Agenda item

The Associate Medical Director of Bristol North Somerset South Gloucestershire CCG and The Director of Business Development at Sirona care & health spoke to the report (details and accompanying slides are in the published pack).

The Committee was advised of the objective to achieve equity across the BNSSG by upscaling every service for parity, rather than cutting from one area to give to another.   There was a discussion about the importance of being able to get people home from hospital, and that achieving a care plan could provide barriers to this.  The Committee was advised that a core part of overcoming barriers was to have an integrated care plan for one person, which followed them.

The Committee noted that South Gloucestershire Council was happy Sirona got the contract; that Sirona had already provided a good service in South Gloucestershire.

There was a discussion about the need for social care and health colleagues working together, and so the Committee would have liked to hear from Council social care officers.

The Committee was advised that the procurement process had social care representation from all Local Authorities, as well as Public Health representation.

The management arrangements regarding the transfer of services to Sirona was raised, and the Committee was told a Mobilisation Group for 1^st April 2020 was in place; that there was also a Service Transfer Group to help manage services not in scope, which would carry on and users of those services would not notice a difference on the 1^st April 2020. 

It was noted that Sirona already had a contract for children’s services and sub-contracted with Avon & Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership (AWP) for Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services; the arrangement with AWP should not change and Sirona would take back responsibility for children’s services across South Gloucestershire and Bristol. 

It was noted that Sirona had a close relationship with the South Gloucestershire Health Scrutiny Committee, Councillors and Officers, and had a challenging relationship which ensured accountability.

There was a discussion about working in partnership with the voluntary sector and the Committee wanted to know what Sirona intended to do with the extra money earmarked for the voluntary organisations to help build capacity. The Committee was advised that Sirona was working with organisations across the three areas; Sirona has met with 80 organisations so far, VOSCUR has been utilised; the issues in the local areas needed to be understood so the money could add value and investment decisions were to be made jointly.

The Committee asked about the proposed timescales before investment, and was advised that there was money already invested in services; there was a need to monitor the demand before investment decisions and changes were made.  Sirona expected to start this process in year one, to make investments in year 3.

The Committee asked how outcomes would be measured and stated that hospital admissions should not be used as a measure; Sirona was in agreement, advising that this was reflected in the Community Outcomes Framework – what matters to people which introduced ‘I’ statements, eg: what does this mean to me? 

There was a discussion about the integrated care approach, (shown on slide 7/10), and the Committee was advised that the model was meant to show that people would  flow through, but not necessarily in that order, and the objective was that  people should be in the left section.

The Committee asked if Sirona was confident there were enough people to carry out all the planned work, and was advised that change was required to ensure there was enough workforce to deliver services, and what was behind the model was finding ways to stem demand; from a staffing point of view the model is robust, but it was important to focus on close work with families and others.

RESOLVED;

·         Committee Members to submit questions in writing to Council social care officers not represented at the meeting, and responses would be provided.