To answer questions received under Council Procedure Rule 6.2.
NB In accordance with the provisions of Council Procedure Rule 6.2.9 there will be a maximum of 30 minutes allowed for questions and answers. Any question not answered within the 30 minute time limit will receive a written reply within 5 working days.
Minutes:
The following question was asked under Council Procedure Rule 6.2.2:-
Councillor I T W Fletcher asked the following question of Councillor A J Burford, Cabinet Member for Health & Social Care.
“At the last meeting of the Health & Adult Care Scrutiny committee a Corrine Ralph from Telford CCG when I asked about the merger to Telford CCG and Shropshire CCG advised members that it was not a merger but the two organisations are working together. Could the Cabinet Member for Health & Social Care please advise members if the two CCG’s are to be merged?”
Councillor Burford responded that strictly speaking it was not a merger rather a dissolution of two bodies and the creation of a new one – that is what one might call a merger. Members were aware that the Council had opposed the centralising approach of the creation of single CCG which it was feared would diminish local accountability and Telford & Wrekin’s separate identity and particular needs. The Council had argued that what was happening was more than an administrative change and was a significant change that required full public consultation. What was more, this came against a backdrop of massive cost savings and cuts that both current CCGs, and Shropshire in particular, needed to make to get their growing deficit under control. It was true that the NHS Long Term Plan wanted to see strategic commissioning in place across a wider footprint aligned to Sustainability and Transformation Plans (STPs). The Council recognised that some things were better commissioned in this way (eg acute care and certain specialist provision), however the NHS Long Term Plan also recognised the importance of place and the value that local authorities brought in developing effective integrated primary, community and social care services for their community and the positive impact that this could have on a person’s wellbeing. To this end, an integrated place partnership was already up and running in Telford and Wrekin and proving its worth with good working relationships between the local authority, NHS and all partners. The Cabinet believed that this partnership should be at the centre of any plans moving forward with service being commissioned and delivered by the Council and its partners unless there was a good reason for a particular service to be commissioned across a wider area. Acceptance of this principle was being sought but time was short as the two CCGs were required to present an outline of their plans to the NHS by the end of September and, if approved, they would be put in place by April 2020. Meanwhile, the Cabinet continued to argue for proper consultation on the merger plan and the way in which the new model would operate, keeping all options on table to resist the proposals as it was not clear how local accountability would be delivered.
Councillor Fletcher noted that recent reports in the Shropshire Star stated that Telford CCG had a deficit of about £4m but Shropshire CCG’s deficit was £40m and likely to rise to £76m. He asked if the Cabinet Member could give any indication of whether resources used in Telford at the current time would not be used to pay off the debts of Shropshire?
Councillor Burford replied that this was an important question but clearly it would not presented in that way but if one brought to two bodies together with debts of that size (and incidentally the Telford & Wrekin CCG was likely to go above the figure mentioned), they would have to be addressed jointly meaning that everybody suffered as a result of the total debt. He anticipated that it would be said there were savings to be made on strategic commissioning (eg hospitals and acute care) by combining into one body but that was effectively what already happened as the services were jointly commissioned by the two CCGs. The question was very pertinent and Councillor Burford feared that Telford would be worse off, hence the Cabinet approach.