Agenda item

The Corporate Director of People and Communities introduced the report which provided the Board with an update on the Local Authority’s (LA) commissioning intentions for the next financial year, 2016/17. Key points highlighted and raised during discussion included:

·         The LA was still developing its commissioning intentions and there was a big transformation programme in place which would produce savings during 2016/17.  Much of the work being done by the LA overlapped with the CCG and the hope was that next year a joint document could be produced.

·         Health was now one of the council’s strategic priorities.

·         A commitment had been made to only commission services that had an effective evidence base and also to work better with providers to develop services.

·         There were seven themes within the commissioning intentions.  The following four were mentioned within the report:

o   Managing Demand – Front Door

o   Managing Demand – Investment in the Community

o   Operating Models

o   New Ways of Working

·         The Front Door and Investment in the Community were both about managing demand and ensuring that residents needing services could reach the services quickly and efficiently.  It was currently very difficult for residents to navigate their way through to the correct service.

·         The first part of the project was too completely change the way the LA operated the Front Door which was currently a physical space in Bayard Place.  The intention was to enhance the service by providing a virtual Front Door to enable people to access the services from anywhere e.g. home, library, GP surgeries or other council buildings.  There would be investment in digital technology and a transfer of specialist staff to the Front Door.

·         There would also be investment in alternative provision.  The intention would be to enhance the role of voluntary and community groups to help reduce isolation, increase community support in the home and provide local activities.

·         The Operating Model (Specialist Services for children and adults).  The intention was to provide specialist expertise earlier with the intention of preventing the need for further support. 

·         There had been difficulty in retaining and recruiting qualified social workers.  It was therefore the intention to recruit alternatively qualified workers such as nursery nurses, family workers, school nurses and youth workers.  It was hoped that this would reduce the demand on social workers time and provide a better service to children and families and specifically to children in need.  Increasing the range of skills would improve the service. There would be an investment in training the alternatively qualified workers and they would be overseen by a qualified social worker. A pilot was currently being undertaken.

·         A review of Adult Social Care operations was being undertaken with a view to integrating services with NHS multi-disciplinary teams.

·         Members of the Board were encouraged to hear of the increased level of joint working.

·         Members were assured that people who were not digital savvy or needed to speak to someone could bypass the system.  There were multiple options and ways to access the system which would be well published.

·         Budget had been set aside to support the transformation agenda plus capital investment to support the digital technology.

The Health and Wellbeing Board RESOLVED to note the commissioning intentions of the Local Authority for 2016/17 financial year.