Health and social care long-term reform: oversight board - terms of reference

Purpose of Board

The purpose of the Reform Oversight Board is to deliver shared leadership, ensure whole system oversight and assurance and provide clear accountability for the delivery of long term Health and Social Care reform and renewal.  The Board will facilitate and require the sustained collaboration between national and local government through the implementation of the Population Health Framework and the Health and Social Care Service Renewal Framework. 

Within the parameters set by Scottish Ministers and COSLA, the Reform Oversight Board will:

• bring together national and local accountability for delivery of the aims, priorities, major changes and enabling shifts set out in the PHF and SRF
• hold constituent parts of the whole delivery system to account; and influence the culture of delivery through visible collaborative, cross-party, whole system membership
• drive future collaboration and ensure that decision-making remains responsive to future needs and challenges
• collectively hold responsibility for overseeing Reform progress and resolving any national or local issues that may compromise delivery, affordability (including the required shift to prevention) and benefits realisation
• set the pace and direction for reform if policy priorities change (within parameters given from Scottish Ministers and COSLA)

The Board will complement, not replace, the work of Reform Executive, or PHF and SRF Programme Boards. It will be jointly accountable to Scottish Ministers and COSLA Leaders. 

Roles and responsibilities

To achieve the purpose the Board will function as a guiding leadership coalition by:

• maintaining oversight of sector and partner organisation collective efforts to deliver long term reform, situating this within the wider Public Service Reform Strategy context
• developing a shared senior system level understanding of the direction of travel and progress towards the HSC vision and implementation of long term reform
• championing the change set out in the PHF and SRF - engaging widely, consistently and coherently throughout the system leadership community about the new future for HSC – ensuring common understanding of the vision,  and common outcomes and agreement on what successful delivery will look like
• gaining commitment and involvement for reform through influence and interaction with system leaders to support the change through ‘one voice’ of the outcomes required
• promoting open and constructive conversations that enable the development of creative ideas and opportunities for reform in the whole system
• holding different parts of system and system as a whole to account for progress and delivery / implementation of priorities of reform frameworks, acting as an escalation point if programmes hit fundamental systemic issues, that cannot be resolved at programme level
• promoting integrated, whole system working across national and local government, and recognising and championing the role of the business community and voluntary sector as well as core local government and NHS delivery organisations across health and social care in delivering change and realising outcomes

Authority and decision making

Accountable to Scottish Ministers and COSLA Leaders, the Board will have delegated authority to deliver on its function in line with its purpose and responsibilities.

Reporting arrangements

The Board will report to Scottish ministers and COSLA and meetings will be supported by regular reform insight reports, and PHF and SRF progress reports.

Governance

The overall governance is jointly led by COSLA Leaders and Ministers. Both provide direction to a central Reform Oversight Board, which is responsible for maintaining strategic alignment and monitoring progress.

A Local Government Advisory Group supports COSLA Leaders, while a Stakeholder Advisory Group provides additional input to Ministers, ensuring wider engagement across sectors.

The Reform Executive sits beneath the Oversight Board and is responsible for driving delivery. It oversees three core programme areas:

• the Population Health Framework
• the Health and Social Care Service Renewal Framework

Alongside these programmes, a Portfolio Management Team supports coordination, ensuring consistent planning, tracking, and risk management across the reform work.

Frequency of meetings

The Board will meet quarterly and cover material from both the PHF and SRF, with a standing agenda item to consider the latest evidence and data on the vision for Health and Social Care so that each meeting is rooted in the latest facts and evidence of movement on key indicators of progress towards sought outcomes of the reform frameworks.

Minute of meetings

The Health and Social Care Reform Portfolio Porftolio Management Office (PMO)  will provide secretariat. Agenda, papers, and action logs to be distributed five days prior to each meeting. Minutes will be drafted and agreed by the Chair prior to circulation no later than one week after each meeting.

Quorum

Quorum will be a majority of core members including at least one of the Board’s co-chairs.

Chair and membership

The Board will be co-chaired by the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care  and the COSLA Health and Social Care Spokesperson.

Core Members of the Board will be:

• Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care and COSLA Health and Social Care Spokesperson (co-Chairs)
• Chair of the Reform Executive
• COSLA Director of People Policy
• Health and Social Care Reform Portfolio SROs
• Chief Medical Officer
• Chair of NHS Board Chairs
• Chair of NHS Board Chief Executives
• Chair of Society of Local Authority Chief Executives
• Chair of Integration Joint Board Chief Officer Group
• Chairs of PHF and SRF Governance structures
• Chair of Community Planning Improvement Board
• Convenor of Voluntary Sector Collaboration Group

The Reform Oversight Board can also be supplemented with additional relevant invitees relevant to PHF or SRF agenda items. 

For example, senior business sector representatives for the PHF agenda items on improving prevention of obesity; or community/primary care (e.g. co-Chairs of the primary and community health steering group) for more SRF related agenda items like shifting care into the community.

Confidentiality

Information shared may be of a sensitive or confidential nature. All members have the responsibility to treat as confidential, information that may be available to them, or obtained by them. It is the responsibility of authors to clearly mark any documentation or communication containing information of a sensitive or confidential nature to ensure it is easily identifiable to recipients.

Review

The Reform Oversight Board will review the Terms of Reference on a regular basis following the first meeting of the group.