Renewal of joint funding agreement for health and social care together in Oxfordshire
Thousands of residents across Oxfordshire will benefit from a £400 million joint funding agreement between the NHS and Oxfordshire County Council.
Health and social care leaders in Oxfordshire have confirmed their joint commitment to making best use of a £400m budget to provide safe, effective, and sustainable community-based care for people across the county, funding dozens of programmes for people and communities.
Oxfordshire County Council and the Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West Integrated Care Board (BOB ICB) have renewed the s75 funding agreement which pools a significant amount of NHS and local authority funds under the Better Care Fund to support people aged 18 – 65 with learning disabilities and autism, mental health and eating disorders, continuing health care among many more.
The funds also support older people with dementia, carers, frail people at risk of avoidable hospital admission, other preventative services and care for those being discharged from hospital. These programmes are designed to support people to maintain as much independence and good health as possible, stay supported in their homes and communities and stay out of hospital.
The s75 agreement was first agreed between the council and the original NHS clinical commissioning group (CCG) in 2013. The ICB has replaced CCGs and this is the first s75 agreement it has signed. BOB ICB is the new NHS organisation responsible for developing plans to meet the health and care needs of local people, managing the NHS finances and arranging for the provision of health services.
The agreement underpins the development and implementation of the Integrated Commissioning Team for Health, Education and Social Care [HESC] hosted by the council and funded jointly by the council and the ICB.
Karen Fuller, Oxfordshire County Council’s Interim Director for Adult Social Care said: “We want to help people to live happy healthy lives, within their own communities, for as long as possible – it’s an approach we call The Oxfordshire Way. The renewed s75 agreement will enable us to further this vision, working together as a system and as a workforce, putting the wellbeing of our residents first.”
Dan Leveson, the NHS Oxfordshire place director, said: “The joint commissioning of services across the county is a great example of how the ICB’s wider ambitions for its population can work efficiently at place.
“This integrated ‘Team Oxfordshire’ approach means people from health and social care in hospitals, GP practices, community health services, ambulance services, mental health services and community organisations are striving to find innovative ways to improve our way of working together, putting our residents’ wellbeing at the heart of everything we do.”
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