John Currie (Commissioning Manager) presented the report to the Board. It was noted that a final commissioning plan will be submitted to the Board in February for approval.
Anne Bristow (Corporate Director, Adult and Community Services) advised Board Members to be aware that a large portion of Public Health Grant will be used to fund mandated services. Therefore, Board Members should give particular consideration to the non-mandated services/programmes that can be funded through the grant to fulfil the Health and Wellbeing Strategy priorities and deliver the JSNA recommendations. Anne Bristow requested that Public Health’s commissioning plan for 2014/15 reflects the Board’s objective to tackle obesity. Cllr Worby (Chair of the Board) wanted Public Health to develop industrial scale interventions in response to the borough’s health profile.
The Board was asked to think about how difficult decisions will be reached with regard to disinvestment and be ready to decommission services that do not deliver the desired outcomes for residents. Also there is a balance to be struck between maintaining funding levels in areas where performance has markedly improved and that re-allocating funding to other areas.
Conor Burke (Accountable Officer, B&D CCG) asked that partners are mindful of health and wellbeing priorities when conducting service reviews to find efficiencies. While value for money is important, commissioners should understand the relationships between services/programmes and the impacts of any re-modelling or disinvestment on wider service provision.
The H&WBB agreed to:
· Consider the priorities and set the strategic framework for commissioning public health programmes for 2014/15.
· Note that the next stage is to look at resourced delivery programmes, in respect of what is being done now, what could be stopped or done differently, and what else is needed to make a difference.
Further to the recommendations in the report, the Board agreed to:
· Task the Public Health Programmes Board to evaluate the success/impact of public health communications campaigns to see whether target audiences have been reached.