Agenda item

The Chairman welcomed David Mehaffey and Sarah Dugan to the meeting.

There had not been a report within the agenda as events were moving quickly with the planning and consideration of the Sustainability and Transformation Plan (STP) and it had been felt that it would be more useful to have a presentation of the up to date situation at the meeting.

The footprint of the STP covered Herefordshire and Worcestershire so was large in terms of geography but small in population. It covered Councils, CCGs, NHS Trusts and primary care organisations. The STP would address the Triple Aim – Health and Well-being, Care and Quality and Finance and Efficiency.

The STP had been discussed at HWB meetings since February. Work had been carried out to establish the programme leadership and governance and analyse the detail of the triple aim gap.  Away days would be held to develop proposals and the first formal submission would be made to NHS England in June.

Some emerging priorities for review had been identified which would result in improved patient outcomes as well as helping with each of the aims of the STP.

Changes to 'ways of working' were needed, including workforce challenges, which existed across all the organisations (including making use of volunteers; making better use of digital technologies and connecting areas; also public and patient engagement so that everyone understood and aimed towards having independent living as the norm. The wider determinants of health needed to be considered to enable stronger links between health and services such as housing leisure and education.

Various points were made during the discussion:

The Chief Executive of the County Council felt there were four main areas to concentrate on:

·         Prevention

·         Interacting with Communities

·         Workforce models

·         Acute models

The Healthwatch representative felt that it was important for the STP 'process' to maintain communication with the HWB and the relevant Council Officers and to use joint working where possible. Also engagement with carers and the public in general was important.  He was concerned about the size of the financial challenge and also the communication challenge of getting the right message over to the public.

It was recognised that engaging effectively with the public and the workforce was not easy but as STPs were part of a national process to deal with a national situation there would be national help with communicating with the public. The Board was reassured that a carers' workshop had been held and carers had been invited to the South Worcestershire CCG Board meeting. The programme Board representatives were important in the process of feeding back to their organisations as well as with engaging with the wider public. Board members were reminded that the STP was not starting from scratch but was consolidating various processes which had already been started and communication with staff and the public would be a continuing process.

Board members felt that the slides did not show how important prevention was in the process.

RESOLVED that the Health and Well-being Board:

a)    Thanked David and Sarah for their presentation, and

b)    Would use the meeting on 14 June to receive a further update on the STP and enable full discussion by the Health and Well-being Board prior to the submission to NHS England.