Highland Councillors have agreed a further enhancement of the model for the integration of health and care services across the authority. This involves the organisation of Allied Health Professional Services and Community Learning Disability Nurses, as well as some changes to the performance frameworks for both adult and children’s services.
The level of transferred funding for 2012/13 has been updated, as well as the Budget Quantum for both children and adult services in 2013/14. This takes account of the experience of the first year of operation of the pioneering integration partnership agreement that now sees NHS Highland providing services for adults and the Council providing children’s services.
The Council has agreed that a one-off payment of £1 million be transferred to NHS Highland in this financial year to ease budget pressures in the current year and that the Council increase the annual budget allocation for adult care services year-on-year by £1 million from its previous level.
This results in £86.9 million being allocated to adult services provided by NHS Highland and £7.63 million being allocated to children’s services provided by the Council.
Councillor Alasdair Christie, Chair of the Council’s Adult and Children’s Services Committee, said he was pleased that following detailed discussions with NHS Highland a sustainable funding package had been agreed.
He said: “The Highland Council and NHS Highland Board have been enormously committed to the integration of health and social care services for children and adults. We have had the support of the Scottish Government throughout this process, and legislation is about to progress through the Scottish Parliament that will lead to the establishment of integrated services across the country.
“It has been a year of significant change for health and social care staff in both organisations. New management and professional leadership arrangements have been put in place. Better and more joined-up ways of working have been considered and tested. A range of central support services have been established and are being taken forward, and many of these are new, shared services.
“It has been an important transitional year providing a platform to develop more integrated front line teams. Over the coming years the full benefits of more integrated organisational structures will start to be fully realised for people of Highland.”