Agenda item

5.1       The Board considered a report on the draft Sussex Integrated Care Strategy, Shared Delivery Plan (SDP). The report included a summary of the background to the development of the Shared Delivery Plan, the governance arrangements to support delivery, and next steps for submission of the Plan to NHS England.

5.2       Jessica Britton, NHS Sussex commented that from an NHS Sussex perspective it was welcome to see the East Sussex Health and Wellbeing Board’s priorities reflected in the wider SDP, and similarly those for West Sussex and Bright and Hove. The key elements of the Plan are those longer term priorities that partners can work on jointly such workforce, digital and the development of integrated community teams which will underpin future service delivery. Some of the more immediate priorities for continuous improvement and collaborative working are also included in the Plan such as health inequalities, mental health and learning disability. The Plan sets out a direction of travel and key objectives and priorities for the health and care system, that supports how partners in East Sussex can work together whilst gaining the benefit of the strategic approach across Sussex.

5.3       Mark Stainton, Director of Adult Social Care and Health commented that he was happy to support the endorsement of the SDP. The three priority areas outlined in the SDP align with the Council’s priorities, together with the enhanced focus on children and young people. If the NHS Sussex Integrated Care Strategy previously considered by the Board sets out the ‘what’ that the SDP starts to describe the ‘how’. The governance arrangements set out in the report should be seen as equally important as the contents of the Plan, as they clearly set out the role of ‘place’ in the delivery of the Plan.

5.4       The Board commented that it was clear how much work had gone into the development of the SDP. The Board made number of comments and asked questions about the report, which are summarised below.

5.5       Alison Jeffery, Director of Children’s Services commented that from a Children’s Services perspective the way in which the Children’s Board for Sussex can influence all eleven workstreams is to be welcomed. Under the mental health section, the commitment to review the profile of spending on mental health across the population is also to be welcomed. If the health and care system wish to be more preventative then more investment in services for children and young people will be needed, as many mental health conditions often begin in adolescence.

5.6       In the section of the SDP which sets out the ambitions for improving living at ‘place’ for East Sussex, there is table titled “Difference this will make to local people and workforce in East Sussex and how it will be measured”. The Board asked what the reduction in the number of inappropriate referrals to mental health secondary services, and an increase in appropriate referrals to secondary mental health services meant in relation to more people being able to access support with their mental health needs, more quickly and closer to home.

5.7       Vicky Smith, Programme Director, East Sussex Health and Care Transformation responded that the plans and measures for mental health in East Sussex are linked to the pan-Sussex plans for community services transformation with mental health. The transformation programme aims to widen access to a range of mental health support at a primary care level for the population, and better access to appropriate specialist support at a secondary care level for people with more serious mental health issues. The transformation programme continues commitments and delivery made in previous years. Within the programme there are a number of strands including appropriate accommodation and housing-related support, working with District and Borough Councils and the voluntary sector.

5.8       Jessica Britton added that there are delivery boards operating across East Sussex and Sussex which are in place to support the delivery of these ambitions. There is a pan-Sussex Mental Health, Autism and Learning Disability delivery board which takes responsibility for overseeing the expansion of community based mental health services. This includes the rollout of mental health practitioners in Primary Care Networks which expands the range of opportunities that there are alongside other community-based services to access services locally. People may then not need to access secondary care mental health services. Through the review of the profile of spending and the need for children’s services, there are also plans to increase mental health teams in schools and emotional health and wellbeing services for children and young people outside special support services. It will be possible to track and see the growth in access for local people to those services, and partners will be able to see what action has taken place.

5.9       Mark Stainton commented that under the housing options work there is intensive housing support available for those people leaving hospital settings. As well as the pan Sussex board there is also an East Sussex ‘place’ based board which has a workstream on accommodation which is looking at a model similar to the “discharge to assess” programme to support people leaving inpatient mental health services. This will provide a small number of commissioned places for people to move into before moving on to more permanent accommodation.

5.10     Veronica Kirwan, Healthwatch East Sussex, outlined that Healthwatch were able to provide some detailed feedback on the SDP at the Sussex Health and Care Assembly which took place in May. Healthwatch is pleased to see the feedback on the language and targets has been taken on board and NHS acronyms in the Plan have been removed to make the document more publicly accessible. In terms of communications with the public, Veronica Kirwan asked if there is a plan to have a more publicly accessible version of the Plan.

5.11     Vicky Smith confirmed that there are plans within the communications strategy for the SDP to have a more accessible version and/or summary document.

5.12     The Board RESOLVED to:

1) Endorse the East Sussex milestone plans that will enable delivery of East Sussex population and Place priorities, as set out in Delivery Area 4 of the SDP, and the collaborative arrangements in East Sussex to support delivery (in paragraphs 2.11– 2.16 of the report) and;

2) Endorse the draft SDP as set out in Appendix 1 and agree that the Health and Wellbeing Board submits a statement of support, prior to the SDP being submitted to NHS England (NHSE) and the NHS Sussex Integrated Care Board (ICB).