What this consultation is about
This consultation is seeking the views on a proposal to transfer the oral health promotion service and the Derbyshire healthy families service into the current Section 75 Partnership Agreement held with Derbyshire Community Health Services NHS Foundation Trust (DCHS NHS FT) to enable DCHS NHS FT to continue to deliver these services as part of a Section 75 agreement from 1 April 2023.
A Section 75 agreement is a legal agreement between ourselves and an NHS provider under the National Health Service Act 2006 (updated under the Health and Social Care Act 2012).
We understand people want and deserve the best possible public services, which protect and improve their health and wellbeing. In the NHS Act of 2006, Section 75 allows for flexibilities which can enable NHS organisations and local authorities to use partnership agreements so that they can respond effectively to improve services, either by joining up existing services or developing new, co-ordinated and co-produced services.
The consultation is required to be compliant with The NHS and Local Authorities Partnership Arrangements Regulations 2000 which stipulate that:
“the partners may not enter into any partnership agreements [under Section 75 of the NHS Act 2006] unless they have consulted jointly such persons as appear to them to be affected by such arrangements”
In October 2019 we entered into a Section 75 Partnership Agreement with DCHS NHS FT to deliver the 0 to 19 public health nursing service. This involves the delivery of the school nursing service and the health visiting service across the county. The successful implementation of the current Section 75 partnership agreement has allowed for the exploration of transferring the oral health promotion service and the Derbyshire healthy family service into the Section 75.
We want to continue to improve the health and wellbeing outcomes for children, young people and families who access the oral health promotion service and the Derbyshire healthy families service. We believe that the most effective approach for delivering these outcomes is to transfer both these services into the Section 75 partnership arrangement we already have established with DCHS NHS FT.
The oral health promotion service delivers community-based preventative services across Derbyshire (excluding Derby). This includes the early years tooth brushing programmes, supply and distribution of oral health promotion packs (to a targeted population), as well as offering training, support and specific oral health sessions on how to deliver supervised tooth brushing programmes to all special schools in Derbyshire.
The service provides evidence-based information through the development and delivery of training sessions and updates for an identified workforce (children and young people’s workforce and those working in specialist settings where vulnerable adults may access).
The Derbyshire healthy family service provides support for breastfeeding mothers to establish and sustain breastfeeding to 6 weeks and beyond. The service also provides support and advice to families on the introduction of first foods (designed to delay the introduction of first foods until 6 months); and establishing healthy eating behaviours in families with toddlers; and building a supportive breastfeeding Derbyshire through recruitment, training and supporting of volunteers. This enables the service to have a broader reach to the population across the county and with the addition of online information and an interactive website, is more accessible.
We currently contract DCHS NHS FT to provide both these services and the proposed partnership agreement itself will not directly affect current delivery of both these services but does allow for multiple benefits for the future:
- enables ourselves and DCHS NHS FT to work together more cohesively to achieve positive outcomes for the children and young people and their families across Derbyshire
- enables better integration between 0 and 19 public health nursing, oral health promotion, Derbyshire healthy families and early help services delivered internally via children's services
- provides greater opportunities for partnership working between services and aligning resources appropriately within each service to gain efficiencies in scale
- enables the provider to be more innovative and provides better opportunities to adapt services accordingly to meet the changing needs of the children and young people in Derbyshire
- enables ourselves and DCHS NHS FT to work more flexibly to continue to improve services
Including both services within the current Section 75 partnership agreement will build upon the successful services currently delivered and mitigate future risks in performance as a result of having to re-procure the services once the contracts come to an end. Additional benefits will also be gained as a result of the services transferring into an already formed Section 75 partnership agreement due to the already established mechanisms of governance, performance management and processes.
Permission has been approved by our Cabinet to conduct the consultation exercise on the Section 75 Partnership Agreement for these services on 18 November 2021. Please see agenda item 5(d) on the Cabinet meeting agenda 18 November 2021.
Have your say
We and DCHS NHS FT welcome your comments to this proposal. Please provide feedback via the consultation questionnaire to ensure your responses are considered.
The questionnaire should take no longer than 10 minutes to complete.
All consultation responses will be treated in confidence and will be kept securely for one year from the closure of the consultation, then destroyed.
We're unable to offer an individual response to all feedback given.
At the end of the consultation period responses will be collated and reviewed by DCHS and ourselves. A summary report will be produced which will be reviewed by the Strategic Governance Group chaired by the Director of Public Health which oversees the operation of the current Section 75 partnership agreement.