Agenda item

Purpose: To present the Dashboard and highlight any emerging issues.

Councillor Marcus Franks introduced the Dashboard to Members of the Health and Wellbeing Board. Tandra Forster highlighted that it was still very much a work in progress.

Rachael Wardell raised her concern about the use of the word ‘target’ in relation to the Children’s Services section. Some of the metrics gave volume, for example the number of Looked After Children. This type of information could not be targeted as they did not want to drive numbers down but rather benchmark against  what was considered the normal range.

RESOLVED that the wording for the Children’s Social Care section of the dashboard be reviewed to include ‘normal range’ rather than ‘target’ where necessary.

Tandra Forster explained that some of the data came from the national performance framework and some detailed volume. The dashboard had two elements; the number of people receiving services and then targets around the work being carried out by these services.

Dr Lise Llewellyn felt that dashboard only reflected a part of what the Health and Wellbeing Board covered and issues like early intervention and school readiness were not included. Tandra Forster reported that it was just a snapshot of the Health and Social Care economy and that prevention work would be fed into the Board as part of the Health and Wellbeing Strategy (HWBS).

Rachael Wardell commended the dashboard for showing the whole range of hospitals servicing West Berkshire.

Councillor Marcus Franks referred to ASC7 regarding the Proportion of 111 calls converted to 999 and queried if it was lower or higher number the CCG were seeking on this metric. Fiona Slevin-Brown stated that lower numbers were positive for this target. Rachael Wardell felt that this metric might just reflect the nature of calls and therefore suggested that the steps taken in deciding a call should be converted to 999 should be included within the narrative for the dashboard.

Councillor Gordon Lundie asked if there was an indicator that could be included around accessibility to General Practitioners (GPs). Fiona Selvin-Brown explained that work was being carried our by the NHS Local Area Team on Primary Care demand. They were currently trialling an IT system with practices in the Oxford area and would be linking in with West Berkshire going forward. It was difficult to apply a single metric due to the way Primary Care was managed in that each practice had its individual processes.

Dr Barbara Barrie stated that end of life support by services could be used as a measure for integration.

RESOLVED that a measure indicating performance of end of life services to be added to the Dashboard.

Councillor Lundie asked Dr Bal Bahia to give his perspective on how practices were monitored. Dr Bahia stated that each practice was set up individually. If the demand was not being met then actions were taken to increase nursing and medical staff. There were lots of ways practices were measured including national metrics and patient consultations. A lot of work had taken place with practices in West Berkshire to increase capacity using the Call to Action Fund. Dr Bahia stated that more people in West Berkshire used West Call Out of Hours GP service because they lived further away from Accident and Emergency services.

Lise Llewellyn noted that there were a range of metrics within the BCF. She suggested that the CCG/NHS England should be asked to carry out a baseline assessment to give the ability to measure the impact over winter on primary care services.

RESOLVED that NHS England  and the CCG would look into carrying out a baseline assessment to show the impact on Primary Care Services over the winter.

Councillor Franks stated that a baseline would help in identifying where the problems were going forward and if the Board was able to help with any of these. Councillor Franks referred to a survey he was aware of elsewhere that collected information on access to GPs. Adrian Barker stated that access to GP information was collected through Healthwatch consultations.

RESOLVED that Adrian Barker would send access to GP information to Jess Bailiss to circulate prior to the next Health and Wellbeing Board.

Councillor Marcus Franks referred to the four hour Accident and Emergency indicator and noted that the Royal Berkshire Hospital was improving. Tandra Forster confirmed that this was correct however, they were still under pressure and work was ongoing.

RESOLVED that a completed version of the dashboard would be brought back to the next Health and Wellbeing Board in November.