Agenda item

The Board considered a report of the Director of Adults and Communities which provided an overview of the progress to date on the draft submission of the Leicestershire Better Care Fund (BCF) Plan 2025-26. A copy of the report, marked ‘Agenda Item 10’, is filed with these minutes.

As part of discussions the following points were made:

(i)           There was an extremely tight timescale for this work with the submission guidance documentation only being published on the 31 January 2025, income and expenditure only finalised on 19 February 2025, and a national submission deadline of 31 March 2025. It was queried whether any opportunities had been missed due to the timescale and whether any changes would have been made to the submission if there had been more time. It was also questioned whether other areas of the country had come up with innovative ways of spending the BCF that had not been considered in Leicestershire. In response some reassurance was given that review always took place of whether the submission could have been put together in a more effective way, but the Board was reminded that the submission had to link to the BCF policy framework and suggestions had to be possible within the BCF. It was suggested that a workshop could take place in the summer to consider options for the next BCF submission. This would give Leicestershire a head start and allow Health and Wellbeing Board members to have an influence before the submission was made, though it was noted that the detailed guidance for the next submission would not be published by the summer. It was suggested that the majority of the BCF should still be focused on community and prevention.

(ii)         The Integrated Care Board (ICB) minimum NHS contribution for 2025/26 was £57,070,979. Detail on the splits would be provided to Board members in due course.

(iii)        Originally the uplift to the NHS minimum contribution was to be 1.7% however this had now changed and it would now remain static in return for the Discharge Grant being retained. This meant that activities which were funded by the Discharge Grant and which had been thought could no longer be funded, could now be retained. Some items which were previously funded by the ICB Discharge Grant would now be funded by the local authority Discharge Grant.

(iv)       The National Conditions in the template had changed slightly from previous years. For example National Condition 2 now had the policy  objective of demonstrating a ‘home first’ approach and a shift away from use of long-term residential and nursing home care. There was also a move away from treatment towards prevention.

(v)         There was now an additional metric for average length of discharge delay for all acute adult patients.

(vi)       There were now six supporting metrics but the BCF return was not dependent on them. However, work would be taking place to ensure that the work across the system aligned with the supporting metrics.

RESOLVED

(a)        That the content of the report be noted;

(b)        That the draft narrative document, attached as Appendix A, that details the proposed contents of the Better Care Fund Plan return, be noted;

(c)         That the Chief Executive of Leicestershire County Council, following consultation with the Chairman of the Health and Wellbeing Board, be authorised to finalise the Better Care Fund Plan before the national submission deadline of 31st March 2025.

(d)        That it be noted that the members of the Integration Executive, at its meeting on 4th March 2025, will be asked to indicate their support for the Better Care Fund Plan ahead of the final submission to NHS England.