We will update this page with Change Fund news as and when it becomes available. Here follows the Manager's Report of the Change Fund as it appears in our Newsletter.

What is it? The Scottish Government (SG) have implemented a “Change Fund”  to support the ‘Reshaping Care for Older People' agenda. The principal goal of this is to optimise independence and wellbeing for older people at home or in a homely setting (ie to help older people and their families live as independently as possible in the community through interventions such as re-ablement). 

Finance The North Ayrshire allocation is £1.96 million for the current year. Currently the Fund rules have now been revised to provide for limited carry over to the next fiscal year.

Why/How are Interface involved? The Scottish Government (SG) implementation guidance stipulated that there should be 4 Partners involved – the Local Authority (NAC), NHS (Ayrshire and Arran ), the Independent Sector (Scottish Care) and the 3^rd Sector (the Interface).

As the Lead Partner is the Community Health Partnership, and as Arran CVS is the Lead organisation for Health and Social Services matters (both mainland and Arran/Cumbrae), the manager leads engagement activity  for the Interface .

Current Position The approved North Ayrshire submission has identified 4 Priority Areas:

Promotion of Community Capacity

Encouraging independence and self-care

Integrated rehabilitation and enablement services

Intensive support shifting from Acute to Community Services.

The North Ayrshire submission was signed off by the SG in March. The money was received by NHS A&Arran in June 2011. An allocation process (involving the Interface) had awarded £150000 to Developing Community Capacity. This sum will be used for Lifelong Learning, Active Lifestyles, development of socialisation activity (eg new lunch clubs, extending befriending services), and ensuring the provision of signposting to advice agencies. The manager is still in discussions with NHS A&Arran and NAC over how the 3^rd Sector  money will be utilised, but direction of travel is that the Interface will use some of the money to establish a couple of voluntary sector support staff, to cover both the mainland and Arran. This would lead to Arran CVS employing a part-time member of staff to co-ordinate  the lunch club, provision of information and advice,  and befriending activities.

Governance Aspects of Change Fund The 4  Partners’ (NAC,NHS A&A the Independent Sector and the Interface) meetings have held with the  SG Joint Improvement Team (JIT) (May 2011 and August 2011).

The manager also met with JIT representatives at the VAS Conference in October (Mr Swinney, Finance Cabinet Secretary also present at the event.)

Longer term there are still governance issues to be resolved. The manager attended a National meeting at Dunblane together with our Partners on 21^st September. Subsequent to this the manager recently met with South Ayrshire and East Ayrshire Interfaces . Some issues are still to resolved, as there are disparities of treatment within the 3 Local Authority Areas.

Recent JIT guidance has emphasised that the 4 Partners are equal in the Partnership. This will hopefully change a perception on the part of NHS Ayrshire and Arran that the main partners are NAC and themselves.