Agenda item

To receive the Better Care Fund Briefing from the Better Care Fund – Quarter 3. (10 mins)

The Board received a Better Care Fund Briefing from the Better Care Fund – Quarter 3.

During the discussion of this item the following points were made:

·           Non electives (NELs) in the third quarter had performed 0.4% better than planned.  It was noted that the Nurse led Rapid Response Service had commenced in September 2016 and that this had supported the strong performance in NEL avoidance.

·           Permanent placements in residential care had fallen by 25 placements compared with the figures for April 2016.

·           Cumulative Delayed Transfers of Care (DTOC) had saved more nights than the 130 nights planned. 

·           Due to there not being access to sufficient nursing staff and facilities, the Step Up scheme had not contributed as had been expected to the NEL avoidance.  Plans were being considered for six Step Up beds at Wokingham Hospital, which would ensure that the right support could be offered for a Step Up service.  The Chairman questioned whether people were asked if they felt that reablement was a better outcome than being admitted to the Royal Berkshire Hospital.

·           The Board was advised that reablement had underspent as a result of recruitment issues in Optalis START.  As a result the Council’s homecare spend was forecast to overspend.  Some of this underspend had been returned to the Council to offset the homecare spend.

·           Councillor Bray asked whether recruitment problems were ongoing and what was being done to resolve this issue.  Judith Ramsden commented that a new manager was in place and that she was confident that improvements would be seen.

·           The Night Responder scheme was not delivering as anticipated as the number of customers accessing the service had been low.  In addition some access was not considered appropriate.

·           The Step Down scheme was under review as it had not delivered above an average of 58% of the capacity.  Katie Summers commented that there were a number of patients who had used the facility longer than anticipated which had had an impact on the functionality of the facility.  There was currently no charge for reablement.

·           The Community Health and Social Care programme (CHASC) was moving forward and the PID would be brought to the Health and Wellbeing Board for approval.  The Community Navigator programme was in the final stages of development.

·           In response to a question from Nick Campbell-White as to when the Community Navigators would be rolled out to all GP practices, Katie Summers commented that they had been piloted in several practices to varying success.  They had been particularly successful at Wargrave Surgery and also worked well with the Community Nurses in Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust.  However, they would not be rolled out to all practices until learning points from the pilot had been incorporated.

·           Nick Campbell-White commented that Healthwatch had received comments regarding some Community Navigators, such as they were not available when patients wished to access them.  Katie Summers indicated that these comments should be fed back to Involve.  Involve had had some issues regarding the recruitment of volunteers but two new volunteers were due to start shortly.

·           The Board requested information on where the Community Navigators were operating and where they were working well.

·           Councillor Haitham Taylor questioned whether all the Step Up funding had been used.  Julie Stevens, Better Care Fund Programme Manager stated that it had been a block contract and that rent had been payable regardless of the take up of the facility.

·           Judith Ramsden reminded the Board that many of the schemes had been pilot schemes and that whilst some would be successful some would be less so. 

·           Wokingham was still performing well against its plan. 

RESOLVED:  That the report be noted.