The Committee’s approval was sought to delegate authority to the Chief Executive to approve recruitment of staff and procurement of matters relating to an extensive list of projects under the North West Surrey Alliance.  This was on the basis of no cost to the Council, in consultation with the Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the Committee.

Officers set out the background history of the Alliance, initially formed in 2019 as the Integrated Care Partnership.  The Council had been an important part of the Alliance since that time, representing the 4 north west Surrey local authorities and working alongside the NHS Surrey Heartlands Clinical Commissioning Group, Ashford and St Peter’s Hospital, CSH Surrey, Primary Care, Surrey and Borders NHS Trust, Surrey County Council and Woking and Sam Beare Hospice.

One of the Alliance’s key priorities was preventing ill health and taking a pro-active approach to prevention and early intervention.  Thereunder sat 6 key themes for service development.  These were Discharge support/support after a period of ill health, Prevention and wellbeing, supporting the most vulnerable, utilising new technology, Service accessibility and Comprehensive evaluation, the latter being delivered in partnership with Royal Holloway University of London.

In terms of funding, non recurrent funding of up to £2m was available in 2022/2023.  Partners had produced an agreed list of projects, 5 of which were specific to Runnymede.  One of these had been allocated £132k; this was to help delivery of the first year of the action plan attached to the Council’s Health and Wellbeing Strategy.  This was due to be approved by Corporate Management Committee in July 2022.

Another key project being led by Runnymede, for which funding of £80k had been allocated was looking at the value of Borough Services to the health economy in north west Surrey.  Runnymede was also receiving funding to employ a HomeSafe Plus Co-ordinator as a two year post.

Elsewhere, Woking would be leading on a pilot to introduce Hoarding Officers to create a multi-agency approach to supporting residents, a trial of new technology within extra care Sheltered Housing facilities and the employment of an additional two Borough Discharge Support Officers.  Other collective pilots included a wrap around discharge service of support to residents at home and across Surrey supporting the most vulnerable.

It was important to note that Englefield Green came under East Berkshire.  Officers were exploring opportunities to work with them and Frimley Integrated Care Service, noting that Englefield Green was among the most deprived areas in the South East.

Members were fully in support of the projects and their delivery through public sector partners, health bodies and other organisations including charities and the voluntary sector.

The Committee agreed that to have the flexibility needed to deliver projects with opportunities arising at short notice and identifying suitable bodies to take those projects forward it was sensible to delegate authority to the Chief Executive

RESOLVED that –

authority be delegated to the Chief Executive to approve the recruitment of staff and procurement of matters relating to projects under the North West Surrey Funding Alliance, on the basis there is no cost to the Council, following consultation with the Chairman and Vice-Chairman of this Committee