Issue - meetings

The Board considered a report of the Director of Health and Care Integration which provided an update on the preparation and submission of the Better Care Fund (BCF) Plan for 2017/18-2018/19, and on the inclusion of additional resources allocated to the County Council for adult social care, as announced by the Government in March 2017.  A copy of the report marked ‘Agenda Item 7’ is filed with these minutes.

It was noted that the BCF Policy Framework had been published on 31 March 2017, but the technical BCF guidance for 2017/18-2018/19 was still awaited at the time of the meeting.  No date had yet been confirmed for the formal submission of the BCF Plan to NHS England, but was expected to take place in the next few weeks.

The Government had confirmed the local authority allocations within BCF plans from April 2017.  The County Council had prepared an initial expenditure plan detailing how the additional adult social care grant funding would be allocated over the next three years through the BCF pooled budget.  The BCF Plan for 2017/18-2018/19 had been updated to reflect this, and now had a pooled budget totalling £52m for 2017/18 and £56m for 2018/19.

The budget was managed through a Section 75 agreement of the NHS Act 2006 between the County Council and the two County CCGs.  Assurance was required locally and nationally that the BCF Section 75 Agreement had been extended for a further 12 months, and plans were in place, via the Integration Executive, to undertake this work between June and July 2017.

It was noted that the risk register had been refreshed and the rating of risks moderated to align them to other corporate risks recorded by the CCGs.

RESOLVED:

(a) That the draft BCF Expenditure Plan, attached as Appendix A to the report, be approved;

(b) That the preparations and governance arrangements for the submission of Leicestershire’s Better Care Fund (BCF) Plan for 2017/18 – 2018/19 to NHS England be noted;

(c) With regard to the additional adult social care grant allocation of £19.7m announced by the Government in the Spring Budget:-

(i)            That it be noted that this funding is allocated to the County Council for the purposes indicated in the grant conditions but will be incorporated into the BCF Plan as required by the BCF Policy Framework;

(ii)          The agreement reached with NHS partners on the spending of the grant be welcomed; and

(iii)         The impact of additional grant on the BCF pooled budget from April 2017 be noted;

(d) That the timescale for updating the rolling BCF Section 75 Agreement and associated governance arrangements be noted.