BOURNEMOUTH AND POOLE PRIMARY CARE TRUST
BRIEFING PAPER FOR MEMBERS OF THE POOLE HEALTH SCRUTINY PANEL
10 OCTOBER 2006
1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 The new Bournemouth and Poole Primary Care Trust (PCT) came into being on 1 October 2006, with the merger of the former Bournemouth Teaching Primary Care Trust and Poole Primary Care Trust. The merger follows a national reorganisation of the management of health services.
1.2 The role of the new organisation is to:
· engage with local people to improve health and well-being
· commission a comprehensive, fair and impartial range of high-quality, responsive and efficient services, within allocated resources
· directly provide high-quality responsive and efficient services where this gives best-value.
1.3 The main purpose of this reorganisation is to strengthen the commissioning function, that is, the “purchasing arm” of the PCT, so as to can gain the best possible services for local people. Over time, this should mean much more choice for patients, and more flexible, responsive services. The new organisation should also be much better placed to take forward the NHS reforms across Bournemouth and Poole.
1.4 Although the PCT will be much larger, serving a bigger population, the new organisation will retain the main strengths of the two predecessor PCTs. It is committed to maintaining a focus on local health needs and will continue to work closely with partner agencies in the public, private and voluntary sectors, so as to best serve local people
1.5 This paper outlines the management arrangements for the new PCT and the way in which it will work with patients, the public and local stakeholder organisations, such as the council to ensure the commissioning of a truly patient-led NHS.
2. THE NEW ORGANISATION
Trust Board
2.1 The names of new board members are:
· Angela Schofield (Chairman) was previously general manager of Poole Bay Primary Care Group and Vice Chair of Bournemouth Teaching Primary Care Trust. Angela, recently retired as Joint Head of School at the Institute of Health and Community Studies, Bournemouth University
· Heather Craven (Non-executive Director) has been a Non-executive Director of the Poole Primary Care Trust, a post she has held for the last four years. Heather spent her career working in the NHS and is an advocate for SCA Community Services and is training to be an adviser for the Citizen’s Advice Bureau
· Eugene Gratwick (Non-executive Director) has been a Non-executive Director of the Poole Primary Care Trust, a post he has held for the last five years. Before he retired, Eugene worked for the Borough of Poole Social Services
· Ken Hockey (Non-executive Director) has been a non-executive director of the Bournemouth Teaching Primary Care Trust, a post he has held for the last three years. Ken is a retired company director, with 25 years’ experience of owning and running a large engineering manufacturing company.
· Michael Mitchell (Non-executive Director) has been a Non-executive Director of the Bournemouth Teaching Primary Care Trust, a post he has held for the last three years. Michael was chief executive of Beale plc, the Bournemouth-based department store group until his retirement in 2002 and is currently Chairman of Gould’s Dorchester Ltd, anda director of Old and Campbell Ltd.
· Glyn Smith (Non-executive Director and Chairman of the Audit Committee) was group finance director of Portman Building Society until his retirement earlier this year. He is a Non-executive Director and Chairman of the Audit Committee of both Domestic & General Group, a FTSE-listed insurance company, and Bournemouth University and also a governor of Talbot Heath School.
Management Arrangements
2.2 Debbie Fleming has been appointed as Chief Executive of Bournemouth and Poole Primary Care Trust. Debbie has been Chief Executive of Bournemouth Teaching Primary Care Trust for the last six years and has worked in the NHS in Dorset since 1989. Debbie has held a variety of posts since joining the NHS in 1984, for many years working at Poole Hospital.
2.3 The first headquarters for Bournemouth and Poole Primary Care Trust will be Westover House on West Quay Road, previously the headquarters for Poole Primary Care Trust. However these premises are not big enough to accommodate all the headquarters staff and in the interim period, many of the staff will continue to be based at Parkstone Health Centre and 11 Shelley Road in Boscombe (which was the headquarters of Bournemouth Teaching Primary Care Trust). The new PCT is exploring options for a longer term headquarters building which will accommodate all the necessary staff and provide good facilities for meetings.
2.4 The final management structure for the new organisation is still being determined. All applicants for director posts in the new PCTs in the South West are going through a common assessment process to ensure that they are fit for purpose and it is anticipated that interviews for the new Executive Directors in the PCT will be held late October/early November. Appointments for managers below that level will be made as quickly as possible thereafter.
2.5 An interim management structure has been published, until the final management arrangements are in place. This is attached as Appendix A.
