Issue details

Brief Description

Leeds City Council and Leeds Community Healthcare NHS Trust (LCH) are co-commissioning an 18-month pilot for a Community Health and Wellbeing Service to replace the home care contracts in one area of the city and work with LCH to deliver appropriately delegated healthcare tasks on behalf of the Neighbourhood Teams.  An academic evaluation will be commissioned as part of the pilot to deliver an independent assessment of the pilot and recommendations for future rollout.

Impact On Wards

The proposal is to pilot a new approach within the three wards of:

·  Armley

·  Bramley and Stanningley and

·  Farnley and Wortley

The aim of the new service is to improve customer satisfaction with their community-based support, improve people’s social connections, improve terms and conditions of service for staff, reduce staff turnover and improve staff satisfaction with their role.

We want to reduce the number of providers we currently contract care from (currently 30) so there may be some impact of providers as well as change of providers for some customers.

Ward Members in the pilot area have been briefed on the plans. 

Financial and procurement implications

This is a new procurement for part of the home care commissioning budget. The total budget for home care is £39m and the pilot covers £3.76m of its expenditure. The procurement will replace the existing home care contracts in the pilot area with a new Community Health and Wellbeing Service.

There is a financial implication as the hourly rate for the CHWS contract is higher than the current home care contract rate. The aim of the pilot is to break even through better management of home care demand through early reviews and reablement, right-sizing packages and a revised contracting payment model. Funding to cover any overspend during the pilot term is available as a contingency from ringfenced health and social care service transformation funding.

The academic evaluator will be selected following an open tender process with a budget of up to £60,000.

Partnership working

Leeds City Council has worked in partnership with Leeds Community Healthcare Trust in developing a holistic offer for people living in the community. The decision is not dependent on LCH’s involvement as the pilot is able to continue as home care only without the delegated healthcare element if necessary.