Issue - meetings

·         Report by the Director of Adult Social Care & Health

31.1.      The Board considered a report on the proposals for future partnership arrangements and priorities for integrated health and social care in East Sussex.

31.2.      The Board sought assurance that the further work to simplify and standardise pathways would not affect patient choice.

31.3.      In response it was explained that:

·         Revised pathways for discharging patients from hospital will still allow patients to exercise their right to choose where they receive care, but not to the extent of allowing them to remain in an inappropriate setting, for example, patients ready for discharge from a hospital may be discharged out of an acute setting to avoid them losing muscle tone and being at risk of infection, rather than wait in hospital unnecessarily for a particular nursing home to become available.

·         Simplifying the pathway for accessing care into a single point of access – Health and Social Care Connect (HSCC) – during the first stage of integration actually improved patient choice, as it made health and care practitioners who called HSCC on behalf of a patient more aware of what services could be available to them. 

·         Pathways will also be standardised around access to services in order to ensure patients receive the most appropriate clinical care to meet their need and avoid unnecessary admissions of patients to A&E, which wastes resources that could better be used in the community.

31.4.      The Board asked whether there should be greater integration of Children Services as part of the integrated health and social care plans.

31.5.      In response it was argued that such integrated services do already exist, for example, Health Visitor services for children are commissioned by East Sussex County Council and provided by East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust (ESHT). They represent a good model of joint children’s care, as social workers and nurses work together under a joint arrangement supervised by a joint Board.

31.6.      The Board asked how East Sussex’s integration plans fit in with the wider Sussex and East Surrey Sustainability and Transformation Partnership (STP).

31.7.      In response officers said that:

·         The STP has a new Executive Group containing a non-executive chair, Bob Alexander, a Senior Responsible Officer, Adam Doyle, and non-executive directors.

·         The STP leadership is clear that the STP footprint is too large to be a single integrated care provider. Instead it will comprise integrated place based health and social care planning that will be based on local authority footprints that will commission services for their local populations, including in East Sussex, and a configuration of four integrated care providers. There will, however, be some more specialist care commissioned across the whole STP footprint where appropriate.

·         Discussions are ongoing whether the East Surrey CCG will leave the STP and join Surrey Heartlands STP.

·         Local authorities have not been involved in the STP for some time but will be involved in commissioning this more specialist need across the whole STP in future now that the core element of place-based plans has been established.

·         The new integration plan will involve bringing  ...  view the full minutes text for item 31

Report by Director of Adult Social care and Health

57.1     The Cabinet considered a report by the Director of Adult Social Care and Health

57.2     It was RESOLVED – to:

1) agree the approach being taken to resetting health and social care system governance, including agreeing to take forward a single joint programme across East Sussex;

2) agree to replace the East Sussex Better Together Strategic Commissioning Board from April 2019 with the new arrangements under the single East Sussex-wide joint programme which will be subject to strategic oversight by the East Sussex Health and Wellbeing Board;

3) approve the scope and projects within the new integrated community health and care services joint programme (Appendix 5); and

4) delegate authority to the Director of Adult Social Care and Health to take any action he considers necessary to give effect to or in consequence of, the above recommendations.