Agenda item

Report of Head of Integrated Commissioning/Director of Quality and Integration detailing steps toward joint and integrated commissioning, attached.

The Board considered the report of the Head of Integrated Commissioning/Director of Quality and Integration detailing progress towards joint and integrated commissioning. 

The Board noted that it was seen as key to ensuring integration of Health and Social Care Services with the ambition of improving local care. The Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy stressed the need for collective actions across the Local Authority and Clinical Commissioning Group to foster commitment, involvement and collective effort to improving the health and wellbeing of those who lived and worked across the City. Southampton City Council and the CCG had agreed a joint approach for commissioning supported by an overarching Joint Commissioning Strategy.  The intention was to make best use of the combined resources to address identified priority health, social care and housing needs to achieve better outcomes.  The vision was “Working together to make best use of our resources to commission sustainable, high quality services which met the needs of local people now and in the future”.The proposal was to develop a Joint Commissioning Unit to focus on effective commissioning to achieve better outcomes for identified groups of people within the population, including children and families, older people and people with mental health needs, a learning disability or life-limiting conditions. This would be achieved through integrating commissioning functions, strategies and resources across the Council and between the Council and Health and delivering the following objectives:

·  Better outcomes for residents

·  Better quality of services

·  Significantly reduced costs

The aim was to commission to make a difference, and to ensure future Health and Social Care Services were based on the concept of “Personalisation” and prevent or delay the need for specialist support or care services where possible. Local Authority and health commissioning resources would be used jointly to encourage choice and quality of services in a sustainable market. This would be achieved against a back drop of robust processes to manage risk and keep people safe.  The priorities for commissioning would directly support the achievement of the Health and Wellbeing Strategy outcomes.

The Board noted that the Joint Commissioning Unit was work in progress and would build upon existing working arrangements and priorities modelled around the Health and Wellbeing Strategy.  The Unit would report to the Joint and Integrated Commissioning Board which had been established and held its first meeting.  This would ensure effective collaboration, assurance and good governance across the agreed areas of Local Authority and Health Commissioning. The Integrated Commissioning Board would:

·  Set commissioning priorities and approve service related strategies and action plans

·  Agree joint financial, procurement and contractual arrangements

·  Ensure strategic planning is implemented within the resources aligned accordingly

·  Support the development of a single commissioning system which put service users and their families at the centre

·  Monitor performance against plans

·  Ensure effective risk management

The Health and Wellbeing Board would provide strategic direction but ultimately the Joint and Integrated Board would be accountable to the Council’s Cabinet and the Clinical Commissioning Group. 

The Board made the following points:-

·  That it would be important for the strategic direction of the Health and Wellbeing Board to be adhered to

·  Monitoring of performance against plans would be crucial

·  That the Health and Wellbeing Board should be the accountable body for the Joint Commissioning Board

·  That there would be issues around budgets and funding and that there would be a need to take risks and have courage which would be difficult at times

·  Cultural differences of the Local Authority/Health and ensure that the best bits of the Governance arrangements were retained for future developments

·  Importance of measuring success and links into quality in the absence of joint outcome framework

RESOLVED: 

1. That the support being taken to encourage integrated working and the priorities identified for Joint Commissioning be supported;
2. That a memorandum of understanding and protocols between the Health and Wellbeing Board and the Joint and Integrated Commissioning Board be developed and presented to a future meeting of the Board; and
3. That the Health Overview and Scrutiny Panel be invited to review the proposals and the memorandum of understanding and protocols to ensure that the Health and Wellbeing Board was meeting its requirements to develop integration.