Agenda item

The Chair welcomed the following NHS staff to the meeting: Andrew Bennett, Executive Director for Commissioning; Elaine Collier, Head of Finance; Amanda Doyle, ICS Lead; Anthony Gardner, Director of Planning & Performance at Morecambe Bay CCG; Denis Gizzi, Chief Officer for Greater Preston & Chorley and South Ribble CCGs; Neil Greaves, Head of Communications and Engagement; and Julie Higgins, Chief Officer for East Lancashire CCG.

The Committee received a copy of the draft five year local strategy for the Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care System, which covered the challenges that needed to be tackled, how local people would be involved, the three main areas of delivering the strategy and the impact of partnership working.

During discussion, Committee members made the following comments:

·  Accountability – clarity was requested around accountability in the new structure. It was clarified that the Integrated Care System Board comprised a mix of executive and non-executive members of the statutory organisations, councillors and officers.

·  Privatisation – it was clarified that the reform was not a move to privatisation; the purpose was to move away from competitive contractual processes and work collaboratively with the NHS and other organisations.

·  Recruitment and retention of staff – it was noted that there were difficulties recruiting staff in rural areas, coastal areas and areas of deprivation, all of which were encompassed in Lancashire and South Cumbria area. Schemes were in development to enable areas to share staff, for staff to move between areas and to reduce internal competition for jobs. There was also a focus on training and the government planned to increase the number of medical students entering training, although training took many years to come into effect. It was noted that many frontline staff were choosing to retire early or reduce their hours. There was also a desire to decrease the reliance on bank and agency staff.

·  Engagement and consultation – engagement events such as surveys, focus groups and workshops had taken place over the past three years in each of the five areas, and engagement was continuing. It was noted that there would be more opportunities for the public to comment on the strategy before it was submitted to NHS England.

·  Grass roots community groups – community connectors were being recruited who would connect patients at general practices to community and voluntary sector groups, and there was funding for this in each of the 41 primary care networks.

·  Funding deficit – the current deficit figure for 2021 was around £140m. It was noted that the plans were clinically, not financially led; however, the plans aimed to provide the best care possible within available resources, and therefore the long term plan would need to address the deficit, and the five year plan would need to outline how to begin that process.

·  Data provision and evidence – it was requested that data and equality impact assessments be made available to allow the public, agencies and others to see clearly the evidence justifying the new strategy. It was clarified that a great deal of data and evidence had been used to build the strategy such as performance against targets, waiting times, clinical data as well as feedback from consultations.

Resolved: that the draft Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care System five year local strategy be noted