Agenda item

The Panel considered a report of the Head of Democratic Services detailing proposals on the Adult Integrated Care programme. Dave Miles, Assistive Technology Project Manager of Nottingham CCG advised the Panel of the proposals and, during discussion, stated the following;

(a)  The Adult Integrated Care Programme will be delivered through the Nottingham Better Care Fund Plan.  Nottingham was one of only six authorities in the whole country that required no amendments following submission of its Better Care Fund Plan to NHS England.  Nottingham has also received a nomination as an ‘Integrated Pioneer Site’;

(b)  The Office for Public Management (OPM) was commissioned to carry out an evaluation on key areas of Adult Integrated Care, which included:

(i)  Have key pathways been implemented?

(ii)  What lessons have been learnt?

(iii)  How is successful information influenced by context?

(c)  The report revealed that 74% of the workforce felt that patients had to repeat themselves a lot of the time.  It also suggested that the majority of the workforce agreed that services were now joined up, and that 52% of users thought that services are inaccessible.  Positive responses were received in relation to Telecare, with 95% of service users feeling safer, and 75% of carers feeling less stressed;

(d)  One area of improvement being considered is for calls to the service to be answered straightaway, rather than being given five options by an automated service;

(e)  Financial savings for patients will be looked at in the next wave of reviews;

(f)  The ‘You said, we did’ approach is used to communicate changes made in response to feedback;

(g)  Exploring the reality or real-life situation of a patient could be introduced.  These patient outcomes could work alongside existing DVD communications;

(h)  Evidence gathered on what is working well so far has come from care-co-ordinators.  More feedback and evidence is required from patients themselves.  New care-co-ordinators are getting people into Social Care quicker;

(i)  Multi-disciplinary team meetings offer the opportunity for joined up care plans.  People who require social care can receive this care quicker if their holistic needs are discussed at a single meeting, rather than a GP having to be consulted first.  This is working well from a provider perspective, but patient views have yet to be evaluated;

(j)  Three areas that are impinging on the workforce (technology, cultural change, workforce development) cannot be tackled independently; they must be tackled together;

(k)  Telecare is currently provided by Nottingham City Council, and Telehealth is provided by Nottingham CityCare Partnership.  There are plans to consider more joined up working of these two services;

(l)  Tracking the patient and the carer experience can be done through a series of evaluations.  There needs to be a concentration on giving the public the right service at the right time.  For example, 100 participants will be tracked pre-Telecare/health, and then after Telecare/health has been introduced, the results can be monitored to discover the patient experience;

(m)  Further evaluation reports are due in September 2015, and in March 2016.  Reports containing information on patient stories, and economic information should form part of this.  In addition, there is an ongoing self-evaluation within Nottingham City Council, Nottingham CityCare Partnership and Nottingham CCG;

(n)  The Programme is being integrated into the Better Care Fund.  A steering group will report to the Health and Wellbeing Board;

(o)  It is important that the work of the Panel and the work of the Health and Wellbeing Board are not duplicated in scrutinising the Better Care Fund

RESOLVED to

(1)  thank Dave Miles for the information provided;

(2)  request further written information from Dave Miles on specific arrangements for tracking patient/ carer experiences and on Telecare/ Telehealth; and

(3)  request that Dave Miles provides an update on implementation of the Better Care Fund to the Panel at its meeting in October 2015.