6. 6. Statement: Integration and Partnership Working in Health and Social Care

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:50 pm on 10 October 2017.

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Photo of Suzy Davies Suzy Davies Conservative 5:50, 10 October 2017

Just to develop this question of the regional partnership and the relationship between the pooled budgets, you explained to Hannah Blythyn that a whole variety of people can be involved in the regional partnership who will be responsible for spending that pooled budget, but the pooled budgets—if I understand the regulations correctly—are drawn from the LHB and local authority, not from other sources as well. If you bear in mind the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015 as well, do the LHBs and local authorities have any freedom to invite other partners to contribute to a pooled budget? I’m not clear from the legislation whether that’s possible. In those circumstances, or even if it’s just the LHB and the councils, obviously the amount that people put into pooled budgets is going to be different. Is there any weighting in real life with the people who are the most generous contributors to that pool, if I can put it that way? I know there shouldn’t be, but are you getting any sense from your visits that that might be a bubbling-under trend?

Citizens, of course, are part of the regional partnerships. You’ve spoken to the heads of these boards now. Can you give me some idea what citizen involvement actually looks like? It would be shocking to think that they’re just add-on advisers at some point, rather than being front and centre of these plans.

And then finally, I’m glad to hear that you’re evaluating the rebranded ICF; I notice you said that. Can you just give us some reassurance that the key performance indicators that you’ll be looking at in that—you didn’t quite answer Angela Burns’s question on this—won’t be significantly different from the KPIs that were originally anticipated when the unrebranded fund was set up? I think we need the confidence that there won’t be any changes on your targets, if I can put it like that, that would disguise shortcomings, unexpected or otherwise; I think we’d just rather know the truth. Thank you.