Agenda item

Mr Robert McCulloch-Graham gave an overview of the content of the report.

Mr David Davidson enquired about the potential to review the continuation or withdrawal of funding and grants to various charitable bodies and whether there was likely to be any further national funding made available.

Mr McCulloch-Graham clarified that there were a number of projects within the Integrated Care Fund that were due to conclude at the end of March, except for the Community Capacity Team project that the Board agreed to extend the funding for at the last meeting. There was an intention to review the projects at the Development session to be held on 19 March. He further advised that the Integration Care Fund had now been included as part of the NHS funding allocation uplift, with no further funding being made available nationally. Mr David Robertson advised that £66m had been added to Local Authority funding settlements for Health & Social Care Integration.

Mr Tris Taylor asked for a copy of the Risk Management Strategy.

Mr Tris Taylor sought clarification on ring fenced resources and any consideration attached to the budget. Mr Robertson confirmed that the Integrated Care Fund was made up of £6.3m in total allocated over 3 years to be used as a lever for change. Mr McCulloch-Graham clarifiedthat it was to support integration and each partnership in conjunction with the third sector, health and local authority were to use the funding to develop integrated projects.

Further discussion focused on: the intricacies of budget setting in regard to targets and forecasting, financial estimates, assumptions and managing risks; stratified information available to be able to provide oversight; measuring the activity set against the provision and cost of resource to enable effective commissioning; lobbying government for additional funding to deal with pressures; urgency to review integration care fund projects; no designation around the integration care fund monies within the NHS allocation; funding sought to offset costs against increased bed numbers in care home, increased carer hours; potential to utilise some of the £407k balance of the Older People’s Change Fund; potential for future funding for a mental health older adult outreach service into care homes; financial budget for 2018/19; and confirmation that the transformation programme would be responsible for all of the required savings to be achieved in 2018/19.

Mrs Jenny Smith raised a concern that the monies allocated by the Scottish Government for the implementation of the Carers Act, within the Social Care Fund might be allocated elsewhere. Mr Robertson advised that the bulk of the £7.4m had been allocated to date on various issues associated with the Carers Act, such as the living wage. Mrs Smith enquired if the £40k had been protected. Mr Robertson advised that he would investigate and provide clarification.

Mr Robertson advised that in the current financial year there had been £7.54m given to Scottish Borders Council on a recurrent basis and in the current year Scottish Borders Council had not required to utilise all of that funding and had left £1m with the Integration Joint Board who had allocated it to NHS Borders to assist with the surge bed pressures experienced throughout the year. For the following year Scottish Borders Council would again receive £7.54m and expected £1m to be made available to the Integration Joint Board to redirect. He clarified that the intention was that Scottish Borders Council were building a budget for services such as Craw Wood for next year. In addition he further reiterated that £66m was being made available nationally to Local Authorities for health and social care to enable the implementation of various initiatives including the living wage and Carers Act. He envisaged that across both areas there would be £2.5m unallocated to bring to the Integration Joint Board for delegation in the next financial year. Mr David Davidson welcomed the clarification.

The HEALTH & SOCIAL CARE INTEGRATION JOINT BOARD noted the report and the monitoring position on the partnership’s 2017/18 revenue budget at 31st December 2017.

The HEALTH & SOCIAL CARE INTEGRATION JOINT BOARD approved the request in principle for the direction of the balance of social care funding of £127k to Scottish Borders Council to address the pressures in social care.

The HEALTH & SOCIAL CARE INTEGRATION JOINT BOARD approved the request in principle for the direction of £443k of Integrated Care Fund to Scottish Borders Council to address the pressures in social care. The Chief Officer would make enquiries about the state of the Older Peoples’ Change Fund and the Social Care Fund to see if the balance could be taken from those sources. The voting members instructed the Chair and Chief Officer to use their discretion as to where those monies would be taken from.  It was recorded that Mr Tris Taylor had expressed reservations not to support the decision. 

The HEALTH & SOCIAL CARE INTEGRATION JOINT BOARD requested a full and detailed report on the Integrated Care Fund projects to be presented at an Extra Ordinary meeting.