Falkirk’s Integration Joint Board, responsible for the strategic planning and operational oversight of local health and social care services, met on 26 June 2026. Here’s a summary of what member’s discussed:

Chief Officer Report

Interim Chief Officer, Caroline Doherty provided updates on local, regional and national developments across the partnership. Key points included:

• Following the appointment of Caroline Doherty as Interim Chief Officer, Claire Chapman has been appointed as Interim Head of Community Services for up to six months whilst the appointment of a permanent Chief Officer takes place.
• A new national agency, Public Services Delivery Scotland, has launched by joining together NHS Education for Scotland and NHS National Services Scotland. The agency will oversee the delivery of the Health and Social Care Renewal Framework and the Public Sector Reform Strategy.
• As part of rolling HSCP leadership and IJB engagement with services, visits to the Health Improvement Service, Tremanna Children’s House, Children and Families Locality Teams, Adult Locality Teams, HMP Polmont, and La Porte supported Children’s accommodation were held during this reporting period.
• The Partnership has shared a decision notice from the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman, which considered a complaint about the consultation, appraisal, and decision-making process to change the way care is delivered at Tygetshaugh Housing with Care complex. The decision notice requested the Partnership apologise to the complainants for the failings identified and that the IJB should be made aware of the findings. The Ombudsman noted the Partnership has undertaken a lessons learned exercise and has already taken reasonable action to implement improvements.

The report noted a number of immediate and upcoming membership changes to the IJB:

• Two new members are being added to expand the number of voting members on the Board. Falkirk Council has appointed Councillor Laura Murtagh and NHS Forth Valley will consider its new additional member at its meeting on 30 June.
• Alison Jaap has indicated she will resign from the IJB, and her replacement will also be considered by NHS Forth Valley on 30 June.
• From September 1, updated legislation will come into effect which extends voting rights to include service user, unpaid carer, and third sector representatives.

Read more about the membership changes on the Partnerships news pages.

🔗Agenda item 5: Chief Officer Report

Financial Updates

The Chief Finance Officer presented a final Financial Outturn Report for 2025/26. The report shows that overall, the Partnership had a £4.451m overspend which has been met by additional agreed funding from Falkirk Council and NHS Forth Valley.

The Partnership’s reserves balance, including money held for unexpected or emergency expenditure, is expected to be £21.365m – with £17.166m of earmarked funds committed for future years. The Partnership in its Medium Term Financial Plan  has outlined this is not sustainable position with a remaining £14m budget gap over five years. A series of budget control measures and future transformation projects continue to ensure services can be delivered within the budget available.

🔗Agenda item 6: Financial Outturn report 2025/26

At each meeting, the Integration Joint Board receives an assurance report from the Performance, Audit, and Assurance Committee (PAAC). The report outlines key points from the most recent meeting and highlights any important points for the Board to consider.

Key items discussed at the most recent PAAC meeting include:

• An overview of performance in Quarter 4 of 2025/26 was considered including Emergency Department performance, workforce absence rates and delayed discharge performance.  The committee requested a future ‘deep dive’ report into Emergency Department (ED) performance in the context of whole system flow and further information on workforce absence rates and impact on the Partnership’s finances.
• An annual report for the Keep well service was presented, including a video case study from staff and people supported by the service. Further information about this service and deep dive can be found on the Partnership’s news pages.
• The Unaudited IJB Annual Accounts were presented to the Committee. The accounts are currently available for public inspection on the Partnership’s website until 3 July.

🔗Agenda item 14: Assurance report from PAAC

Annual Reports

The Board received several annual reports, covering multiple areas of the Partnership. The Partnership’s Draft Annual Performance Report provides an overview of key projects undertaken and performance in 2025/26. The draft report is awaiting the inclusion of performance data, which will be made available from Public Health Scotland in July.

🔗Agenda item 7: PAAC Annual Assurance Statement

🔗Agenda item 8: Draft Annual Performance Report 2025/26

🔗Agenda item 11: Health and Care (Staffing) (Scotland) Act Annual Report 2025/26

Children’s Rights

This report provides an early assessment of how Falkirk Council and the Integration Joint Board are working to implement the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC).

