Agenda item

Hazel Carpenter (Accountable Officer, NHS South Kent Coast CCG and NHS Thanet CCG) was in attendance for this item.

(1)       The Chairman welcomed to Ms Carpenter to the Committee. Ms Carpenter began by explaining that she was presenting this item on behalf of the four Kent CCG Accountable Officers. She stated that the Better Care Fund (BCF) was a national mechanism introduced in 2015/16 to pool health and social care budgets together. She confirmed that the BCF was not new money, it was funding already allocated across the health and wider care system. She reported that the BCF would be a foundation for integration in many areas but in Kent the plans for integration were more ambitious than the prescriptive national policy guidance and the BCF had only cemented what was already being done. She noted that Kent was appointed an integration pioneer by the Department of Health in 2013 which had enabled health and social care services to work together and build positive relationships in advance on the BCF.

(2)       A Member asked about seven day services and workforce. Ms Carpenter stated that there were local discussions were taking place to look at what services needed to be seven days a week to enable appropriate access. She noted that workforce in Kent was a critical issue and the Kent Health and Wellbeing Board had established a Task & Finish group to explore this issue and would be reporting their findings to the Board’s next meeting in May.

(3)       A Member enquired about the design of integrated service. Ms Carpenter reported that in Kent the ambition was to design integrated patient focused services beyond the legal mechanism of the BCF. She stated that NHS South Kent Coast CCG was looking to bring together the entire health and social care budget to create an integrated care organisation; a compact agreement on the integration of health and social care had been developed and adopted by all partner organisations. She highlighted a benefit of integration, the BCF and Prime Minister Challenge Fund funding had reduced A&E admissions in NHS South Kent Coast CCG.

(4)       In response to a specific question about the public health datasets, Ms Carpenter explained that the dataset was a technical device to pull together public health, social care and health data and had been commended nationally. She stated that GPs were able to use the data at a local level to see how their patients accessed health and social care services and put in place a more individual care plan to better support them and provide value for money.

(5)       RESOLVED that: 

(a)       the report on the Better Care Fund be noted;

(b)       the Kent Accountable Officers be requested to present an update on integration including the development of an integrated care organisation in NHS South Kent Coast CCG to the Committee in September.

(c)        Mr Scott-Clark be requested to provide a briefing to the Committee on public health datasets and how they help to support health and social care commissioning.