Agenda item

Members will receive an update on the Leicester City Better Care Fund 2016/17. Members are recommended to note the update and make any comments.

The Director of Adult Social Care and Safeguarding updated the commission on the Leicester City Better Care Fund 2016/17.

The Deputy City Mayor reported that Leicester City were seen both regionally and nationally as exemplar in delivering their Better Care Fund (BCF) and thanks were given to the Director and her team and Rachana Vyas, Deputy Director of Strategy and Planningfrom the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG). He expressed concerns that the BCF was very bureaucratic and added that the Department of Health needed to be made aware of the issues that arose from the bureaucracy that they imposed.  The Strategic Director concurred stating that the planning and bureaucracy were unhelpful and that he was aware of other regions that were not as well placed with the BCF as Leicester was.  The Chair invited Councillor Chaplin, the Chair of the Health and Wellbeing Scrutiny Commission to the table in order to contribute to the discussion. The Chair of the Health and Wellbeing Scrutiny Commission commented that commission Members were also concerned at the general levels of bureaucracy within BCF.

Philip Parkinson, Healthwatch representative suggested that the commission might ask Healthwatch to make representations to the Department of Health over this issue. The Director stated that representatives from government departments had previously met with the city council; they had asked for and received honest feedback, but it did not appear that the comments had been acted upon.

It was suggested that it would be useful to send a letter from the Chairs of both the Adult Social Care and Health and Wellbeing Scrutiny Commissions expressing concerns about the bureaucracy of the BCF. The Deputy City Mayor commented that it needed to be argued that there was not a one size fits all solution, because some parts of the country were in a different situation to Leicester.

A Member questioned who was responsible for care of the patient when, for example, they were discharged from hospital after a long stay.  The Director explained that where someone needed the council’s support, the hospital had a statutory responsibility to contact the council, who in turn had a responsibility to provide that support within 48 hours of a discharge notification being issue. The council were successful in reaching that target.

The Chair congratulated the Director of Adult Social Care and Safeguarding and everyone who had worked on the Better Care Fund. The Chair asked for an update to be brought back to a future meeting of the commission.

AGREED:

1)    that the report be noted and an update be brought back to the Adult Social Care Scrutiny Commission; and

2)    that a letter to be sent from the Chairs of the Adult Social Care Scrutiny Commission and the Health and Wellbeing Scrutiny Commission to the Department of Health expressing their concerns around the bureaucracy in delivering the Better Care Fund.