Meeting documents

To consider a report by the Director of Public Health (attached).

The Board considered a report by the Director in respect of developing integrated community services (ICS) as a core part of the Sustainability and Transformation Plan (ST) for Dorset, setting out current plans, progress and potential opportunities for improving prevention and population health from improving community services. First and foremost, it set out the importance of how getting integration right in localities could form the foundation for a place-based approach to health and wellbeing.  

Officers explained in detail the principle of the development of the integrated community services as an important part of the STP for Dorset, to meet more people’s health and care needs would be met outside of hospital by larger, more integrated teams of professionals working across organisations, focusing on people’s needs and helping them to better manage their conditions.

There was a need to raise awareness of what this principle entailed, how it was envisaged to be delivered, and by whom. Progress to date and potential opportunities were detailed in the report and how these might be achieved.

So that the Board might be able to play a meaningful part in how the ICS might be developed within the STP and be beneficial in meeting the needs of those for whom it was targeted, the report detailed several lines of questioning to ascertain if the ICS was achieving what it was designed to do and the means by which this might be delivered.

It was considered essential that those partners with which the Board worked - whether the NHS, CCG, GP’s, Local Authorities, schools or Health and Wellbeing Boards - all played their part in ensuring this was a success. For this to be achieved, it was recognised that there was a need to transcend the arrangements individual organisations had and how services were traditionally provided in future should show  more flexibility and evidence of meeting health care needs, with resources being managed accordingly.

The Board discussed the part they could play in influencing matters and how this might be achieved.  It was recognised that in order for the principle of Prevention of Scale to succeed there was a need for the Health and Wellbeing Boards to determine what priorities there should be. It was recognised that whilst GP surgeries operated on a business footing, how GPs operated their practices in future was a fundamental part in making the ICS successful. Constructive dialogue with GP’s in all localities and communities was core to this. Many people and agencies had a role to play in this including local communities and politicians.

The Director explained that the Primary Care Strategy, needed to address:-

·         an acceptable business model for how GPs might operate,

·         how these could be tailored to meet specific needs in specific communities,

·         how new models of care might be developed and could happen on an incremental basis as there was no "one size fits all" and some areas and GPs were in a better place, and had the wherewithal, to make changes than others,

·         the need for political leadership and stability in contributing to this process at a local level.

Resolved

That the commitment towards the development of integrated community services be noted and endorsed and that the implications for moving to a more place-based model of care be recognised.

Reason for Decision

To ensure the Board was aware of plans for community services within the Sustainability and Transformation Plan that could help deliver a place-based and more preventive approach to health and care in Dorset.