Agenda item

Report of Pete Fahy, Director of Adult Services

The Board considered a report of Pete Fahy, Director of Adult Services, which sought approval for the Better Care Plan 2019/2020, which was a one year plan and an extension to the previous two year plan. It was a joint plan of the City Council and Coventry and Rugby Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG). A copy of the plan had been circulated to the Board.

The report indicated that the Better Care Fund (BCF) provided support to councils and NHS organisations to jointly plan and deliver local services.  It had been in place since 2015, with the previous Coventry BCF Plan covering the period 2017-2019. Financially the Fund was managed via a Section 75 agreement between the City Council and Coventry and Rugby CCG and was hosted by the City Council. A key purpose of the fund was to maximise community services, to prevent older people from going into hospital and helping them move on quickly and safely following hospital admission, thus reducing cost and improving outcomes within the overall system.

The report provided a breakdown of the £107,175,924 total budget for 2019/20 which was all committed to existing areas of activity including City Councils older people community purchasing and the CCGs Out of Hospital contract. The resources also included the £13.8m iBCF grant resources that had previously only being confirmed until the end of 2019/20 and had now been confirmed for the following year. The Board noted that this represented a significant amount of existing Adult Social Care resources that remained at future risk, and if it the grant did not continue could lead to significant service reductions. 

Reference was made to the national context with the NHS Long Term Plan being published by NHS England on 7 January 2019 which set out priorities for healthcare over the next 10 years and showed how the NHS funding settlement would be used. Integrated care systems were to be created across England by 2021, and Clinical Commissioning Groups were to be merged. Prevention was a key focus of the plan. From a social care perspective, the city council was an important part of the local health and social care economy and the changes in the local system would inevitably influence how the city council developed its services to support the people of the City. 

The Better Care Fund had been extended a further year, 2019/2020 with a requirement to submit updated and extended plans for this year. As the guidance and policy was issued part way through the year, a much reduced plan was required based on completion of the standard template. Earlier years had required more significant plans. Plans would be subject to a national assurance process which would take place week commencing 18th November 2019. This timescale meant that the plan would only in theory be approved 4 months before it expired.

A requirement of the Plan was that it would be jointly developed and approved by the City Council and the CCG and the Coventry Health and Wellbeing Board. Approvals were received by the council and the CCG prior to submission to NHS England on 27 September 2019. The Board noted that good working relationships continued in Coventry, and so the organisations were on target to deliver the plan.

The Board acknowledged the difficulties associated with working with short term funding as opposed to being able to plan long term

RESOLVED that, as per a condition of the Better Care Fund Plan, approval be given to the plan post submission to NHS England on 27^th September 2019.