Agenda, decisions and minutes

The Chair extended a warm welcome to everyone meeting in the Health Village.

The Board resolved:-

to note the Chair’s remarks.

Members are requested to intimate any Declarations of Interest or Transparency Statements

Members were requested to intimate any declarations of interest or transparency statements in respect of items on the agenda.

The Board resolved:-

to note that the Chair advised that he had a connection in relation to all items on the agenda by virtue of (1) being a Member of the Diverse Experiences Advisory Panel, a named partner in the Scottish Government’s Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy Delivery Plan; (2) the Depute Representative of said Group to the Scottish Government Mental Health and Wellbeing Leadership Board; (3) being an unpaid carer; and (4) his participation in a project with Dundee University investigating aspects of coding for chronic pain,  however having applied the objective test, he did not consider that he had an interest and would not be withdrawing from the meeting.

Members are requested to determine that any exempt business be considered with the press and public excluded

Members were requested to determine that any exempt business be considered with the press and public excluded.

The Board resolved:-

there was no exempt business.

The Board had before it a report advising of recent changes of appointments to the Chair and Vice Chair roles.

The report recommended:-

that the Board:

(a)          note the appointment, by NHS Grampian, of Hussein Patwa as Chair of the Integration Joint Board; and

(b)          note the appointment, by Aberdeen City Council, of Councillor John Cooke as Vice Chair of the Integration Joint Board.

The Board resolved:-

to agree the recommendations.

Following the decision at article 4 of this minute, the Chair officially thanked Councillor Cooke for his service as Chair, particularly through recent challenging times.  He thanked members for the opportunity to serve as Chair.

He noted the ongoing innovation and gave thanks to officers, partners and others involved.  The Chair also thanked Shona Omand-Smith for her service as she would be leaving the partnership mid-June.

Referencing his personal circumstances the Chair observed that in 2025, disability need no longer be a barrier to achieving potential, and living with chronic pain and long term conditions should not necessarily be a barrier to achieving ambition.

In terms of practicalities, the Chair encouraged everyone to participate stating that there was no monopoly on good ideas and no silly questions.  Finally, he advised that he may need to slightly tweak his chairing going forward but that he would keep everyone up to date where appropriate.

The Board received a video presentation entitled Dennis Close - Independent and Supported.

Members heard that it was the first young person service developed in Aberdeen for people with Learning Disabilities and this was due to awareness of a service gap for independent and supported living. Some of the service provision had been redesigned to enable creation of the space that was part of the transformation journey for modernising services.

The Board resolved:-

to note the video.

The Board had before it the minute of its meeting of 4 February 2025 and the 2025 attendance record.

The Board resolved:-

(i)            to note the Attendance Record;

(ii)          to instruct the Lead for People and Organisation to bring an update on abortion care to the next meeting of the IJB on 1 July 2025; and

(iii)         to approve the minute as a correct record.

The Board had before it the minute of its Special Meeting of 28 February 2025.

The Board resolved:-

to approve the minute as a correct record.

The Board had before it the minute of its Budget meeting of 18 March 2025.

The Board resolved:-

to approve the minute as a correct record.

The Board had before it the minute of the Risk, Audit and Performance Committee meeting of 25 February 2025.

The Board resolved:-

to note the minute.

The Board had before it the draft minute of the Clinical and Care Governance Committee meeting of 11 March 2025.

The Board resolved:-

to note the minute.

The Board had before it the Business Planner, which was presented by the Chief Officer who advised Members of the updates to reporting intentions and that further items would be added to future reporting cycles.

The Board resolved:

(i)            to note the reason for the removal of lines 14, 15, 16 and 17 (Progress on EOMF and Review of Equality Outcomes, Biennial Progress report on delivery of our Equality Outcomes and Mainstreaming Framework, GIRFE Toolkit - Update on Work and  Review of Hosted Services including Abortion Care respectively) and their modification to Service Updates;

(ii)          to note the reasons for the transfer of lines 13, 18 and 30 (Out of Hours Primary Care (GMED) Service, Improving Transitions and Locality Planning Annual Performance Reports respectively); and

(iii)         to otherwise agree the Planner.

The Board had before it the IJB Insights Sessions and Topic Specific Seminars Planners prepared by the Strategy and Transformation Manager.

The Board resolved:-

(i)            to agree to add the topic of Adult Social Care to the IJB Insights Planner; and

(ii)          to otherwise note the Planner.

The Board had before it the report from the Chief Officer, ACHSCP. The Chief Officer presented the update on highlighted topics and responded to questions from members.

The report recommended:-

that the Board note the detail contained within the report.

The Board resolved:-

(i)            to note that the Chief Officer would provide an update on eMAR; and

(ii)          to otherwise note the detail contained within the report.

The Board had before it the 2024/25 revenue budget draft outcome, prior to audit, for the delivery of the IJB responsibilities; and an update on the 2025/26 year budget savings, prepared by the Chief Finance Officer.

The Chief Finance Officer presented the report and responded to questions from Members.