The Convention is a legally binding international agreement detailing the civil, political, economic, social, and cultural rights of every person under 18. It was adopted into Scots Law and came into force in July 2024. Key activity underway includes:

• Impact assessments: Children’s rights have been added to the Equality and Poverty Impact Assessment process. This means that decisions or service change proposals will consider any affect they have on children’s issues and rights – and the actions that can be taken to secure protect them.
• Workforce support: Training is to be made available from the Partnership’s Workforce Development team to support colleagues in taking a children’s rights-based approach in their work.
• Engagement: Improvements are being made to the way the views of children and young people are included in local decision-making processes, and how we communicate with young people.

🔗Agenda item 9: Children’s Rights Report

Hospital discharge: Interim Care Team

This report asked members to approve a change to hospital discharge support, disbanding the Interim Care Team in recognition that suitable and appropriate alternative support is now available. All staff will begin the process of redeployment into alternative roles following the agreement of this report.

The Interim Care Team was established during the pandemic to provide short-term support for people leaving hospital while their long-term care packages were put in place. This support is no longer required in this way because work has been successful in reducing delays in accessing care at home and increasing the number of care providers in the local area.

🔗Agenda item 10: Interim Care Team

Urgent and unscheduled care

This report provides an outline of how the Whole System Urgent and Unscheduled Care Plan, which has been endorsed by NHS Forth Valley Board in March 2026, will be implemented.

The plan has been developed to align multiple national priorities and consolidate several related improvement programmes into a whole system approach focused on flow throughout the hospital, early decision making, and community alternatives to hospital care.

The plan contains eight focus areas (pillars):

• A 12 week Emergency Department programme: This focuses on making A&E faster and smoother, so people are seen, assessed, and treated more quickly. It includes quicker triage, better decision‑making, and more use of alternatives to hospital where appropriate to reduce waiting times for care. The programme aims to reach at least 5% improvement in A&E performance by the end of the 12-week period.
• Embed Criteria to Reside: Staff are frequently reviewing every patient to decide whether they still need to stay in hospital or could be cared for somewhere else. There are ten different criteria to assess whether the patient needs to stay in hospital. This helps avoid people staying longer than necessary and supports earlier discharge where it is safe.
• Implement Integrated Discharge Service: This work is bringing together multiple discharge teams into one coordinated service. This will make roles clearer, reduces duplication, and ensures patients have a smoother and more organised journey when leaving hospital. Proposals for this service are currently moving through approval process, with full implementation expected by winter.
• Shifting the balance of care: This work has been helping people in Falkirk leave hospital sooner and receive care at home or in the community instead. It reduces delays, frees up hospital beds, and supports people to stay independent for longer. You can read more about this on the Partnership’s news pages.
• Expand hospital at home capacity: More people are treated at home instead of being admitted to hospital. This can improve comfort and recovery while also reducing pressure on hospital beds. Work continues to expand capacity to 112 beds by December.
• Develop a discharge to assess pathway: This workstream expects to develop consistent discharge to assess pathways across Forth. It is expected that this will support more people to leave hospital, once clinically ready, to receive their assessment at home or in a more homely environment. This project is in the early stages and will link with shifting the balance of care to implement a more consistent approach across Forth Valley.
• Improve digital visibility and data: Teams will be given clearer, shared information about where patients are in the system. This helps staff make quicker decisions, spot delays early, and improve the overall flow through services. A group has been formed to consider what actions can be taken.
• Implement frailty at the front door 7 days week: Frail patients are to be identified as soon as they arrive and directed a specialised frailty unit. This helps avoid unnecessary admission, shortens hospital stays, and ensures they get the right support early. This approach currently runs 5 days per week, to be expanded to every day.

🔗Agenda item 12: Urgent and Unscheduled Care

Assurance and Governance

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

🔗Agenda item 13: Communications and Engagement Update

🔗Agenda item 16:Commissioning and Contracts Monitoring Report (item considered in private)

The Commissioning and Contracts Monitoring Report was presented to the Board in private. Exclusion of the public was applied to this agenda item under Section 11(1), Appendix 1 (viii, ix, x), of the Falkirk Integration Joint Board Standing Orders.