Gary Walbridge (Head of Adult Social Care and Retained Functions) and Chris Morley (Interim Locality Director, NHS Devon) introduced the Better Care Fund Plan report and highlighted:

a)     The Better Care Fund (BCF) was the only mandatory policy to facilitate integration between health and social care, providing a framework for joint planning and commissioning;

b)    The BCF’s core objectives were to:

                         i.         Enable people to stay well, safe and independent at home for longer;

                       ii.         Provide the right care in the right place at the right time;

c)     The BCF also set out shared objectives which included:

                         i.         Improving discharges;

                       ii.         Reducing pressures on urgent and emergency care;

                      iii.         Supporting social care to achieve goals;

                      iv.         Supporting intermediate care, unpaid carers and housing adaptations;

d)    The plans were submitted to NHS England for initial approval, and would need to go to the Health and Wellbeing Board for approval by 31 October 2023;

e)     Investment had been made in community services to support individuals to stay at home for as long as was possible;

f)      The BCF allowed officers to evaluate systems that had been introduced on a short term basis to support issues such as discharges, and what potential long-term solutions could be implemented;

g)     The schemes that had been introduced would be rolled forward, but would be subject to an evaluation to consider delivery and impact;

h)    There were five key metrics, determined by national planning guidance that formed the basis of monitoring performance against the BCF plan:

                         i.         Avoidable Admissions;

                       ii.         Falls;

                      iii.         Discharge to Usual Place of Residence;

                      iv.         Residential Admissions;

                        v.         Reablement;

i)      In 2023/24, the Government would be providing £600 million to enable local areas to build additional adult social care and community-based reablement capacity and reduce delay discharges and improve outcomes for patients;

                         i.         The allocation for Plymouth was £3.341 million (£1.81 million to PCC and £1.528 million to NHS Devon Plymouth Locality) but it would be agreed jointly how best to utilise the funding to maximise the impact and support more people to stay at home;

j)      The Plymouth BCF 2022/23 investments totalled £37.8 million.

In response to questions it was reported that:

k)     A national tool had been released which enabled staff to analyse the number of people who were in hospital and the number of people who were being discharged each month, and to undertake analysis to make the service more effective;

l)      The short-term nature of previous investments had led to a complicated discharging system and ways of simplifying these and integrating these were being investigated;

m)   Services were reviewed to limit duplication and ensure the best use of resources;

n)    Affordable admissions related to wrap around care in the community to stop as many people from going into the emergency department and potentially being admitted to hospital, as well as working with individuals who are regular attenders of the emergency department.

The Committee agreed to note the report and the monitoring of progress.