Council and councillors

To receive the initial draft of the Integrated Care Strategy from the Health and Wellbeing Partnership and presented by Sara Prema, Chief Strategy Officer, Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland Integrated Care Service.

This document is for comment before it goes out for consultation following its official approval by the Health and Wellbeing Partnership at its meeting on the 15th December 2022.

The initial draft of the Integrated Care Strategy from the Health and Wellbeing Partnership was presented by Sarah Prema, Chief Strategy Officer, Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland Integrated Care Service.

The document was for comment by the Rutland Health and Wellbeing Board before it went out for consultation following its official approval by the Health and Wellbeing Partnership at its meeting on the 15th December 2022.  During the discussion, the following points were noted:

·       The Health and Wellbeing Partnership was a partnership board between the NHS and its partners including local authorities and was established in July 2022 as part of the changes to the NHS.

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Dawn Godfrey joined the meeting at 2.05 p.m.

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·       The strategies for each health and wellbeing board (Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland) were the basis for the draft Integrated Care Strategy.

·       The Integrated Care Strategy would be based on things that could be done at a system level whilst the individual health and wellbeing strategies were based on things that could be done at a place level.

·       Workshops were held by the Health and Wellbeing Partnership in June and October 2022 and 6 priorities were identified. 

·       Priorities 1 to 4 would be focused on over the next 5 years whilst Priorities 5 and 6 would be focused on over the next 2 years.

Priority 1: Reducing Health Inequalities

Priority 2: Preventing illness and helping people to stay well

Priority 3: Championing integration

Priority 4: Fulfilling our role as ‘Anchor’ organisations

Priority 5: Co-ordinated action on the Cost-of-Living crisis

Priority 6: Making it easier for people to access the services they need

·       The Integrated Care Strategy would be published by the 31^st December 2022 and consultation events would be held in early 2023.  It was still in a very draft format and was very much a work in progress. 

·       It was noted that it was good to see inclusion of the armed forces within the strategy but it was requested that the phrase ‘serving military’ was changed to ‘serving armed forces personnel’ and the phrase ‘military’ was changed to ‘armed forces community.’

·       Members commented that there was not enough explicit recognition about the limitations of rural public transportation and the difficulties this created plus there was no information or comment about data sharing with patients.  Members were informed that Peterborough City Hospital allowed patients to have some electronic control over their appointments so ensuring that different appointments were not on consecutive days.  This system was not currently available at Leicester hospitals.

·       The Integrated Care Strategy needed to show that it was linked to the 5-year forward plan of the Integrated Care Board and how it linked with the actions for the identified priorities

·       Members agreed that the language within the strategy needed to be amended to be more easily understood by the public.

·       The Chief Strategy Officer stated that the strategies for adjoining areas were also being drafted but would be open for viewing and consultation in early 2023.

·       Members noted that it was good to see a focus on the cost of living crisis (Priority 5) and the creation of a task and finish group as fuel poverty, food poverty and transport poverty were big issues in parts of Rutland.

·       Members were informed that MacMillan Cancer Support could provide free funding/car parking for cancer patients and it was agreed that transport details should be included on the Council’s webpage.

·       Members queried if residents could access treatments locally rather than travel to Leicester or Peterborough.  It was noted that some treatments i.e. chemotherapy etc. had to be undertaken in the larger hospitals in case of emergencies due to the toxicity of the medication used. 

·       It was proposed that the example (stated on page 13) of a Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy action for Rutland should be replaced with a more detailed and specific action.

·       It was noted that the older and younger generation were excluded digital access to services due to a lack of digital knowledge and/or the financial cost involved but that the ‘Digital Strategy’ would cover all levels i.e. system, place and location.

·       Members agreed that the current Integrated Care Strategy was too vague and needed more detail but it was noted that this would be done following comments received as part of the consultation process.

·       The Board concluded that the final strategy would need to be easily understood by the public, that the language used in the document would need to be changed to make it more public facing and that an ‘easy read’ version of the final strategy should be made available.

·       The Chief Strategy Officer informed members that the final version of the Integrated Care Strategy would be presented to the Board for formal endorsement and that a timeline would be given at the next meeting for the details to be added to the Board’s Work Plan for 2023/2024.

RESOLVED

That the Board:

a)    AGREED the initial draft of the Integrated Care System with the amendments proposed by the Rutland Health and Wellbeing Board.