Health and social care integration - localities: guidance

7 What are the Legal Requirements on Integration Authorities Relating to Localities?

In the Act - Role in Strategic Planning

7.1 The Public Bodies (Joint Working) (Scotland) Act 2014 places a number of requirements on Integration Authorities that relate to the role of localities in strategic planning, as follows:

a) Within the strategic commissioning plan, each Integration Authority (lead agency or Integration Joint Board) must include information on the following two points:

i. How it will divide its area into two or more localities, i.e., what the boundaries of each locality are; and
ii. How it will carry out its functions in relation to each such locality: this information must be set out separately for each locality, and cannot just be a generic statement that assumes that all localities will work in the same way as one another. (Section 29)

b) When setting up and running its strategic planning group, the Integration Authority must include a person to represent the interests of each locality. One person can represent more than one locality, where that is agreed locally to be appropriate. (Section 32)

c) Where an Integration Authority is taking a decision that is likely to significantly affect service provision in a locality, it must take such action as it thinks fit to involve and consult appropriate representatives of that locality in the decision, and must also pay reasonable expenses and allowances to enable those representatives to give their view. (Section 41)

In Regulations: Annual Performance Reporting

7.2 The (Public Bodies) (Joint Working) (Content of Performance Reports) (Scotland) Regulations 2014^[7] contain further detail, setting out the matters relating to localities on which the Integration Authority must report annually. These Regulations establish with further clarity the Integration Authority's responsibilities in relation to the influence that localities must have, and must be shown to have had, on the strategic commissioning plan and service delivery.

7.3 The Integration Authority's annual performance report must include an assessment of performance in planning and carrying out functions in localities, as follows:

a) a description of the arrangements made in relation to consulting and involving localities;
b) an assessment of how these arrangements have contributed to the provision of services and support in each locality;
c) the proportion of the Integration Authority's total budget that was spent on each locality; and
d) in relation to the information described at c), above, a comparison between the reporting year and the five preceding reporting years (or, where there have been fewer than five preceding reporting years, all preceding reporting years).