North Yorkshire County Council
Health and Adult Services
Executive Members Meeting
11th March 2022
REPORT TO Corporate Director of Health and Adult Services (HAS) in consultation with Executive Member for Adult Services and Health Integration and the Executive Member for Public Health, Prevention and Supported Housing, including Sustainability and Transformation Plans.
Adult Social Care: A Pilot for the Quality Team
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1.0 Purpose Of Report
This proposal is to pilot a new working arrangement using a Section 113 Agreement between the local authority and the NHS Vale of York CCG which aims to improve quality assurance and improvement in care settings.
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2.0 Background
2.1 Over the period of the Covid-19 pandemic response NYCC Quality Monitoring and Quality Improvement Teams have worked closely with NHS colleagues across our three main Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCG) and Integrated Personal Commissioning Teams (IPC).
2.2 There has been particularly close working between the NHS Vale of York CCG (VoYCCG) team and the Quality Improvement Team (QIT) in the Vale of York area where both teams are routinely deployed into care settings to assess quality and offer practical support to improve quality where needed. There are also excellent relationships with NHS North Yorkshire CCG (NYCCG) and NHS Bradford CCG; however, their teams are configured differently to the team at VoYCCG.
2.3 The NYCC Quality and Market Improvement Team has historically included Brokerage, Contract Management, quality assurance and provided a timely response to incidents impacting on HAS/adult social care.
2.4 During 2021, the brokerage function moved to Prevention & Service Development and plans are currently underway to transfer to contract management to the Corporate Procurement Team.
3.0 Issues for consideration
3.1 Temporary funding has been agreed for a Service Continuity Team to support resilience within teams as the pandemic continues. This will include responding to any incidents caused by weather, utility failures etc. as well as provider failure (as a coordination point for multi-agency response). This leaves a resource that can be dedicated to quality assurance and improvement across all care settings within NYCC as well as all commissioned services.
3.2 The Quality Improvement Team (QIT) Manager has recently been promoted to the role of Head of Provider Services leaving us with an opportunity to integrate our working arrangements with CCG colleagues.
3.3 The funding for the QIT establishment, which was doubled to provide a response to diminishing quality in care settings during the pandemic, has been approved as a permanent resource. This enhances the offer around quality improvement to the care sector across North Yorkshire.
3.4 A proposed new structure is outlined below:
3.4.1 The addition of a team leader within QIT allows the new Head of Quality / Principal Nurse the continue to support some of the other work streams within their established role.
3.4.2 It is anticipated the Quality Team will work closely with the Service Continuity Team when supporting provider failure or the impact of incidents.
4.0 Performance Implications
4.1 In line with the most recent Integration White Paper ‘joining up care for people, places and populations’, the benefits associated with this proposal are very much in line with ambitions both at a national and local level to work together across traditional organisational boundaries to improve the quality of care locally and in particular across the Vale of York locality.
4.2 It will also allow us to pilot new ways of working using section 113 guidance and understand how that can be applied in other service areas to create opportunities for more efficient use of resources around ‘place’ to improve outcomes for the people who use our care settings.
4.3 Sharing of financial and human resources offers both organisations some economies of scale while at the same time NYCC benefitting from the skills and experience of a highly respected manager from the CCG.
5.0 Financial Implications
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Budget / investment
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6.0 Legal Implications and Governance compliance
6.1 The Council and the CCG intend to enter into a S113 Agreement for the pilot. Section 113 of the Local Government Act 1972 enables local authorities and health bodies to place their staff at the disposal of the other organisation by agreement. The health bodies covered by S113 include the CCG who NYCC propose to contract with for this pilot, and the staff who are provided pursuant to this arrangement may exercise any of the functions of NYCC that are delegated to them.
7.0 Equalities Implications
None identified
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8.0 Recommendations
· That HASEX approve the proposal · To use an S113 agreement to share staff between the local authority and CCG · To complete approvals across CCG partners as necessary · To use the pilot period to review current job descriptions for the Head of QMI, QIT Manager and CCG role · To explore further integration between the quality teams of each organisation. · To explore options for Medicines Management and IPC to have direct links / come into the team. |
Author Rachel Bowes
Date 11 March 2022