Agenda item

A presentation will be provided to set out the draft Integrated Care Strategy for Bath & North East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire (BSW) for consideration by the Committee.This follows a request by the Committee in January to review the draft strategy as part of the consultation and design process.

Introducing the next item, the Chairman reminded the Committee that in January 2023, they received an update on plans for an Integrated Care Strategy (ICS) for Bath & North East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire (BSW). He then introduced Fiona Slevin-Brown, Place Director for Wiltshire on the BSW Integrated Care Board (ICB) and William Pett, Associate Director of Policy and Strategy at the Integrated Care Board, to present the draft strategy.  

The Associate Director then presented an update on BSW’s draft ICS. He explained that the ICS was intended to encapsulate enabling, organisational, service and place-based strategies, warning that there was no legal enforcement behind the strategy and was therefore dependent on buy-in and support from partners. He clarified for the Committee that the fundamental purpose of the ICS was to support integration to meet local healthcare, social care and public health needs in such a way as to address local needs, engage a broad range of people, communities and organisations, address complex problems that require a system response and multiple partners, and to create space to address population health and wellbeing and support socio-economic development. The Associate Director also pointed to the challenges facing the ICS, including ensuring the strategy is driven by community and resident engagement, co-owned and developed with partners across the system,and sufficiently robust in spite of a short development window.  

Members observed that the document at present was too technical and jargon-heavy to be accessible to the general public and questioned the use of the term “left shift” to describe their migration away from hospital care. They also discussed utilising social media and video content to better promote and communicate the Strategy, as well as working alongside other companies like local sports teams through the Integrated Care Partnership. Members expressed concern over how easy it would prove to move away from spending so much on acute care, having been attempting to do so for so long already. The Associate Director replied that the Strategy did not indicate an abandonment of the Life Cycle approach but expressed a hope that through the new model of a legal structure for bringing systems together rather than relying on market competition (which he personally considered a barrier to success), they might finally make more progress. He also explained that it was important for the Strategy to be measurable and assured members that a progress report after 12-14 months would be wholly achievable. Questions were asked about the potential for an increase in community care funding and the possibility of reopening community hospitals like in Melksham. The Place Director stated that NHS estates should be enablers, and that the Strategy would seek to utilise them by either reopening them, refurbishing them, or rebuilding on them. On a similar note, the Vice-Chairman asked about the Peasedown St. John Diagnostic Centre, to which the Place Director advised that the Committee should bring that item back to a future agenda for a full update. 

Resolved: 

·       To note the draft BSW Integrated Care Strategy and? 

·       To request the implementation plan?? 

·       To receive annual updates to follow progress including a rapid scrutiny in 14 months’ time.