Agenda item - Chair's Communications

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Agenda item

Chair's Communications

The Chair of the Board will start the meeting with a short update on recent developments on health and wellbeing.

Minutes:

            Better Care Fund

 

40.1    The Chair, Councillor Moonan, explained that she wished to update the Board on one item which did not require a formal report that day. The Better Care Fund included a section 75 agreement which supported the joint working. In September we had been informed that the agreement would need to be formally extended when the funding had been agreed with national government. The Chair was able to confirm that this agreement had now been formally signed off and a formal report on the targets and outcomes would come to the Board’s next scheduled meeting in March.

 

            Draft Sussex Health & Care – Response to the NHS Long Term Plan

 

40.2    The draft Sussex Health & Care response to the NHS Long Term Plan  had been presented to the November special meeting and it was understood that the draft response had now been submitted. Whilst there had been some feed back this had not been finalised as yet. Work had started on the delivery plan to support the response. The scrutiny of the NHS Long Term Plan would sit with the Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

 

            Flu Jab/Vaccination

 

40.3    The Chair also wished to highlight that that it is not too late for anyone to receive a Flu Jab. Many people often thought that as it is after Christmas and in new year it was too late to bother but locally we were only just starting to hit our peak levels.

 

            Wuhan Novel Coronavirus

 

40.4  The Chair stated that everyone was aware of the novel coronavirus which had been identified recently which appeared to have originated in Wuhan, China. This situation was evolving rapidly and was being monitored carefully, but based on the available evidence, Public Health England had advised that the current risk to the UK population was low. The BHCC Public Health team were liaising closely with Public Health England and CCG colleagues to ensure that we were able to respond appropriately and quickly to any situational changes. NHS England had cascaded detailed information on managing suspected cases to all front-line NHS staff. The  link to the latest information is set out below:

 

Based on the available evidence, Public Health England advise that the current risk to the UK population is low.   

 

          Re-procurement of Substance Misuse Service

 

40.5    contracts for:

            (i) In-patient detoxification; and

          (ii) Community recovery service

         

            It was noted that at the meeting of the Board held on 29 January 2019 delegated authority had been granted for the Executive Director of Health and Adult Social Care (HASC) to undertake procurement by tender and award of contracts for substance misuse services for a term of five years with the provision for a further two year extension. The The re-procurement process is now complete and the contracts have been awarded as follows:

 

For Lot 1: inpatient detoxification services, the contract has been awarded to Vale House Stabilisation Services.

 

            For Lot 2: community recovery service, the contract has been awarded to Change, Grow, Live (CGL)

         

The contract documents were now in preparation and the planned start date for the new services was 1 April 2020.

 

            Deferral of Consideration of Consideration of Report(s) 47 and 50 – Commissioning of a Supported Living Service for People With Cognitive Impairments

 

40.6    The Chair explained that after consulting with colleagues and other members of the Board she had taken the decision to hold back the report(s) on commissioning a supported living service for people with cognitive impairments. Once the existing service provider had given notice everyone had known that fulfilling the required procurement process and mobilising a new service to protect service users would be extremely challenging. We had also had to compare the preferred bid accurately with an in-house offer. As a result this report could not fit neatly into the timings of the Board meetings which were set a year in advance.

 

40.7    Members considered that they had, had insufficient time to read through and fully understand the implications of the report in time to make a considered decision that day. The Chair went on to explain that the decision could not be delayed for long in view of the need to protect as the wellbeing of the existing service users and the timescales to award the contract. Her preference was for this report to be brought back to a special meeting of the Board the following week, the timings for which were to be confirmed. The recommendations for the Board remained that the service be outsourced to an external provider who could provide a high quality specialist service for the best value to the council.

 

40.8    RESOLVED – That the content of the Chair’s Communications be received and noted.

            Callover

 

40.9    All items on the agenda were reserved for discussion with the exception of Item 46, details as set out below:

 

            Item 46 – “Annual Review of Adult Social Care Charging Policy 2020”

 

40.10  The officer recommendations set out in the above report were agreed without debate.

 


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