Decision details

The Board received a report which provided a summary of Quarter 2 performance for 2023/24 of the Better Care Fund. The report noted that the system was on track to meet its targets in respect of:

-       Avoidable admissions – There had been initiatives to support avoidable admissions including carers payments to facilitate discharge and GP out of hours support.

-       Discharge to normal place of residence – there had been a 21% increase in the number of hours delivered compared to the same time last year. The number of people waiting had vastly reduced. The challenges faced included the fragility around the care market recruitment and retention and rising costs.

-       Falls - recent intervention included the falls pathway within the Urgent Community Response (UCR) service at Mid Cheshire Trust going live taking referrals for falls from North-West Ambulance Service (NWAS). Falls Awareness week held in September 2023.

-       Residential admissions – The figure was below the planned rate and there were challenges around demographic changes in Cheshire East that were seeing an increasing older population compared to the national picture, particularly in the upper age bands who are more likely to require their needs to be met via a permanent placement.

-       Reablement – this was on track with performance above the same quarter last year.

In respect of capacity and demand this had generally reduced in the hospital trusts. The additional discharge funded schemes continued to make an impact to facilitated discharge and hospital preventions across the system although there were challenges such as the ongoing RACC issues at MCHFT and the return of Maternity at East Cheshire Trust which had reduced availability of beds.

Board members agreed that better communication was required in respect of virtual wards as uptake in Cheshire East had been slow.  It was suggested that circulating the Home First animation that had been produced would help in explaining the concept. It was agreed that there was more work needed around how to evaluate the impact of virtual wards.

RESOLVED: That:

The Cheshire Health and Wellbeing Board

1.    notes and approves the performance against the following metrics: avoidable admissions, discharge to normal place of residence, falls, residential admissions, reablement. Alongside the metrics where appropriate the achievements and challenges have been noted.