Agenda and minutes

The Board is asked to note that in October, 2013, Dr Sakthi Karunanithi was appointed as the County Councils Director of Public Health and as such is a core member of the Board with full voting rights.

Resolved: The appointment in October, 2013 of Dr Sakthi Karunanithi as the County Councils Director of Public Health and his consequent membership of the Board was noted.

Apologies for absence were received from Dr G Bangi (Chorley and South Ribble CCG), Mrs G Stanley (Chairperson of Healthwatch) Mrs K Partington, - Chief Executive of Lancashire Teaching Hospitals Foundation Trust and Professor H Tierney-Moore, - Chief Executive of Lancashire Care Foundation Trust.

Members are asked to consider any Pecuniary and Non-Pecuniary Interests they may have to disclose to the meeting in relation to matters under consideration on the Agenda.

County Councillor Whipp declared a non pecuniary interest in connection with item 5 on the agenda as he was a member of Pendle Borough Council which had a statutory duty to provide funding via the Disabled Facilities Grant which would in the future be included within the Better Care Fund.

Resolved: That the Minutes of the meeting held on the 15^th October, 2014 are confirmed as an accurate record and signed by the Chair.

Mr Mansfield, Chief Operating Officer from the East Lancashire CCG, gave a brief presentation regarding the background to the Better Care Fund, including the necessary governance arrangements and the timescales involved in considering and approving submissions to NHS England.

It was noted that for 2014/15 a further £214m would transfer from the NHS to adult social care in addition to the £859m transfer which was already planned. For 2015/16 the Better Care Fund was estimated as being £1.9bn and would comprise of £130m Carer's Break Funding, £300m CCG reablement funding, £354m capital funding (including £220m Disabled Facilities Grant) and £1.1bn of funding transferred from health to adult social care. 

The Chair recognised the considerable amount of work which had been undertaken within a short timescale in order to prepare the templates presented in the report and invited the members of the Board to make comments on the templates so that they could be further developed ahead of the initial deadline for submission.

When considering the report members of the Board made the following general comments regarding the Better Care Fund (BCF).

·  It was recognised that the BCF presented an opportunity to transform services and build a more integrated health and social care system which would be flexible and built around the needs of the individual. 

·  It was suggested that at present the BCF was focussed on acute hospitals and adults with serious medical conditions and in the future consideration would need to be given to both the wider population and the integration of wellbeing services. 

·  The Voluntary Community Faith Sector was recognised as having an important role in the delivery of services, through in the future such organisations would be faced with challenges and would need to be prepared to rationalise and find innovative ways of working.

·  There was some concern regarding cross boundary working in those parts of the County where residents travelled outside Lancashire to a neighbouring authority in order to access health care. It was suggested that more work needed to be done to ensure there was effective communication and data sharing between CCGs and hospitals in those situations and that this should be reflected with the CCG templates.

·  It was noted that some templates referred to the extended scope of the Disabled Facilities Grant in relation to aids and adaptations and it was suggested that consideration be given as to how the Grant would be distributed across Lancashire in order to ensure that District Councils received an appropriate level of funding.

·  Several members of the Board acknowledged that the BCF did not represent new funding but was instead a reallocation of existing funding from acute health services to community services and that as a result great care would need to be taken to ensure that resources were used as efficiently and effectively as possible.

·  It was suggested that care needed to be taken to ensure appropriate community services were in place so that there were no significant gaps in service provision following the transfer of funding  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

Resolved: That the following programme of meetings for the Board, as approved by the full County Council on 12^th December, 2013 is noted, with all meetings to be held at 2.00pm in Cabinet Room C – The Duke of Lancaster Room at County Hall, Preston.

16^th July 2014.

16^th October 2014.

29^th January 2015.

29^th April 2015.

An item of Urgent Business may only be considered under this heading where, by reason of special circumstances to be recorded in the minutes, the Chairman of the meeting is of the opinion that the item should be considered at the meeting as a matter of urgency.  Wherever possible, the Chief Executive should be given advance warning of any Members' intention to raise a matter under this heading.

There were no items of urgent business for discussion at the meeting.

The next scheduled meeting of the Lancashire Health and Wellbeing Board will be held at 2.00pm on the 29^th April 2014 in Cabinet Room D - the Henry Bolingbroke Room at County Hall, Preston

It was noted that the next scheduled meeting of the Board would be held at 2.00pm on the 29^th April, 2014 in Cabinet Room 'D' – the Henry Bollingbroke Room at County Hall, Preston.