Issue - meetings

Better Care Fund 2021/22 Plan

Meeting: 17/11/2021 - Health and Wellbeing Board (Item 2)

2 Better Care Fund Submission pdf icon PDF 244 KB

The Board is asked to support the submission of the Better Care Fund Plan to NHS England.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Rachel Briden, WCC Integrated Partnership Manager introduced this item. Background was provided on the Better Care Fund (BCF), a programme spanning both local government and the NHS which sought to join-up health and care services, so that people could manage their own health and wellbeing and live independently in their communities.

 

The report set out the BCF policy framework for 2021/22 and the requirements for submission of the annual plan for approval, by the deadline of 16th November 2021. This provided continuity to previous years of the programme and included four national conditions:

 

  1. A jointly agreed plan between local health and social care commissioners and signed off by the Health and Wellbeing Board.
  2. NHS contribution to adult social care to be maintained in line with the uplift to Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) minimum contribution.
  3. Agreement to invest in NHS commissioned out-of-hospital services.
  4. Plan for improving outcomes for people being discharged from hospital.

 

The CCG and local authority were required to confirm compliance with the above conditions to the Board. They were also required to ensure that local providers of NHS and social care services had been involved in planning the use of BCF funding for 2020 to 2021. In particular, activity to support discharge funded by the BCF should be agreed as part of the whole system approach to implementing the hospital discharge service policy. It should support an agreed approach for managing demand and capacity in health and social care. This continued to be managed through the Better Together Programme and Joint Commissioning Board.

 

The financial implications were reported with sections on the Improved Better Care Fund (iBCF), Disabled Facilities Grants (DFGs) and a table showing the financial contributions, funding sources and expenditure plans. There were minimum mandatory funding sources pooled in the BCF and for 2021/22, which totalled £60.3 million. As in previous years, WCC would continue as the pooled budget holder for the fund.  Additionally, it continued to align out of hospital service provision and funding with Coventry and Warwickshire CCG to support closer integration as part of plans for moving to an Integrated Care System. A Section 75 legal agreement would underpin the financial pooling arrangements.

 

Supporting information was provided on the national metrics which had to be included in the BCF plans, those still included from previous years and a new measure around avoidable hospital admissions. With regard to discharge metrics, there was a requirement to agree ambitions and a plan to improve outcomes across the HWB area. The proposed ambitions and rationale were provided in the planning template and narrative plan, included as appendices to the report.

 

The report concluded with information on the other review and approval processes undertaken, prior to the BCF submission taking place and the timetable for regional and national assurance activities.

 

It was confirmed that this item related to the BCF for the current financial year. The Chair invited questions and comments from Board members: