Agenda item

Mr Michael Curran gave an overview of the content of the report and highlighted, the makeup of the team, zero background costs and suggested it was critical in terms of the delivery of some of the transformation programmes to be able to continue with community based support mechanisms. 

A discussion took place that focused on several issues including: modelling of activity to push money out to the community; return on investment; compliments the early intervention and engagement outcomes within the Strategic Plan; expectation of further engagement with local communities to expand the proposal to combat loneliness for people; builds on the work of the Dementia working group in communities; success of various initiatives under the proposals such as men’s sheds and soup clubs; evolved into a 3 phase project; exit strategy and self sustaining activities; collation of all community lead hub initiatives over the next 12 months to assist communities to look after themselves; and this is the first of similar projects funded through the Integrated Care Fund totalling £500k that might return to the Board to seek further funding.

Mrs Carol Gillie reminded the Board that the source of funding for the proposal to date had been non recurring funding from the Integrated Care Fund.  She commented that it would be essential if the proposal were to be agreed, to have a plan on the sustainability of services in the future either through other sources of funding or volunteer services.

Dr Cliff Sharp welcomed the initiative to assist communities, but challenged it as a measure in terms of outcomes and was keen to see evidence to support the proposal in terms of fewer admissions to hospital and less activity in primary care services.  

Cllr Shona Haslam commented that the scope for evidence was about transforming peoples’ lives and given the wider understanding of social impacts, she therefore supported the proposal.

Dr Angus McVean suggested there were assumptions being made in terms of outcomes and a lack of evidence to support those assumptions, he highlighted that there was no evidence to support such a high level of funding.  He further commented that the proposal did not decrease the number of people needing to see their GP and reminded the Board of the pressures on services for people ending up in Borders General Hospital as there were not enough carers available or care home places available.  He suggested a significant difference could be made to those issues by diverting that level of funding.

Mrs Lynn Gallacher commented that she had met the community capacity team and welcomed the work they undertook.  She was aware that there was little evidence to support the proposal and she reminded the Board of the immense pressure placed on carers and the need to support them. 

Mrs Tracey Logan commented that it was a modest amount of money and the Board should not be solely focused on keeping people out of hospital as it also had a responsibility to engage with communities around their whole wellbeing.  She suggested the proposal was about ultimately mainstreaming some of the activities whilst providing initial short term funding to get them established and moving towards self sustainability.  She commented that once the framework was properly joined up there would be scope to disinvest in the proposal and suggested the funding be agreed for a 12 month period and during that 12 month period, evidence of the impact on clinical services in secondary care and primary care could be gathered.

Mr John Raine commented that he could see the arguments from both sides and was supportive of Mrs Logan’s suggestion to agree to fund the proposal for a further 12 months whilst looking at the potential to mainstream activities and to see if any clinical evidence could be brought forward. 

The HEALTH & SOCIAL CARE INTEGRATION JOINT BOARD agreed to continue with the project for 12 months with the proviso that there was an evaluation by the partnership organisations on the projects listed within the document within 12 months and an interim update provided in 6 months time.