Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Bora Kwon, Katharine Willmette, DCI Mark Staples, Caroline Farrar, and Toby Lambert.

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 minutes of the meeting held on 19 March 2025 were agreed as an accurate record.

Sue Roostan (H&F ICB Borough Director) and Sarah Bright (Director of People’s Commissioning, Transformation and Partnerships) presented the Better Care Fund paper which set out the Council and the H&F Integrated Care Board quarter 4 report. She highlighted the underspend at the end of Quarter 4 of £385,993 and noted that two of the targets had not been achieved. The report had been submitted to NHS England on 6 June 2025.

RESOLVED

1. That the Health and Wellbeing Board ratified the BCF end of year quarter 4 report for 2024-2025 (Appendix 1).

2. That the Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care and Health ratified an end of year report outlining the outcomes of each scheme and the difference it has made for residents of H&F.

NOTE: This item was given priority on the agenda to accommodate a guest presenter.

Dr Nicola Lang (Director of Public Health) presented the item that outlined the process of refreshing the borough’s Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment (PNA), which assessed whether the current provision of pharmacies and the commissioned services they provided met the needs of local residents and whether there were any gaps.

Dr Lang noted the last PNA had been completed in 2022 and the process for this version was similar. The assessment would map current pharmaceutical services against local health needs, identify gaps in service provision, inform commissioning decisions and market entry for new pharmacies, and support service development to address local health priorities and reduce inequalities. The work would be done by the Council’s Public Health and Business Intelligence teams, with some specialist work being done by a specialist third-party provider.

Councillor Natalia Perez asked how the recommendations in the 2022-2025 PNA fed into the process for this year’s Assessment. Dr Lang said the key purpose was to look at how many pharmacies there were in the borough, what services they provided, and if they met the needs of NHS partners and the local population.

Councillor Perez noted that the last time this was discussed, provision in College Park and Old Oak ward was relatively low and asked if that would be addressed. Dr Lang said part of the Assessment would be looking at the distance to the nearest pharmacy for all residents in the borough to find gaps. She noted that the exercise carried out in 2022 showed the distribution of pharmacies met the distance requirements.

Councillor Helen Rowbottom asked about marketplace for pharmacies and their relationship with the Council and health services. Dr Lang said that, in recent years, some national pharmacy chains had been taken over by large multi-national corporations; however, there were still smaller providers in the market. She reported a constructive relationship with providers and noted that there was a local pharmaceutical committee which maintained a good dialogue with the Council and NHS partners. She said there had been some closures, but they were not worried at the moment. However, she also noted that there were ongoing issues around NHS funding for community pharmacies.

Susan Roostan (H&F ICB Borough Director) said the NHS had commissioned a range of services from community pharmacies and this had been enhanced since the Covid-19 vaccination roll-out. She said the PNA would show hotspots and gaps and said it would be linked back to the Integrated Care Board (ICB) to ensure even coverage.

Councillor Rowbottom asked how intelligence from community pharmacy was captured. Dr Lang said pharmacies used two main systems called Pinnacle and Sonar to keep records and they also interfaced with some of the Council’s commissioning systems.

Councillor Perez asked how the patient’s voice would be incorporated into the PNA process. Dr Lang said the PNA would go out to consultation for a long period and would be disseminated widely in a range of formats  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

Dr Nicola Lang (Director of Public Health) introduced the item. Chris Miller (Chair of the North West London Child Death Overview Panel) then gave a presentation summarising the findings and learning from the cases the North West London Child Death Overview Panel reviewed in Hammersmith and Fulham and North West London in 2023-24.

Chris Miller explained that the Child Death Overview Panel (CDOP) was a statutory entity, comprised of professionals who reviewed all child deaths to identify potential preventable factors and improve child health, safety, and well-being. The panel aimed to learn from these deaths to prevent future occurrences and ensure all children received the best possible care.

Chris Miller noted that there were around 140 child deaths a year in North West London, with the majority being those aged under 28 days due to perinatal or neonatal events, or chromosomal, genetic and congenital anomalies.

Councillor Helen Rowbottom asked about the common factors across deaths and if there was anything that could be done through research and development and commissioning to help mitigate them.

Chris Miller said it was a complex picture but there were some key areas such as whether the mother was vaccinated, whether there was mould and damp in the home, whether there was domestic abuse or neglect and on a safeguarding pathway, and whether overweight mothers were on an aspirin pathway. Chris Miller felt that intensive work with communities in Lower Layer Super Output Areas could make a real difference. He highlighted the Pimlico Community Health Workers project which placed community nursing assistants in communities to act as a bridge between health workers and residents. They visited people in their homes and could support people proactively when needed. The project had reduced instances of strokes, heart attacks, and emergency service attendance. He said the Panel were interested in working with them.

Councillor Rowbottom said her other role was as H&F Industrial Strategy Ambassador and she wanted to use the research and development engine in the borough to improve local people’s lives. Chris Miller said he was interested in having a longer conversation about the opportunities in this area.

ACTION: Councillor Rowbottom to discuss opportunities with Chris Miller

Councillor Natalia Perez referred to the recommendation around interpreting services and asked how the implementation of recommendations to other organisations was tracked and followed up. Chris Miller said recommendations were acted on – in the case of interpreters, NHS Trusts were well aware of the issue and had put a range of measures in place but in emergencies medical professionals sometimes had to rely on translations from friends or family.

Sue Spiller (Chief Executive Officer, SOBUS) asked if there was data showing cause of death broken down by ethnicity that could be used to inform preventative information and guidance. Chris Miller said that information was available, though he noted that ethnicity data was often not specific enough for very targeted information campaigns.

Anna Carpenter (Head of Safeguarding) noted that themes from the Panel were fed through to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

To discuss the Board’s work programme and suggest items for future meetings.

The item was noted.

The following dates of future meetings were noted:

• 10 September 2025
• 3 December 2025
• 18 March 2026
• 22 June 2026

The following dates of future meetings were noted:

• 10 September 2025
• 3 December 2025
• 18 March 2026
• 22 June 2026