2.6 All PCTs in England are undergoing a Fitness for Purpose review, involving a self assessment against a national template laying out the core functions which PCTs are expected to deliver and the standards that they are expected to reach in each of these functions. The Fitness for Purpose review for Bournemouth and Poole Primary Care Trust will take place in January 2007 and will provide a useful checklist to ensure that the new management arrangements are suitable to carry out all the PCT’s responsibilities. This will include the strength of the relationships with local stakeholders including the local authority and LAA partners.
The benefits of the new organisation
2.7 The new PCT has a clear mandate to develop health services within the Poole and Bournemouth conurbation, in line with Commissioning a Patient Led NHS and the white paper Our Health, Our Care, Our Say. The PCT commissioning role has been increasing in importance in recent years and one of the strengths of a larger PCT is that it will be able to develop more commissioning expertise, to ensure that high quality responsive services are available to meet local health needs, and that more choices are available for patients. It is recognised that previous PCTs were small organisations and sometimes struggled to find sufficient appropriately qualified staff to undertake some of these tasks.
2.8 An important part of this role will be to develop and support the commissioning role within GP practices, and this will be an early priority for the new PCTs, so that front line staff have much greater influence in the development of services for their patients.
2.9 Another clear objective behind this reorganisation of the NHS management structure, and one that is reinforced in Our Health, Our Care, Our Say, is to strengthen the links between the NHS and local authorities. Bournemouth and Poole Primary Care Trust is unusual in that it works with two unitary authorities and it recognises that it will need to be flexible to ensure that multi-agency work takes place at the most appropriate level. In some cases there will be clear benefits in reviewing and developing services for the whole conurbation. In others, the sensible approach will be to work on a borough basis and yet other projects will work within targeted neighbourhoods.
2.10 The new PCT recognises the excellent foundations that Poole Primary Care Trust has already established in its work with the Borough of Poole. It is fully committed to being a ‘learning organisation’ and the coming together of staff from both Poole and Bournemouth will offer many opportunities for exchanging good practice and building on the best across the conurbation.
3. WORKING WITH PATIENTS, THE PUBLIC AND public scrutiny
3.1 The recent Government guidance A Stronger Local Voice has emphasised the importance of patient and public involvement and scrutiny in the new NHS and the new PCT welcomes this. It will be reviewing with partners, the best way of engaging with local people, ensuring that all staff recognise the importance of treating their patients as equal partners, offering more opportunities for patients and their carers to comment on services received and ensuring that the public are fully engaged in discussions about new services and changes in service.
3.2 The Government is intending to pass legislation to strengthen the role of Overview and Scrutiny Committees and also make local authorities responsible for appointing the new Local Involvement Networks (LINks), which will succeed the existing Patient and Public Involvement Forums (PPIF). The new PCT will work with the Poole and Bournemouth Health Scrutiny Panels to ensure that members are fully informed about the PCT’s emerging strategy for developing the pattern of health services locally and will strive to be fully transparent in all its decision making. Local councillors are well placed to see where problems are arising and also in championing agreed changes to improve local health. The PCT recognises the importance of developing a reputation for reliability with the panels, to ensure that public scrutiny is a productive process, leading to clear improvements for local residents and it looks forward to a very positive working relationship with the Panel over the coming years.
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APPENDIX A
BOURNEMOUTH AND POOLE PCT
INTERIM MANAGEMENT ARRANGEMENTS
Name / Current Title / Interim TitleAdrian Dawson / Director of Public Health / Interim Director of Public Health for Bournemouth and Poole PCT
Richard Benson / Director of Service Improvement / Project Lead – Service Improvement
Jacqueline Cotgrove / Associate Director of Human Resources / Programme Lead -
Human Resources
Sarah Eliot / Director of Service Delivery / Programme Lead – Clinical Services and Partnerships
Ann Parramore / Director of Finance / Programme Lead – Finance and Governance
Paul Sly / Acting Director of Finance / Programme Lead – Finance & Commissioning *
Joy Reynolds / Director of Planning and Partnerships / Programme Lead –
Planning and Communications
Anne Swan / Director of Clinical Services / Programme Lead – Clinical Services and Modernisation
Susan Turnbull / Director of Public Health / Project Lead – Public Health
* The Programme Manager – Finance & Commissioning will hold the statutory responsibilities of the Director of Finance for the Bournemouth and Poole PCT with effect from 1 October 2006.
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