Agenda item

The Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West (BOB) Integrated Care Strategy was approved by the Integrated Care Partnership (ICP) in March 2023.

As part of the engagement process, the BOB Joint Health Overview & Scrutiny Committee (JHOSC) submitted feedback on the Strategic Priorities.  This item is an opportunity to discuss the common themes which emerged during the engagement and how the JHOSC feedback has helped to shape the Integrated Care Strategy.

Presenter:

Rob Bowen, Acting Director of Strategy and Partnerships

Papers:

Cover report

Appendix A – Integrated Care Strategy

Appendix B - Strategic Priorities engagement report

Appendix C – Response to public engagement feedback

The Chairman welcomed Robert Bowen, Acting Director of Strategy and Partnerships for the Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West ICB, and Catherine Mountford, Director of Governance for BOB ICB to the meeting.

The following points were highlighted:

·        The Integrated Care Strategy was owned by the ICP and set the direction across all the BOB area. Local Authorities and the NHS fed directly into the establishment of this strategy. It is notably selective of areas that would be beneficial to work on.

·        Feedback received was highlighted, including the general endorsement of priorities and principles. The document was restructured to make several priorities more prominent and clearer.

·        Services that were missing from the previous version, such as palliative & end of life care had been added. Ambitions laid out in the plan for several other service areas had been strengthened.

·        There was a need to ensure the prevention agenda is strengthened, and the approach to deliverability was touched upon later on in the strategy.

During discussion, comments and questions raised by the Committee the following main points were noted:

·        There was ambition in the Joint Forward Plan to work on the future model of primary care. Later this year, a piece of work would be completed to establish the model of primary care and the key infrastructure requirements. There were some critical enablers in estates that would be worked out prior to that.

·        The need for supporting Children’s education was recognised. The Start-Well ambition would work alongside place-based plans that would contain more detail about how this would work in practice. Plans would be linked across the different organisations to ensure interconnection. Lifelong disabilities would be addressed by the Start-Well commitment.

·        A workshop was to be held in the week following the committee meeting to address governance arrangements and accountability for the ICP and how it works with the ICB. This workshop would also consider the role of Health and Wellbeing Boards in the new structure.

·        Members were reassured that all Local Authorities, including District Councils in Oxfordshire had engaged with the process in producing the Integrated Care Strategy. Going forward, it would be important to define how the relationships with Local Authority partners would work as part of the ICP.

·        Where specific disabilities and medical conditions were not mentioned in the strategy, it was noted these were not being ignored. It would not have been feasible to ‘namecheck’ every important medical condition in the integrated Care Strategy.

·        Concern about NHS Dentistry provision was highlighted by the committee. It was noted there was a severe shortage nationally of NHS dentists and patients struggled to sign up with one. A Councillor encouraged Members to contact their MP, as it was recognised as a problem that needs national attention.

·        Planning for future healthcare provision was regarded as vitally important for the BOB area. Two Buckinghamshire Council Select Committees were due to undertake a piece of work on the topic in Autumn 2023 (Growth Infrastructure & Housing Select Committee and the Health & Adult Social Care Select Committee).

·        Relevant Review/enquiry work done by the respective Select Committees in each Local Authority was to be shared with Committee Members. This sharing of work done would be useful for place-based committee’s as well as the JHOSC.