Agenda and draft minutes

The Chair welcomed attendees to the meeting and thanked Morley College for hosting the Board.

The Chair thanked Lena Choudary-Salter from Mosaic Trust for her contribution to the Board and welcomed Nada Calovska, Chair of the Westminster Voluntary Sector Health and Wellbeing Network to the Board who will replace Lena.

It was also noted that Carrie Hirst was attending as a substitute for Angela Spence who was on sabbatical leave.

Apologies were noted.

James Benson noted that his organisation was listed incorrectly.

The Board agreed that the minutes of the meeting that took place on 16 May 2024 were a correct record.

The Chair invited David Bello, Bi-Borough Director of Health Partnerships, to introduce the report and the following points were raised:

·         The Strategy was launched in October 2023 and since then colleagues have been developing the draft two year Implementation Plan.  This was discussed at the last meeting of the Health and Wellbeing Board and since then officers had consulted further to strengthen the plan and also how to measure the impact.

·         The Implementation Plan is a two-year plan which runs alongside the ten-year Strategy.  On an annual basis, progression of the plan will be reported to the HWBB.  It is recognised that this is a live document and change to local activities may occur depending on local priority. 

The Chair then invited the Board to raise any questions.

1.  Regarding ambition 9, the importance of accessibility needed to be emphasised and the activities that the Councils and voluntary sector provided need to be accessible for those eligible for benefits.

2.  In reference to ambition 7, there needed to be better support for those who were deaf or hard of hearing, in particular more British sign language interpreters.

3.  Suggested including a column of what success looked like and how it could be measured, as well as producing a tracker for each ambition with RAG ratings.

4.  Asked how the Strategy was aligned with the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment. The strategy has been developed in response to the health needs identified in the JSNA and includes a commitment to health across all policy areas.

The Chair thanked all those involved and noted that the Board looked forward to updates.

At the Chair’s invitation, Dr Andrew Steeden and Dr Jan Maniera, introduced the report and raised the following points:

1.    Health partners were made aware through engagement that following the pandemic that there was concern around access and continuity of care.

2.    The plan was to realign services around communities, families and individuals, to support children and adults throughout their lives and elderly patients with complex needs.

3.    There are developing integrated neighbourhood teams (INTs) across the two boroughs, with one in the North of the borough, one in the South of Kensington and Chelsea, and covering the rest of Westminster.

The Chair invited the Board to raise comments and ask questions, which included:

1.    Queried if there was anything specific about this iteration of NHS reorganisations which made the ICB confident it would work. It was explained that both boroughs were working together and with partners in a way which they had not before, by sharing strategies, ambitions and outcomes.

2.    Suggested that more joint research trials should be done to have greater access to data and progress further and faster.

3.    Asked if local authorities worked with health partners to share data, in departments such as housing or communities. It was confirmed that this was the case and has gotten better in recent years. A local authority and health data insights group also brought people together from different organisations, the voluntary and community sector and health partners.

4.    Noted that the test would be if patients say that they did not have to repeat their story several times to different health professionals and case studies of lived experience saying that it works. The Board was informed that there had been some emerging data on outcomes and there was evidence that the quality was good for patients.

5.    Raised that the name of the North INT could be confusing for some as the North INT covered both North Kensington and North Paddington, as it was not based on borough boundaries.

The Board agreed the following:

1.  To commit to the continued development of INTs across our boroughs and consider how they can support the initial priorities that have been outlined, committing individual’s time to further integration and embed this as part of future appraisals and/or objective-setting.

2.  To endorse the focus on prevention and early intervention through INTs.

The Chair invited Jeff Lake, Bi-Borough Deputy Director of Public Health, to introduce the report and he outlined that the document was one of the statutory responsibilities of public health. The current assessment covered the period to 2025 and they were in the process of refreshing it and making a document for approval by the end of September 2025.

The Board raised the following questions and comments:

1.    Queried that if someone used the Pharmacy First route they would have to pay but via other routes they may not. It was explained that there were conditions under the Pharmacy First scheme which meant that you had to pay for over the counter medication and this meant that it was an incentive for residents to use urgent care to access free medication.

2.    Raised that if free medication was offered in the bi-borough then this could impact local NHS services and that the North West London ICB was currently the only ICB in London which was not in a deficit. Officers said they would look into what North Central London were doing.

A resident submitted a question related to her negative experience of an incorrect placement of a vaccination and asked whether there were any changes in the experiences of health workers going to homes to administer vaccinations.

Dr Andrew Steeden, responded that he was sorry to hear what had happened and explained that the immunisation team were all trained specialists, with extra training to administer Covid-19 vaccinations. Most people giving vaccinations would be very experienced at it so it should not have happened.

The date of the next Board meeting was noted to be hosted by Westminster on the 26 September (4pm-5.30pm)