The Western Isles Context
The agreement between the Western Isles Health Board and Comhairle Nan Eilean Siar to form an IJB is set out in the Integration Scheme.
The Integration Scheme is a legal document which covers matters such as:
- The services that will be delegated to the IJB
- Financial Management
- Clinical and care governance arrangements
- Workforce and organisational development
- Data sharing
- Adult Social Work and Social Care
- Criminal Justice Social Work
- Housing Support, including aids and adaptations
The Integration Scheme must be submitted to the Scottish Government to ensure that it complies with the legislation, after which it is passed to the Scottish Parliament for final approval. The Western Isles Integration Scheme was approved by the Scottish Parliament on 21st September 2015.
The Western Isles Integration Scheme sets out the range of services and funding that will be delegated to the IJB. On the Local Authority side, this includes:
- Adult Social Work and Social Care
- Criminal Justice Social Work
- Housing Support, including aids and adaptations
On the NHS side, the services and funding delegated include:
- Community Nursing, including health visitors and school nursing
- Funding for General Practice, Dentistry and Pharmacy
- Mental Health
- Allied Health Professionals, including Occupational Therapy Podiatry, Dietetics, Speech Therapy and Physiotherapy
- St Brendan’s Hospital and Uist & Barra Hospital
- Part of the Western Isles Hospital, including A&E, general medicine, geriatric medicine, rehabilitation medicine, respiratory medicine
The Integration Scheme does not include specialist children’s services such as children’s social work, Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services, paediatric inpatient care, and specialist community health services for children – but it does include the universal children’s services such as health visiting and school nursing.
Responsibility for all of the funding for the integrated services is delegated to the IJB once it signs-off on its strategic plan. The Western Isles IJB will therefore take responsibility for these services on 1 April 2016. Once the resources for the integration functions are delegated to the IJB, it will then make decisions on the use of the integrated finance. The Chief Officer carries out the decisions of the IJB.