Did Somerset County Council share & consult on their Adult Social Care 27-point plan with the CCG?

The request was successful.

Dear NHS Somerset Clinical Commissioning Group,

Did Somerset County Council (SCC) share & consult on their Adult Social Care (ASC) 27-point plan with the CCG before disseminating it to all adult social care staff in the first part of November 2014?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-som...

In the first of November 2014 SCC circulated to all ASC staff a 27-point action plan to close an £8.5m deficit:

"Adult Social Care [ASC] is currently projecting an overspend of £3, 831,720, but this includes one off funding from the CCG of £4,654,000. Excluding this one off funding means an underlying budget deficit of £8,485,720."

Q1. Were the CCG consulted on the budget deficit and the 27-point action plan prior to it being issued to All ASC Staff in the first part of November (and reported on the BBC - see link above)? If so, please disclose the relevant CCG meeting notes & correspondence etc (or send a web link to them). If not, then did the CCG respond to SCC and/or are the CGG currently in discussion with SCC over this ASC action plan? Please disclose all relevant correspondence.

Q2. Was the use of CCG funding of £4.654m to reduce the ASC overspend in SCC pre-discussed and pre-approved by the CCG before the funding was used by SCC for deficit reduction?

Action Point No. 5 states: "No one will be placed directly into residential care from hospital"

Q3a. Please disclose current CCG policy on placing people back home or into residential care from hospital and what pre-discharge assessments are made within the CGG policy and the roles of all involved (including the hospital and SCC)?
Q3b. Was this blanket instruction not to place people into residential care from hospital pre-discussed and agreed with the CCG? If so, please disclose meeting notes & correspondence etc or a web link to them.
Q3c. If there was disagreement with SCC about the suitability of a vulnerable or elderly person being discharged to home rather than residential care between medical staff, family and/or the responsible person (with power of attorney etc), then who makes the final decision on discharge to home or residential care and on what basis?

Q4a. Does the CCG keep records of "bed blocking" where an elderly or vulnerable patient is awaiting discharge from hospital to home or residential care? If so, please disclose the figures for Somerset (by each major hospital) for 2012/13, 2013/14 and 2014 to date.
Q4b.Does the data recording for "bed blocking" record whether the elderly or vulnerable patient awaiting discharge from hospital to home or residential care is self-funded or awaiting funding from SCC? If so, please provide breakdown figures for Somerset (by each major hospital) for 2012/13, 2013/14 and 2014 to date and split that disclosure into those who are self-funders and those who are SCC funded.

Q5. What is the average daily cost of elderly or vulnerable patient awaiting discharge to home or residential care from a major hospital in Somerset (Taunton MPH, Yeovil)?

Yours faithfully,

Dave Orr

Freedom of Information (Somerset CCG),

Dear Mr Orr

Freedom of Information Request (FOI 441)

Thank you for your request dated 26 November 2014 under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. I can confirm that your request is being processed and that you will receive a written response within 20 working days from receipt of your request.

Yours sincerely

NHS Somerset Clinical Commissioning Group
Freedom of Information Team

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Brenda Prentice left an annotation ()

If I have it right, according to Dr Benneyworth, community hospitals don't need so many beds and they are to be closed! So those beds can't be used as ' holding ' for people who are being discharged while care, whatever that is, is found. I think hospitals can 'charge' ASC if there is bed blocking because there is no where for patients to go before care is arranged.
So where does that leave the legal requirement of hospital discharge procedure? Care must be arranged BEFORE a patient is discharged.This is what CQC found inadequate(?), on their last hospital inspection.
How can CCG close community hospital beds while there is 'bed blocking' in main hospitals? If hospitals charge ASC, where is the saving ? Where is the partnership working?

Dear Freedom of Information (Somerset CCG),

This FOI request is flagged as overdue.

Yours sincerely,

Dave Orr

Freedom of Information (Somerset CCG),

Dear Mr Orr

Freedom of Information Request (FOI 441)

Thank you for your email following up your request dated 26 November 2014 under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. Please accept our apologies for the delay in responding. We can advise your request is still being processed and we will endeavour to provide a response as soon as possible.

Yours sincerely

NHS Somerset Clinical Commissioning Group
Freedom of Information Team

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Freedom of Information (Somerset CCG),

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Orr

 

Freedom of Information Request (FOI 441)

 

Thank you for your request dated 26 November 2014, under the Freedom of
Information Act 2000.  With apologies for the delay, please find attached
our response.

 

Yours sincerely

 

 

NHS Somerset Clinical Commissioning Group

Freedom of Information Team

 

Dear Freedom of Information (Somerset CCG),

Thank you for a comprehensive response written clearly and directly.

The CCG states:

"The Somerset CCG does not collect delayed discharges information by separate age cohort. The CCG has an increased focus upon delayed discharges, and has recently introduced additional delayed discharges reporting on a daily and weekly basis by the reason for delay. There are also on-going discussions regarding how to monitor delayed discharges through the 2015-16 national NHS contract."

I was quite surprised that the age of patients in delayed discharges was not routinely collated as this would not, for example, allow for any tracking of whether issues within Somerset's social care service were impacting upon patient discharges across Somerset hospitals.

Can you now please disclose the recently introduced delayed discharge reporting figures to date?

Yours sincerely,

Dave Orr

Freedom of Information (Somerset CCG),

Dear Mr Orr

Freedom of Information Request (FOI 441 - request for further information)

Thank you for your request dated 13 January 2015 for further information following our response to your original request dated 26 November 2014 under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. I confirm that your request is being processed and that you will receive a written response within 20 working days from receipt of this further request.

Yours sincerely
NHS Somerset Clinical Commissioning Group
Freedom of Information Team

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Freedom of Information (Somerset CCG),

2 Attachments

Dear Mr Orr

 

Freedom of Information Request (FOI 441) – further request for information

 

Thank you for your further request dated 13 January 2015, under the
Freedom of Information Act 2000.  Please find attached our response.

 

Yours sincerely

 

 

NHS Somerset Clinical Commissioning Group

Freedom of Information Team

 

Dear Freedom of Information (Somerset CCG),

Thank you very much for the delayed discharge report which is in a format that is readily understandable to lay members of the public.

Is that format national/pan-NHS?

Can I ask as a final request that the same table format is used but with statistics only for the Taunton Trust (Musgrove Park Hospital - my local hospital) so that I can get a local snapshot.

Thanks again.

Yours sincerely,

Dave Orr

Dear Freedom of Information (Somerset CCG),

OOPs.

Sorry I missed the T & S and YDH prefixes in the descriptions.

If they split the figures then please ignore the previous request for further disclosure of T & S only!

Yours sincerely,

Dave Orr

Freedom of Information (Somerset CCG),

Thank you for your email Mr Orr.

We confirm the figures are split by Trust.

Yours sincerely
NHS Somerset Clinical Commissioning Group
Freedom of Information Team

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