub

·  Skills enhancement and training to support care provision

·  Insurance for care homes

·  In the case of a “needs improvement” outcome, working with the provider to develop an improvement plan, including setting timescales and prioritising safety of residents/service users

·  If significant concerns are identified, all elements of care provided are investigated

RESOLVED that the Health and Social Care Scrutiny Board (5) note the Market Sustainability Plan.

Report of the Scrutiny Co-ordinator

The Board noted the Work Programme and agreed to invite the West Midlands Ambulance Service to the first meeting of the new Municipal Year.

RESOLVED that the Health and Social Care Scrutiny Board (5) notes the Work Programme and invites the West Midlands Ambulance Service to the first meeting of the new Municipal Year.

Any other items of public business which the Chair decides to take as matters of urgency because of the special circumstances involved

There were no other items of public business.