Agenda item - Sustainability & Transformation Plan (STP) and Brighton & Hove Caring Together: Verbal Update

40.1    This item was introduced by John Child, who told the Board that the Sussex & East Surrey STP submission had been made on October 21. We are still awaiting feedback from the submission. The three place-based plans that sit below the STP have now been published, and partners are committed to engaging fully with public and stakeholders on these plans and on the STP itself.

40.2    Brighton & Hove Caring Together is the local integration and improvement plan that feeds into the STP. (Slides on Brighton & Hove Caring Together will be attached to the minutes of this meeting for reference.) It is important to note that these are not new work-streams – work on integration has been going on for a considerable time. The Chair added that it was also important to recognise that this is what we want to do locally – this is not something that has been imposed from above.

40.3    Mr Child told the Board that, in order for Brighton & Hove Caring Together, we need to make changes to local health and care governance structures. This will include the introduction of a partner steering group and the development of an operationally focused delivery group with individual change programmes sitting underneath this. These bodies will need a defined relationship with the Health & Wellbeing Board (HWB) and with the Health Overview & Scrutiny Committee (HOSC) as well as with the broader STP programme. The latter link is crucial as not all Brighton & Hove’s problems can be resolved by Brighton & Hove.

40.4    The Chair added that a paper from the council’s Chief Executive setting out high-levels principles for this new direction in health and care planning will be presented to Policy, Resources & Growth committee. System leaders will also need to think carefully about how to ensure that provider voices are heard within new governance structures.

40.5    Cllr Page queried why Brighton & Hove was part of the Central Sussex & East Surrey Alliance (CSESA), when links between our acute trust and Western Sussex hospitals had recently been announced. Cllr Page was also concerned that the STP requirement to eliminate deficits would lead to local bed reductions at a time of rising demand and acuity. The Chair responded that it is important we recognise the scale of the funding crisis: regardless of the issue we may have with aspects of the STP process, doing nothing is not a tenable option. We also need to recognise that some of the aims of the STP - for example, reducing unplanned hospital admissions – are unambiguously a good thing.