Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Lisa Redfern, Sue Roostan, and Phillipa Johnson.

If a Member of the Board, or any other member present in the meeting has a disclosable pecuniary interest in a particular item, whether or not it is entered in the Authority’s register of interests, or any other significant interest which they consider should be declared in the public interest, they should declare the existence and, unless it is a sensitive interest as defined in the Member Code of Conduct, the nature of the interest at the commencement of the consideration of that item or as soon as it becomes apparent.

At meetings where members of the public are allowed to be in attendance and speak, any Member with a disclosable pecuniary interest or other significant interest may also make representations, give evidence or answer questions about the matter.  The Member must then withdraw immediately from the meeting before the matter is discussed and any vote taken.

Where members of the public are not allowed to be in attendance and speak, then the Member with a disclosable pecuniary interest should withdraw from the meeting whilst the matter is under consideration. Members who have declared other significant interests should also withdraw from the meeting if they consider their continued participation in the matter would not be reasonable in the circumstances and may give rise to a perception of a conflict of interest.

Members are not obliged to withdraw from the meeting where a dispensation to that effect has been obtained from the Standards Committee.

There were no declarations of interest.

To approve the minutes of the previous meeting as an accurate record and note any outstanding actions.

The Chair noted the first action on vaccination take-up rates for Sue Roostan. Linda Jackson said the end of year report would come to the next meeting.

ACTION: Linda Jackson / Sue Roostan

In reference to the second action, Merril Hammer noted that Hammersmith & Fulham Save Our NHS (HAFSON) had met with Sue Roostan but no definitive outcomes had been agreed. She said HAFSON would follow up.

ACTION: Merril Hammer

RESOLVED

The Board agreed the minutes of the meeting held on 13 December 2022 as an accurate record.

This item from the North West London Integrated Care System covers plans to identify and reduce health inequalities across the borough.

June Farquharson and Nicola Kay from NHS North West London ICB presented the report. Nicola Kay gave an outline of the inequalities approach in North West London and their ‘Core 20 plus 5’ framework for identifying inequalities. She noted that the ICB was committed to genuine co-production with local communities.

Sue Spiller noted that Sobus had produced a report on mental health in BAME communities and the barriers to accessing services they faced. She asked if the ICB had researched that area and the issue of people who weren’t seeking support until crisis point.

Jacqui McShannon noted that the strategy appeared to be adult focused and asked what investment in children and young people would lead to better longer-term outcomes. Nicola Kay said a ‘Core 20 plus 5’ framework for children had just launched. She agreed that the approach had been skewed to adults but assured members that was changing.

Lucy Richardson noted there was a group of high functioning autistic people who may not have EHCPs and asked if there were plans in place for those and other people with hidden conditions. Nicola Kay said they were aware of the issue and noted they were working with the mental health teams in the ICB on support and ways to identify people earlier.

Linda Jackson asked for clarity about the ‘plus 5’ in ‘Core 20 plus 5’. She noted that each locality was different. Hammersmith & Fulham had major issues around housing, and mental health for younger people for example. She said it was important to know what the plan meant for H&F, and it needed to be interpreted in H&F language before thinking about how we co-produced to make the make the biggest difference for residents.

Merril Hammer said it would be useful to have more granular data about the local population. Dr Nicola Lang said JSNA factsheets were being produced on a range of topics (e.g. diabetes) and they would welcome feedback on those. The ICB were there to provide a bigger picture view of North West London as a whole. She suggested showing the factsheets to local community groups for their input.

The Chair said the Council and the Board had recognised the issue of people of colour having worse outcomes on average and had connected residents with senior people in the NHS to explain the issues that affected them directly. Those meetings were due to happen shortly.

Linda Jackson added that work to address inequality ran through each of the campaigns from the Health and Care Partnership but it was an area we could do more on. What officers thought was a priority might not be as important to residents. She said there was work to be done to build trust and learn how to best engage.

The Chair and Sue Spiller asked what factors determined the priorities. June Farquharson said there were five nationally mandated priorities but there was an element of local flexibility. She said local workshops, shaped by the local Health  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

This item covers the implementation of the H&F Dementia Strategy, including key achievements in 2022/23.

Jo Baty (Assistant Director, Specialist Support and Independent Living) and Peggy Coles (Coordinator of H&F Dementia Action Alliance) gave a presentation on the implementation of the Hammersmith and Fulham Dementia Strategy and key achievements.

Toby Hyde (Chair of the H&F Dementia Partnership Board) then gave an overview of the report, highlighting areas where the Dementia Partnership Board was making great progress in improving outcomes for residents with dementia, their carers, and families.

The Chair thanked Toby Hyde for Chairing the Partnership Board and noted the huge contribution he had made. He also thanked residents for their determination, and the Administration and officers for making it happen. He also noted Councillor Asif Siddique’s valuable work as the Council’s Older People’s Champion in ensuring that we pooled resources and widely communicated the events for older residents to reduce social isolation and loneliness.

The Chair noted the specific challenges the Board needed to consider:

• Diagnosis and why diagnosis rates in H&F were lower than many other boroughs.
• more funding and resources from the Integrated Care Board (Hammersmith and Fulham Health and Care Partnership) was necessary.
• Making dementia a priority for the Hammersmith and Fulham Health and Care Partnership
• Access to data and how to unblock barriers to getting the data needed on a regular basis.

Suhana Ahmed (NHS) said the limiting factor regarding diagnosis rates was primary care engagement. It was the key factor in Kingston where she had worked previously. That also tied into health inequalities, some populations were not seeking help so services needed to be more proactive. She said Integrated Care Board funding was part of the puzzle but there also needed to be more GP engagement, which she felt was lacking.

There was a discussion about the importance of GP engagement and representation on the Dementia Partnership Board. The Chair said he would like more clinical leads at the Board in addition to Sue Roostan. The Chair also suggested inviting every Primary Care Network to send a representative, given how important GPs were to the work of the Board.

ACTION: Jo Baty

The Chair asked if more money was needed to meet the national diagnostic standards. Suhana Ahmed commented that they were commissioned for a 9 week target but the national target was now 6 weeks, so more funding was required. Toby Hyde explained that in the past there had been money available from the Clinician Commissioning Groups that allowed GPs to build time into their schedule for dementia engagement work.

The Chair asked for a discussion at the H&F Health and Care Partnership on the specifics of how to improve diagnosis, resources, and data. He invited Toby Hyde to be a part of the discussion.

ACTION: Linda Jackson

The Chair asked why data was inaccessible and where it was held. Toby Hyde said it was held in different places - diagnosis data was held by the Trust, some data sat with the ICS, some in primary care records, some in  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

To discuss the Board’s work programme.

The Chair asked for an item on GPs to be added to the work programme. He asked that GPs be invited to the meeting to contribute and highlighted the following areas for consideration:

• Opening hours and alignment with hospital opening hours
• Complexity of access (telephone, digital etc.) and the impact on inclusion
• Workload and how GPs were managing increased demand

The Chair took a moment to thank Lisa Redfern, who was due to retire at the end of April, for her hard work and dedication to the borough over her tenure as Strategic Director of Adult Social Care. He described her as an outstanding officer who was professional at the highest level, could be both strategic and detailed, was kind and caring, and had built an amazing team.

To note the following dates of future meetings:

·       28 Jun 2023

·       20 Sep 2023

·       13 Dec 2023

·       12 Mar 2024

The Board noted the following dates of future meetings:

• 3 July 2023
• 13 November 2023
• 29 January 2024
• 25 March 2024