Agenda and draft minutes

11.1     The Board agreed the minutes of the previous meeting as a correct record.

12.1     Apologies for absence were received from Dr Susan Rae.

Disclosure by all Members present of personal interests in matters on the agenda, the nature of any interest and whether the Members regard the interest as prejudicial under the terms of the Code of Conduct and the CCGs’ Conflicts of Interest Policy.

13.1     There were no disclosures of interest.

Notification of any items which the Chair considers urgent and proposes to take at the appropriate part of the agenda.

14.1     There were no urgent items.

15.1     There were no questions from members of the public.

16.1     The Board considered a report providing an update on the financial position of the East Sussex Better Together (ESBT) Alliance.

16.2     In response to questions from the Board the following key points were made:

·         ESBT Alliance member organisations have in place a number of safeguards to ensure quality and safety of services.

·         The Adult Social Care Department (ASC) quality assurance process includes: auditing case files on individual clients to determine the quality of social workers’ casework and their decision making; conducting multi-disciplinary safeguarding audits; receiving Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspections for directly provided services such as the Joint Community Rehabilitation (JCR) service, Milton Grange, and Firwood House (all of which are rated good or outstanding); and validating the quality of providers within the wider adult social care market that the ASC commissions services from, either through considering CQC inspections, the Support with Confidence scheme, or the recommendations of the ASC Quality Improvement Team. Performance data, including survey response and complaints and compliments data is also monitored. Six-monthly monitoring reports to the Lead Member for Adult Social Care and Health on the impact of agreed savings plans will also be conducted.

·         The CCGs have an internal quality programme led by the Chief Nurse and run by their Quality Team that involves analysing data from multiple sources, including CQC inspections; and conducting quality visits either to check on services flagged as an issue, or to examine best practice that can be rolled out to other services. The CCGs also conduct a quality impact assessment for each of their proposed Quality, Improvement, Performance and Productivity (QIPP) savings.

16.3     The Board RESOLVED to:

1. note the East Sussex Better Together system financial outturn for 2017/18;

2. note the Health and Social Care Commissioning 2018/19 financial position; and

3. note the recovery actions being developed and implemented collaboratively through the ESBT structures.

17.1     The Board considered a report providing an update on the progress with developing the ESBT Alliance Outcomes Framework.

17.2     In response to questions from the Board the following key points were made:

·         Once the CCGs release the last tranche of money from the Children and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) Transformation Grant, the CAMHS will be able to physically co-locate with other children’s Single Point of Advice services like health visiting advice and access to domestic abuse workers. The services currently have the same contact number but are not co-located.

·         The increase in the recorded number of people having to repeat their story is being monitored closely to see whether it develops into a trend or is a one off. If the trend continues there could be a need for more detailed analysis, including speaking with individuals about their experiences to see if there are any opportunities to make service changes.

17.3     The Board RESOLVED to:

1) Note the progress made with identifying and securing data to further understand our performance on a system-wide basis; and

2) Note the examples of how we can start to measure outcomes in the experience of local people domain on a system-wide and population basis, and the actions being taken with a view to improving outcomes.

18.1     The Board considered a report providing an update on changes in local NHS leadership and the Sussex and East Surrey Sustainability and Transformation Partnership (STP) and the next steps for resetting ESBT plans in 2018/19 and 2019/20 as a result of work on system financial recovery.

18.2     It was confirmed that the appointment of Adam Doyle as Chief Accountable Officer of all eight CCGs in the STP is a change of circumstances and this  could provide opportunities to consider how organisations can best work for the population of East Sussex, with conversations having begun about how best to deploy capacity and develop workstreams across the STP where it makes strategic sense to do so. It will also allow for better sharing of information and learning across CCGs and place-based plans within the STP area. Adam Doyle has indicated he is clear of the importance of place-based plans in delivering local community health and social care; and ESBT and other place-based plans have Managing Directors who will continue to lead work locally. Any proposed changes will be brought back to the ESBT SCB for consideration at an appropriate time.

18.3     The Board welcomed the development of the East Sussex Better Together Collaboration Toolkit and agreed that it was a useful and easy to understand document. 

18.4     The Board RESOLVED to:

1) Note the update on leadership changes within the local NHS and the STP

2) Note the changes to ESBT working arrangements in 2018/19 and the next steps the ESBT Alliance is taking forward to reset ESBT plans to support in-year financial recovery and planning for 2019/20; and

3) Note the positive development work with GPs and the VCS to support our future partnership working