The report recommended:-

that the Board:

(a)          note the 2024/25 IJB draft outturn position before partner contribution of an overspend of £10.490m;

(b)          note additional in year funding of £10.490m had been provided by the partners, with Aberdeen City Council providing £4.043m and NHS Grampian providing £6.447m, in order to allow the IJB to balance the 2024/25 budget;

(c)          note the progress on the 2025/26 budget savings work;

(d)          note NHS Grampian Health Board considered the NHS Grampian 2025/26 budget on 10 April 2025 which included provision for IJB overspends; and

(e)          approve the transfer of £5.931m from the 2025/26 Prescribing budget to the Adult Social Care budget. The overall budget of the IJB is unchanged.

The Board had before it an amendment from Councillor Malik:-

that the Board –

(1)          Notes the recommendations contained within the report;

(2)         Notes that the Scottish Government has bailed out NHS Grampian with a £67m loan to tackle one of the largest overspends of any NHS Board in Scotland;

(3)         Notes that Aberdeen City Council received no loan from the Scottish Government;

(4)         Notes the membership of this Board is made up of NHS Grampian Board members and Elected City Councillors;

(5)         Agrees that given the financial position of NHS Grampian and the Financial incompetence of the IJB which has recorded an overspend of £17.035m it really is time for this Board to reflect on the year end 2024/25; and

(6)         Agrees that the public want to see scrutiny and debate and for this Board to test ideas therefore the end of year report should recognise that bringing forward amendments to recommendations is designed to challenge the status quo which has resulted in the IJB having no reserves and being in a challenging financial position as set out  within the report.

Councillor Malik’s amendment failed to attract a seconder and was therefore not put to the vote, in accordance with Standing Order 23.9.

The Board resolved:-

to agree the recommendations.

At this juncture, Councillor Malik intimated that he did not agree with the recommendations and would not support them, and asked for this to be recorded in the minute.

The Board had before it the revised IJB Financial Regulations and an updated Reserves Policy prepared by the Chief Finance Officer.

The report recommended:-

that the Board:

(a)       approve the revised Financial Regulations, as at appendix A of the report; and

(b)       approve the revised Reserves Policy, as at appendix B of the report.

The Chair moved, seconded by the Vice Chair:-

that the Board approve the recommendations.

Councillor Malik, seconded by Mark Burrell, moved as an amendment:-

that the Board –

(1)       Notes and agree the recommendations;

(2)       Notes that 4.5 of the report, states that the IJB has no remaining reserves and therefore there will be no risk reserve for use in 2025/26 and also 2026/27 financial years based on the current financial forecasts; and

(3)       Agree this is unacceptable, therefore agree that the IJB must work towards having a minimum reserve of £5m by the end of 2025/26 therefore instruct the Chief Finance Officer to report within her next financial update, how the IJB will start to work towards having a minimum reserve of £5m by the end of 2025/26.

On a division, there voted:- for the motion (6) – the Chair, Vice Chair, Mark Burrell, Councillor Fairfull, Councillor Greig and Ritchie Johnson; for the amendment (1) – Councillor Malik.

The Board resolved:-

(i)            to instruct the Chief Finance Officer to include sensitivity analysis for all future budget forecasting; and

(ii)          to otherwise adopt the motion.

The Board had before it a report prepared by the Interim Talent Lead, Aberdeen City Council, setting out the proposed approach to recruiting a Chief Finance

Officer of the IJB (ACHSCP).

The report recommended:-

that the Board:

(a)          note the job profile attached at Appendix 1 of the report;

(b)          establish a temporary Committee of the IJB, to be called an Appointment Panel, constituting the Chair and Vice Chair of the IJB and the Chief Officer (who will act as Chair of the Appointment Panel), to interview candidates and make an appointment;

(c)          agree that in the absence of the Chair or Vice Chair of the IJB, that the IJB agree that a voting member of the IJB from the relevant constituent body, substitutes for the Chair or Vice Chair of the IJB at the Appointment Panel;

(d)          agree that the appointment of the Chief Finance Officer shall be determined by the Appointment Panel, on behalf of the IJB; and

(e)          agree that the Chief Officer makes arrangements for an Interim Chief Finance Officer should they consider it necessary to do so.

The Board resolved:-

to agree the recommendations.

The Board had before it a report prepared by the Business, Resilience and Communications Lead providing assurance on the IJB’s resilience arrangements in fulfilment of its duties as a Category 1 responder under the Civil Contingencies Act 2004.

The report recommended:-

that the Board indicate they were assured that the duties of the IJB as a Category 1 responder under the Civil Contingencies Act 2004 were being met (as detailed in the report).

The Board resolved:-

to agree they were assured that their duties were being met.

·         Culture

·         Horizon Scanning

·         Strategic Plan/ Budget/ Risk

·         Deep Dive on AI

·         3rd Sector Funding

The Board had before it the date of the next IJB Insights Session as 10 June 2025.

The Board resolved:-

to note the date of the IJB Insights Session.

The Board had before it the date of the next IJB meeting as 1 July 2025.

The Board resolved:-

to note the date of the next meeting.

-               HUSSEIN PATWA, Chair.