The Chair welcomed attendees to the meeting and invited the Board members to introduce themselves to all in attendance.

There were no declarations of interest and apologies for absence were noted.

The minutes of the meeting held 22 May 2025 were agreed as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

This report will focus on profiling the work across system partners to support early homelessness and rough sleeping with a focus on preventive work, hospital discharge and health interventions to improve health outcomes for people.

The Chair introduced the item and invited Lucy Baker, Heather Clarke, Joe Nguyen and Jeff Lake to present the report. They noted the wide range of health impacts of insecure housing, outlined how the NHS was working in partnership with the Local Authorities to increase access to secure housing and associated support services, and noted changes in grant funding arrangements were likely to limit funding for Temporary Accommodation (TA) services.

In discussing the report, members of the Board:

1. Asked whether there were sufficient resources to address homelessness and rough sleeping given the pending reorganisation of local Integrated Care Boards, and funding pressures that. In response, Joe Nguyen assured the Board that despite pressures, there would be a continued prioritisation of services and commissioning arrangements to support those experiencing - or those at risk of experiencing - homelessness.

2. Expressed concern over the lack of local inpatient mental health services available to rough sleepers following the closure of the Gordon Hospital.

3. Discussed prevention initiatives and highlighted the need to understand which initiatives and strategies were most effective given the trend of increasing homelessness. Heather Clarke noted in response that prevention services needed to be bespoke, place-based and timely rather than one-size-fits-all. WCC and RBKC were deploying intelligence to identify earlier those at risk of homelessness and working with community based voluntary services to ensure they had appropriate resources.

4. Noted the report did not address ambition 4 of the Health and Wellbeing Strategy in its entirety, with no information on the quality of homes or work designed to improve the quality of homes, and requested a report addressing the quality of homes come to a future Board meeting. Officers assured the Board that work to improve the quality of Council and Registered Provider homes across both boroughs was underway, particularly around damp and mould and meeting the Decent Homes Standard and welcomed an opportunity to bring information to the Board on progress at a later date.

5. Discussed the overrepresentation of global majority communities in homelessness applications and called for greater understanding of people’s journey to homelessness in order to address housing inequality.

6. Highlighted the vital supported accommodation service offered by the Salvation Army at the St Ann’s Hostel in Westminster and stressed the importance of the service remaining open.

7. Discussed the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust’s approach to homelessness, which included ensuring quality of care and partnership working.

8. Discussed integration of family focused services to offer more holistic support for families experiencing or at risk of homelessness.

This item is to provide an update on the proposed changes to the Integrated Care System and NHS England Structures.

The Chair invited Simon Hope, West London Borough Director at North West London Integrated Care Board to provide an update on the reorganisation of Integrated Care Board system.

Mr Hope provided a summary of the planned changes and progress to date, noting that nationally there would be fewer but improved ICB organisations in place by April 2026, with a more strategic role focused on population health management, analysis of population health needs and commissioning services. The reorganisation would lead to reduced running costs, with the local organisation spanning 13 London boroughs and four million people, but future structure proposals for the new organisations had been delayed as required consultation exercises could not be carried out due to a lack of central government funding.

Rita Thakaria, Managing Director at Kensington, Chelsea & Westminster Place Based Partnership, provided an update on the Neighbourhood Health Service Model, the integrated function introduced to accelerate prevention work and community-based care. The Partnership was working to appoint host organisations to facilitate cross-agency work and confirm enabling functions, with announcements due in November 2025.

Cllr Rendall, on behalf of the Board, noted concern that local voices could be marginalised under the new arrangements, and asked whether services would improve for residents given the changes. Mr Hope suggested the neighbourhood service model and place-based partnership should improve service delivery, whilst it would be the role of the new ICB to facilitate partnership work at a strategic level.

This report provides an update on the liquidation of NRS Healthcare, emergency service arrangements, and interim commissioning of community equipment and occupational therapy services across Kensington & Chelsea and Westminster.

The Chair invited Shazia Ghani, Head of Care Markets for the Local Authorities, to provide an update on the liquidation of community equipment provider NRS Healthcare, emergency service arrangements, and interim commissioning of community equipment and occupational therapy services across Kensington & Chelsea and Westminster.

RBKC, as the lead commissioner for a consortium of 21 London boroughs holding contracts with NRS, were working with the PricewaterhouseCoopers and BDO to manage the insolvency process and any issues arising during the transition of services, particularly around transfer of data and assets. Meanwhile, the bi-borough service conducted a procurement exercise for a replacement provider and commissioned 247 Healthcare, a small local organisation, to provide an end-to-end equipment service including delivery and collection, urgent and palliative care, servicing and repairs, on a six-month contract from 28 August 2025.

The Board discussed the update, and raised the following points:

1. The Board needed to acknowledge the major impact for residents of the insolvency, with significant discharge delays.

2. Mutual aid offered by neighbouring boroughs should be taken up to ensure orders for community equipment were fulfilled.

3. The Board needed to understand lessons learned and ensure resilience against monopoly provision of essential services.

This report is to update the joint Health and Wellbeing Board (HWBB) on the 25/26 Better Care Fund (BCF) plans submitted on the 4th July and asks the HWBB members to note the submission was submitted on 4th July and received national approval on 28th August 2025 from NHSE.

The Chair confirmed that the 25/26 Better Care Fund (BCF) plans were submitted on 4th July and received approval from NHS England on 28^th August 2025.

The Chair invited questions from the audience.

Bella Rareworld, CEO of Making Time for Mental Health, Kensington, Chelsea and Westminster, in reference to the discussion of homelessness and quality homes, emphasised the importance of sharing community success stories to educate, motivate and empower communities and asked whether there was scope for the Board’s constituent groups to provide opportunities for people who had previously experienced homelessness to share their experiences and help signpost help to those that need it.

The next meeting of the Joint Health and Wellbeing Board will be hosted by Westminster City Council on 27 November 2025.

The next meeting of the Joint Health and Wellbeing Board will be hosted by Westminster City Council on 27 November 2025.