The options available
for recommissioning in Devon were:
i.
to recommission jointly with Devon, Plymouth and Torbay Councils
again (the status quo)
ii.
commission separate local Healthwatch organisations for Devon,
Plymouth, and Torbay
iii.
to commission on a larger scale in collaboration with either
Cornwall or Somerset.
The third option would
mean that the consumer voice organisation would have to span more
than one Integrated Care System, an unrealistic challenge in terms
of governance or effective public profile. This option was therefore discounted.
The three local
authorities considered whether to recommission their local
Healthwatch organisation on an individual basis, as they did
originally in 2013, or to continue with the joint arrangements
which have been in place since 2020.
This consideration took account of the forthcoming local government
re-organisation facing the three local authorities and the ongoing
development of the Integrated Care System for the area covered by
Devon, Plymouth, and Torbay Councils.
Commissioners agreed
that continuing to base the local Healthwatch organisation area on
the Integrated Care System footprint was the most sustainable and
strategically effective way forward. This was because all the proposed local authority
boundary change options followed the Devon Integrated Care System
area and did not change the boundaries with Cornwall or
Somerset.
Commissioners also
agreed that recommissioning local Healthwatch on a three-authority
basis would enable them to maintain the economy of scale (around 8%
savings on the nationally recommended funding level) achieved by
having one rather than three organisations in place. The recommended option was therefore to jointly
recommission the local Healthwatch organisation for Devon, Plymouth
and Torbay, with a requirement that the provider was able to
maintain a structure which covered the integrated care system
regardless of the outcome of local government re-organisation and
the resulting local authorities covering the system area.
