Agenda item

Councillor Wendy Brice-Thompson, Cabinet Member for Adult Social Services and Health, introduced the report

Cabinet was reminded that with the arrival of the Better care Fund (BCF) the Council had to enter into an agreement under section 75 of the National Health Services Act 2006, with Havering NHS Clinical Commissioning Group, to govern the delivery of the approved Better Care Fund Plan for 2015/2016 and that the Council had to approve this agreement.

The governance for this in Havering would be the Health and Wellbeing Board with delegated authority to the Group Director Children, Adults and Housing to make executive decisions, and to the Joint Management and Commissioning Forum, which was a joint committee of the Clinical Commissioning Group and Local Authority, to undertake monitoring and scrutiny of the operation of the arrangements.

The BCF was a highly ambitious programme announced by the Government in the June 2013 spending review.  It aimed to ensure a closer integration between health and social care, putting person centred care and wellbeing at the heart of decision making.

The BCF was a vital part of both NHS planning and local government planning.  In Havering, the BCF plan supported both budget strategy and the implementation of the Care Act 2014.

Section 121 of the Care Act 2014 required the BCF arrangements to be underpinned by pooled funding arrangements; this is best facilitated by a section 75 agreement and a section 75 agreement was an agreement made under the National Health Services Act 2006 between a local authority and an NHS body in England.  It could include arrangements for pooling resources and delegating certain NHS and local authority health related functions to the other partner(s).

It was proposed that all schemes in the BCF plan were to be run as a pooled fund and that there would be no establishment of non-pooled funds for any schemes.

A joint BCF performance pack had been developed and would be presented to the Joint Management & Commissioning Forum on a monthly basis so that both parties had oversight of both activity and performance measures.  This information would also be presented in summarised form to the Health and Wellbeing Board, the Care Act Programme Board and the Corporate Management Team on a regular basis.

Reasons for the decision:

There was a statutory requirement for the BCF funds to be managed via pooled funding arrangements.

The reasons for this decision were that the Council was required to have a section 75 in place with regard to the BCF pooled fund by April 2015.  This was a statutory obligation in order for the Council to deliver its BCF ambition.

As part of a s75 agreement governance protocol, the Joint Management and Commissioning Forum was established to ensure there would be a partnership forum for monitoring and scrutiny purposes. 

Other options considered:

The option of not entering into an agreement would only be feasible if the Council was not agreeing to BCF principles and delivery which would not be a desirable option.

A Section 75 agreement with the CCG in relation to the BCF was a Government requirement. This needed to be in place before the beginning of the financial year 2015/16.

Cabinet:

1.            Agreed to enter into a section 75 agreement with Havering NHS Clinical Commissioning Group, on the terms and conditions outlined in the report, to govern the delivery of the approved Better Care Fund Plan for Havering for the period 2015/2016 and for an agreed period thereafter.

2.            Delegated authority to approve the final terms of the proposed section 75 agreement to the Lead Member for Adult Services and Health, after consultation with the Leader of the Council and the Group Director for Children, Adults and Housing.

3.            Delegated the function of monitoring the implementation and operation of the Better Care Fund and s75 Agreement to the Joint Management & Commissioning Forum, upon the draft terms of reference set out in the attached Appendix A to the report.

4.            Delegated authority for all necessary decisions with respect to the implementation and operation of all matters relating to the Better Care Fund and section 75 agreement, involving the Council and NHS bodies, to the Group Director, Children, Adults and Housing.