Issue - meetings

To Follow.

Report CS18146

The Committee considered a report providing an evaluation of the Discharge to Assess (D2A) Pilot and requesting that the pilot scheme be extended for 2018/19 to allow the full benefits of the project to be realised and activity to be brought into the mainstream where possible.

At its meeting on 10^th October 2017, the Council’s Executive approved a proposal to establish a pilot scheme implementing the Discharge to Assess model within Bromley Adult Social Care that was funded by the Better Care Fund.  Successfully tested by a number of recent national pilot schemes, the Discharge to Assess model supported people to leave hospital as soon as they were medically ready to be assessed for their long term care and support needs.  The assessment process took place outside of hospitals in a more familiar, community-based setting, and was focused on enabling people to return home wherever possible, reducing the amount of time people remained in a hospital bed unnecessarily which could lead to a decline in their levels of functioning, independence and wellbeing as well as having a significant cost implication.  The D2A Pilot had tested three pathways comprising returning home, an interim placement at a ‘step-down’ facility and a long-term nursing home placement depending on people’s care and support needs, and had supported a significant reduction in Delayed Transfers of Care at the Princess Royal University Hospital where 1208 bed days had been saved between September 2017 and April 2018 compared to the previous year.  It was proposed that the D2A Pilot be extended for 2018/19 to further build on the outcomes of the project and the Council’s Executive were requested to agree the drawdown of £304k from the Better Care Fund underspend to support this extension which was expected to deliver full year cashable savings of £419k from 2019/20.

RESOLVED that the Council’s Executive be recommended to:

1)  Agree the drawdown of £304k from the Better Care Fund (BCF) underspend to support the extension of the Discharge to Assess (D2A) Pilot, as set out in Paragraph 3.5 to 3.7 of Report CS18146, which will deliver full year cashable savings of £419k from 2019/20 as set out in Paragraph 5.6; and,

2)  Agree that an update report including any legal or procurement implications identified by the D2A Programme Board associated with mainstreaming the Discharge to Assess activity be brought back to Council’s Executive as required.