Agenda and decisions

Salford City Council - Record of Decision

I, Paula Boshell, Statutory Deputy City Mayor, in exercise of the powers contained within the City Council constitution do hereby approve:

Funding of the End of Life Care Home facilitators service as detailed in the table below

The Reasons are:

To fund an End of Life Care Home Facilitators service, to work directly with Care Home staff, residents and carers to support delivery of best quality palliative and end of life care across Salford. 

Options considered and rejected were:

Not to fund the service

Assessment of Risk

Low – the team has been in existence for some time and is experienced at delivering an excellent end of life care facilitator service to residents in care and nursing homes.

Medium - lack of on-going engagement from the care home owners/staff following completion of the training

The source of funding is:

CCG/SCC Pooled budget

Legal Advice obtained

N/A

Financial Advice obtained

Supplied by Salford CCG’s finance team

The following documents have been used to assist the decision process:

N/A

Contact Officer: Andrea Lightfoot Tel No: 0161 212 4164

FOR DEMOCRATIC SERVICES USE ONLY

*         This decision was published on Thursday 16 February 2017.                                         

*         This decision will come in force at 4.00 p.m. on Thursday 23 February 2017 unless it is called-in in accordance with the Decision Making Process Rules

        The officers consider that the following items contain exempt information as provided for in the Local Government Access to Information Act and that the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information. Members are recommended to agree the necessary resolutions excluding the public from the meeting during consideration of this item. At the time this agenda is published no representations have been that this part of the meeting should be open to the public.

Salford City Council - Record of Decision

I, Paula Boshell, Statutory Deputy Mayor, in exercise of the powers contained within the City Council constitution do hereby approve:

·       Approve increased funding from the Section 75 Pooled Budget to SRFT to uplift contract payments to each provider outlined in Section 3.1 of the report. 

In September 2016 the Integrated Care Joint Commissioning Committee (ICJC) was informed of the emerging financial pressures in relation to ‘sleep in’ night sits following case law which established that such arrangements must be funded at National Living Wage (NLW) rates. 

The estimated cost overall could be potentially up to an additional £1.2m per annum.

One provider has already come forward requesting an uplift of £242,000 to cover additional costs and the Board has already received assurances that the increased costs has been paid directly to employees.

As further individual claims were anticipated the ICJC requested that the Service and Finance Group’s assess each providers claim on a case by case basis and seek assurance that any increase in funding is passed on to employees prior to any increases being made. 

Criteria for the approval of new rates (set by ICJC)

·       Assess each provider’s claim for funding on a case by case basis.

·       Seek confirmation that payments have been made to staff.

·       Review potential to remodel the service prior to the increase in funding being agreed.

Claims received are below:

Assessment of Risk:

The implementation of sleeping in payments will meet the current specification, meet provider costs and secure continuity of services. The specification will not change at this time as the introduction of a variation to the specification to a waking night would have two risk consequences

·       Financial - there is a risk that the new specification may lead to an increase in costs above the NLW adjustment (with a total cost in excess of the original £1.22m) as the waking night may attract a higher payment levels and include company overhead recovery costs.

·       Service continuity – there is a risk that the change to a sleep in arrangement may alter the pattern of support and lead to disrupted sleep patterns of service users, which then could lead to added complexity to day time support or placement breakdown. This could result in the need to use outside placements if the breakdown becomes severe.

Therefore, it is not intended to adjust the specification at this time. Adult Social Care Commissioners and Salford Royal Foundation Trust (SRFT) operational leads together with SRFT procurement service conduct a review of sleeping night support to look at alternative service delivery models during the next round of contracting. This will reduce the risk of a mid-contract variation on the specification increasing the cost above the statutory change required by the NLW legislation.

The source of funding is the Salford City Council / Salford NHS Clinical Commissioning Group pooled budget.  ...  view the full decision text for item 5a