Agenda item

Report of Mark Godfrey, Deputy Director, Adult Social Care

The Board considered a joint report providing an update on progress towards delivering the Better Care Coventry Programme. The Board also viewed a video of a patient discussing her assessments and treatment following a fall as she followed the new Falls Pathway which enabled her to remain in her home avoiding being taken to A and E.

The report indicated that Coventry’s revised Better Care Plan was fully approved by NHS England on 22^nd December, 2014 and the city’s Better Care fund totalled £52m for 2015/16. The City Council was the host for this pooled budget. The Coventry Programme supported the delivery of integrated models of care, so improving outcomes for people across the health and social care economy. The four core projects which formed the structure of the programme were detailed.

Information was provided on the governance arrangements. The Better Care Programme Board provided the operational oversight for the delivery of the programme while the Joint Adult Commissioning Board were responsible for commissioning decisions ensuring the pooled budget was managed in line with the partnership agreement. The Board were reminded of their role to hold the Joint Adult Commissioning Board to account for the delivery of Better Care Coventry and provide strategic direction. 

Further information was provided on progress with the New Falls Pathway and the Mental Health Street Triage Service, both of which commenced in December, 2014 and had resulted in a significant reduction in attendances at A and E. Reference was also made to the success of the recent bid to the Prime Minister’s Challenge Fund which had secured an additional £4m to be used over the next two years to support the following three services: (i) the extension of opening hours at the GP hub at the city Health Centre; (ii) a Primary Care Frailty Team helping elderly patients at home when discharged from hospital; and (iii) a GP based within the Emergency Department at UHCW treating minor illnesses.

The Home First Project had led to a number of changes within the hospital including access to all community based services for both hospital and social care staff to use when planning patient discharge. There had been an increase in capacity across a number of short term services including Housing with Care Short Term Tenancies. The practitioner team was now in place and joint reviews of people placed out of the city in care homes had commenced.

Positive work continued with the delivery of the ‘dementia discharge to assess’ pilot. Two GP practices had been piloting Integrated Neighbourhood Teams since July 2014 which involved the establishment of multi-disciplinary teams who had worked with around 30 patients. Initial feedback showed significant benefits from working this way and work was being undertaken on how to implement the INTs across the city. Information was also provided on the work currently underway to introduce an integrated care record system. 

Members of the Board raised a number of issues including:

·  The support which could be provided by the Fire Service who carried out safety checks on patients’ home

·  Further details about the numbers of referrals to the Falls Pathway from NHS 111 and the Ambulance Service

·  Reference to the very successful partnership work

·  An acknowledgement of the considerable work that remained to be undertaken to improve the hospital flow to enable the city to hit the national targets relating to A and E

·  Further details about information sharing of patient details and the long term intention to have an integrated system for patient records for the partner organisations.

RESOLVED that:

(1) The progress made to date on the Better Care Coventry Programme be noted.

(2) Further progress updates be submitted to future meetings over the coming months to ensure the momentum of the programme is maintained as it moves forward, and to provide strategic direction.

(3) A Development Session be held later in the year for Board members to look in detail at the progress made with Better Care Coventry Programme.