Agenda item

The Board received a joint presentation by Jackie Pederson and Damian Allen on the progress made so far on the Doncaster Place Plan and the Your Life Doncaster Programme.

Jackie Pederson began by outlining the context of the Doncaster Place Plan, which fell under the Caring theme area contained within Doncaster’s Borough Strategy, and highlighted that the Plan would need to be delivered in the face of a £139.5 million health and social care funding gap.  The Board noted that work to deliver the Place Plan was underway in a number of key areas, including:

• Joint models of commissioning and delivery as a partnership were being tested across 7 areas of opportunity, comprising:

o   First 1001 days

o   Vulnerable adolescents

o   Learning disability

o   Complex lives

o   Urgent and emergency care

o   Intermediate care

o   Dermatology

• Integrated neighbourhood teams – work was ongoing to build a model based on a single point of access for patients.  This model required new ways of working, focused on services working together, wrapped around the person and delivered in neighbourhoods;

• Strategic enablers and system drivers – this area of work featured the development of a system approach to strategic developments and digital innovation, one example being the integrated digital care record that was currently being tested out.  It would also comprise a single strategic approach to the development, utilisation and disposal of estates, and whole system workforce planning, together with a single front door system, and would also be aimed at fostering community resilience;

• Joint commissioning/provision – this area of work included a Joint Commissioning Plan that would cover the areas which overlapped between the CCG, Public Health and Adults and Children’s Services.  It was also noted that a Provider Alliance group was now in place;

• Governance – it was noted that a structure which comprised 7 different statutory bodies, each with their own statutory duties, brought its own challenges;

Jackie concluded by summarising the positive points and challenges being faced in Doncaster in taking the Doncaster Place Plan forward, and outlined the next phase of the Plan’s implementation.  She added that Doncaster was viewed as being at the forefront of this work nationally, and that she had recently been invited to talk on this subject at an event in Manchester.

Damian Allen then presented an overview of the Your Life Doncaster Transformation Programme, which was a business led initiative to improve the health and wellbeing of Doncaster people.  The programme was focused on embedding a culture that promoted independence wherever possible, and sought to develop community capacity so that support was closer to people who needed it.  It was also aimed at making Council services, practices, processes and partner relationships more efficient and effective.

Having outlined the various projects and initiatives being developed under the Transformation Programme, and achievements to date, Damian concluded by explaining how Your Life Doncaster would eventually be fully aligned with the Place Plan, with the ultimate ambition being to have an integrated customer journey delivered through integrated neighbourhood Health and Social Care teams.

During subsequent discussion, Dr Rupert Suckling stressed that the major changes arising from the implementation of these plans would need to go through the Scrutiny process.  He also confirmed that there would be a need for this Board to identify the key issues that it would wish to be aware of over the next 12 months.

Jackie Pederson pointed out that some of the proposed service changes had been developed by the frontline staff themselves, and stated that the challenge would be in determining how these changes might impact on organisations as a whole.  Damian Allen added that, in implementing these changes, the challenge was also to consider whether these were not only effective, but also whether they were affordable.  He also stressed the importance of staff engagement at every stage of the process.

After the Chair had thanked the officers for the update, and praised everyone’s achievements to date in developing the Place Plan and the Your Life Doncaster Transformation Programme, it was

RESOLVED to note the content of the presentation.