Agenda item

The Chairman invited to the table:

·         Mr David Stout - STP Programme Director

Mr Stout apologised on behalf of Ms Kay Matthews, Chief Operating Officer Barnet CCG, who was unable to attend the meeting.

Mr Stout explained that scrutiny of the STP was being carried out by the JHOSC and that a plan would be brought to Barnet’s HOSC for comments and questioning once it had been drafted. He said the national requirement was to devise a plan up to 2021 and for this to then be revised when necessary. He told the Committee that the draft plan that had been submitted in November 2016, had been updated in February 2017 and had been due to be finalised in April. He said this plan was now ready to be presented to the NCL CCGs, the NCL Health and Wellbeing Boards and the Scrutiny bodies.

Mr Stout said that the plan covered aspects of the governance structure and how decision makers will be held to account. It would also include further details in regard to what they aim to do this financial year and on the different types of communication and engagement they will use. He said at present the document was still very much a technical one but a public facing document, which would be much easier to read, would be available. However he explained the plan currently did not provide a financial breakeven and that there is currently a gap. He told the Committee that NHS England and NHS Improvement will at some point instruct the CCG to look into how the plans can be balanced.

Mr Stout addressed Councillor Cohen’s Member’s Item and explained that the Guardian newspaper article made reference to proposals which he confirmed are not part of the STP and are not current.

Councillor Old asked when the Committee would receive notification of specific proposals and a timetable of when things will be implemented. Mr Stout said that the plan was to centralise some commissioning and to look at ways of saving costs there. He said the main aim is to find the best way of delivering care. Councillor Old asked what level of investment would be required and whether, in the short term, this could potentially make the situation worse. Mr Stout said that £15 million would be invested into services which would have an overall beneficial effect. The Chairman asked whether this funding had already been raised. Mr Stout said funding for the STP was intended to offset the deficit, but only if it is able to meet its financial targets. Councillor Cohen commented that the financial gap had not been closed yet and asked what the time frame for this would be. Councillor Cohen suggested a time line of priorities and an explanation of how the closing of the gap would be achieved. He said that currently it appeared that everything was being compressed into a very tight time scale.

Mr Stout said that it would be nice to be able to plan in a longer term way. However, the STP decision makers had set themselves three goals: to improve quality, improve outcomes and to save money. He said that to be able to reduce the financial gap in the first year would involve finding 7% savings overall and this cannot be done without damaging the quality of care. He said they had a duty to look into efficiency, but this would be impossible to undertake in a year, as the plans are very ambitious and a longer trajectory would make the goal more achievable.

Councillor Naqvi asked whether the Local Authority was accountable for the delivery of health care to its residents. Mr Stout said that it was the CCG that was accountable for this, however organisations needed to work together to improve the efficiency of the service. 

The Chairman inquired whether additional Chief Executives had been appointed to Barnet Hospital and Chase Farm Hospital. Mr Stout said that there will still be a single Foundation Trust with one Chairman. However, Chief Executives will be appointed to run each Hospital in the Trust, but in such a way as to increase efficiency at a lower overall cost.

RESOLVED that the Committee noted the report.

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