Agenda item

To receive a report from the Leader and Cabinet Member for Traded Services and Health Reform and the Director of Strategy, Policy, Relationships and Corporate Assurance, to note progress and identify work streams about which the committee would like further information.

1.            Mr Whittle introduced the report and responded to comments and questions from the committee, including the following:-

a)    in response to a concern that, as work to implement the STP continued, sufficient and suitable back–up services would need to be in place, Mr Whittle agreed with the importance of such services being in place and assured the committee that much work was going on to ensure that they were in place by the time they were needed;

b)    Mr Scott-Clark explained that the STP for South East London was further advanced in its development than Kent’s because work on it had been going on for a longer time.  Mr Whittle added that public bodies in London had had to work more closely together from an earlier stage to develop their STPs, and  hence had longer to build relationships;

c)    The rating of Dartford, Gravesham and Swanley Clinical Commissioning Group as ‘inadequate’ had recently been addressed by the Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee. Disappointment was expressed that only five of the eight clinical commissioning group areas in Kent had been rated ‘good’;

d)    in response to a question about the complexity of the STP make-up and the hierarchy of systems, Mr Whittle explained that, although previous reforms of the NHS had separated the commissioner and  provider roles, the STP was now seeking to join these back together and reduce fragmentation. To this arrangement had now been added the social care aspects of service provision and the requirement for clinical commissioning groups to balance their budgets across the whole breadth of health and social care provision. A number of accountable care organisations were involved in the delivery of the STP, and a further complexity was that the policy frameworks of NHS England and Kent County Council were quite different;

e)    one speaker commented that the original commissioner and  provider split may prove in the long run to have not been worthwhile;

f)     the challenge of integrating legislation and practice was acknowledged;

g)    asked about the projects and work streams listed in appendix 2 to the report to address hospital performance, patient-focused change and transformation, Mr Scott-Clark explained that the chart shown belonged to the NHS and that the set of measures and services put in place by the Kent and Medway STP would look different. Music, art, singing and exercise were all known to be beneficial to patients with dementia and those recovering from cancer, and could reduce the need for other forms of treatment and hence save resources. Mr Whittle added that the STP had been built on structures and work streams, but these would generate practices and pathways which would aid frontline service delivery to patients; and

h)   report authors were thanked for the clarity of the information presented, which had helped new Members to start to understand the complex issues involved in the development and delivery of the STP.  It was hoped that future reports would continue this clarity. 

2.            It was RESOLVED that the information set out in the report be noted.  No work streams for future scrutiny had yet been identified but these would become clearer as further update reports were considered at future meetings.