Issue - meetings

This report provides an overview and impact of the Better Care Fund, along with performance against national metrics and the changes outlined in the addendum published in March 2024.

Rachel Briden, Integration Partnership Manager provided a summary of the report included in the agenda packs, along with a copy of the presentation.  The report provided an overview of what the Better Care Fund (BCF) is, how it works, how it is funded, areas of focus and current work.

The following points were highlighted to the Board.

1. A better care plan will agree on how the mandatory funding from the ICB is spent with some going to the local authority. 

2. A 2-year plan for the BCF is in place after being agreed and signed this off by the Health and Wellbeing Board.

3. An 28^th March 2024 an addendum to the Better Care Fund was agreed and this year’s plan will include an uplift in the finance.  The original plan included indicative financial planning.  There are still agreements to be finalised at this point but will be presented to the board when appropriate. 

4. The Board was asked to note that National Policy Framework only applies to the pooled budget but includes, £17.2 million helps to fund the out of hospital collaborative, £9.2 million towards domiciliary care costs and £6.9 million community equipment contract.

5. Significant blocks of money fund core services through the BCF and have been in place since 2015.

6. 61% of the budget goes towards supporting core services that may have been affected by defunding through the NHS

7. It was confirmed that the reablement service is up to 6 weeks for patients.  There is a very high success rate for this, and the number of people still requiring long term support after 6 weeks is minimal with the average length of the support is 5.5 weeks.