Summary of Integration Joint Board meeting: June 2025

Falkirk’s Integration Joint Board, responsible for the strategic planning and operational oversight of local health and social care services, met on 20 June 2025. Here’s a summary of what member’s discussed:

Chief Officer Report

Presented at each board meeting, the Chief Officer report provides an overview of local, regional, and national updates across health and social care. This report presented a range of updates, including:

• Progress has been made to implement the Partnership’s new extended leadership structure, slotting and matching a range of Lead posts across the five portfolio areas. This has allowed remain posts to progress through recruitment processes.
• Children’s and Justice Social Work services operationally transferred into the Partnership on 1 April 2025. The updated Integration Scheme is awaiting final approval by Scottish Ministers, which will then allow the services and associated budgets to be formally delegated to the IJB. Until this process is complete governance of these services remains with Falkirk Council.
• Positive inspection results have been received by Summerford House, with the Care Inspectorate highlighting the services’ strong emphasis on reablement, mobilisation, and resident independence. The team received a ‘Very Good’ rating for its support for people’s wellbeing and a ‘Good’ rating for its facilities. The facilities rating can be improved by addressing issues relating to an ageing boiler, with work already scheduled to begin this year.

Financial Updates

The Chief Finance Officer present Final outturn report setting out the final financial position for 2024/25. A final overspend of £5.03m was reported for integrated budgets and £6.173m for set aside budgets. The final position recorded an improvement upon Q3 projections, allowing the IJB reserves to be maintained at the recommended levels.  The Board approved a final use of £4.703m of reserve funding to balance the 2024/25 overspend and up to £0.0050m to support the Hospice at Home Service in 2025/26.

Self-Directed Support Policy

The Board approved a new policy to outline who can access Self-Directed Support; the options people can choose between; and the help available so people can make informed choices about their care. Self-Directed Support is used by anyone who needs to access social care through their local council. This includes people with disabilities, long-term conditions, and family members or friends who provide unpaid care for someone they know.

The policy uses eligibility criteria to ensure a fair allocation of resources based on people’s needs. The criteria recognises that people may have a mix of high and low priority needs, which means not all needs will be met immediately.

More information about the Self-Directed Support policy, including an easy read summary, can be found on Falkirk’s Participate+ consultation website.

Shifting the Balance of Care

The Board received an update on the Shifting the Balance of Care work programme, which is currently supporting the discharge and transfer of an additional 32 people in Forth Valley Royal Hospital to more appropriate facilities for their care needs.

The initiative aims to support the delivery of care closer to home, reduce pressure on local hospitals and improve efficiency across the whole health and care system by making use of the most appropriate services to provide the right care, in the right place to support good outcomes for local people.

Patients will leave hospital using a Discharge to Assess model, which assesses people in their own homes or community-based facilities over a 21-day period before arranging any ongoing care packages they may need. This allows people’s needs to be continually reassessed while they recover from a stay in hospital and to more accurately identify ongoing care needs.

The initiative is supported by local care and support at home services and the Mobile Emergency Care Service to provide up to 24-hour care immediately after discharge from hospital. During the assessment period, individuals may receive support from a wide range of health and care professionals including Home First, ReACH and AHP colleagues.

Primary Care and General Practice

The Board received an update on collaborative work undertaken by colleagues in Clackmannanshire, Stirling, and Falkirk to enhance access to services within general practices across Forth Valley. The work has involved the expansion of multi-disciplinary teams within local general practices, which has delivered thousands of additional appointments and medicines-related support annually.

The Boards for Clackmannanshire, Stirling, and Falkirk have now reviewed the risks to General Practice sustainability and have identified new mitigation measures to be implemented. This includes a revised Primary Care Governance Framework; enhanced engagement with GP Practices, support for local innovation, improved access to data and performance dashboards and workforce stabilisation plans.

Strategic Planning

The Board received updates on several strategic planning updates from across the Partnership.

Progress has been made on the development of the Partnership’s Locality Plans for East, West, and Central Falkirk. After approving the Central Locality Plan in January, the Board has now approved the East Locality Plan. Work will therefore soon begin to draft the West Locality Plan.

The Board received an update on the development of NHS Forth Valley’s new Population Health and Care Strategy 2025 – 2025. The strategy sets out five key ambitions for the local health board. Following submission of final feedback from local Boards, groups, and stakeholders, NHS Forth Valley will publish the final strategy.

Within the Chief Officers Report, the Board also received an update on the Partnership’s wider Strategic Plan, which is in place until June 2026. The process is now underway to review the current plan. The findings of this review will be presented to Board in September. The review will allow Board members to decide if the plan should be renewed to cover a longer period or if a completely new plan is needed.

Annual Activity Reports

The Board received several annual activity reports, covering all areas of the Partnership. The Partnership’s Draft Annual Performance Report provides an overview of key projects  undertaken and performance in 2024/25. The draft annual report is awaiting the inclusion of remaining performance data, which will be made available from Public Health Scotland in July.

Membership

A number of membership changes have now taken affect, following decisions at previous IJB and Council meetings. These include:

• Councillor Collie and Councillor Hannah have been reappointed to the Integration Joint Board, as agreed at Falkirk Council earlier this year.
• Gordon Johnstone is now Chair of the IJB, with Councillor Collie appointed as the Vice Chair. These appointments are made for a two-year period.
• Margo Biggs, IJB Service User Representative, has chosen to leave the Board following many years of service. A new representative, David McNiven has been appointed by the Board, effective 21 June.

Assurance and Governance

In addition to topical and thematic reports, the Board received operational and monitoring updates including:

Further information

All Integration Joint Board meetings are livestreamed on Falkirk Council’s Committee Meetings YouTube channel. A recording is available to watch shortly after. A copy of all Board reports can be found on the Falkirk Council committee webpages.

The next meeting of the Integration Joint Board will be 05 Sept 2025. The Performance, Audit, and Assurance Committee will next meet on 22 Aug 2025.