Agenda and minutes

To approve as a correct record the Minutes of the meeting of the Board held on 24 November 2016. .

Dr Bal Bahia opened the meeting by explaining that Councillor Roger Croft, Leader of the Council and a member of the Health and Wellbeing Board, had died on Friday 24^th March 2017 after being unable to recover from the serious injuries he sustained in a car accident while travelling in France five weeks previously. Dr Bahia noted with sadness that Mrs Zelda Croft died in the accident. Councillor Croft was a friend and colleague to many of the Health and Wellbeing Board members; Dr Bahia expressed sympathy to all of his friends and family at this difficult time.

Dr Bahia welcomed Richard Benyon MP to the Health and Wellbeing Board.

The Minutes of the meeting held on 24 November 2016 were approved as a true and correct record and signed by the Vice-Chairman.

An opportunity for Board Members to suggest items to go on to the Forward Plan.

The Health and Wellbeing Board noted the forward plan.

To consider outstanding actions from previous meetings. (There are no outstanding actions remaining.)

The Health and Wellbeing Board noted that there were no outstanding actions arising from the previous meeting.

To remind Members of the need to record the existence and nature of any personal, disclosable pecuniary or other registrable interests in items on the agenda, in accordance with the Members’ Code of Conduct.

Dr Bal Bahia and Dr Barbara Barrie declared an interest in all matters pertaining to Primary Care, by virtue of the fact that they were General Practitioners, but reported that as their interest was personal and not a disclosable pecuniary or other registrable interest, they determined to remain to take part in the debate and vote on the matters where appropriate.

Andrew Sharp declared an interest in any items that might refer to South Central Ambulance Service due to the fact that he was the Chair of Trustees of the West Berks Rapid Response Cars (WBRRC), a local charity that supplied blue light cars for ambulance drivers to use in their spare time to help SCAS respond with 999 calls in West Berkshire, and reported that, as his interest was personal and not a disclosable pecuniary or other registrable interest, he determined to remain to take part in the debate and vote on the matters where appropriate.

Members of the Health and Wellbeing Board to answer questions submitted by members of the public in accordance with the Executive Procedure Rules contained in the Council’s Constitution.

“What accommodation and support is available for those who are homeless or at risk of homelessness with severe mental health issues?”

A question standing in the name of Ms Pam Hayden on the subject of support for homeless people with severe mental health issues was answered by Dr Bahia on behalf of the Board.

“What mechanisms are available to improve communication between homeless people with mental health issues and their support workers?”

A question standing in the name of Ms Pam Hayden on the subject of mechanisms to support communication between homeless people with mental health issues and their support workers was answered by Dr Bahia on behalf of the Board.

“What new funding is the Government making available to support people with mental health issues?”

A question standing in the name of Ms Pam Hayden on the subject of new government funding for mental health was answered by Dr Bahia on behalf of the Board.

“I understand that a community resilience officer is to be appointed to work with volunteers, the community sector and local businesses in support of the Health and Wellbeing Strategy; can you tell me how this appointment will be promoted in our communities?

A question standing in the name of Mrs Martha Vickers on the subject of a new community resilience officer was answered by Dr Bahia on behalf of the Board.

“Can you tell me about the intended audience of, promotion of and cost of Mental Health First Aid courses?

A question standing in the name of Mrs Martha Vickers on the subject of Mental Health First Aid courses was answered by Dr Bahia on behalf of the Board.

“Can the Board tell me how incidents of Asthma in Newbury compare with other towns in Berkshire?”

A question standing in the name of Mrs Martha Vickers on the subject of incidents of asthma in Newbury compared to other towns was answered by Dr Bahia on behalf of the Board.

There were no petitions presented to the Board.

For the Board’s guest, Richard Benyon MP, to address the Board on the subject of mental health and for the Board to respond by outlining some of the activity which is ongoing at Berkshire-wide, Berkshire West and West Berkshire levels.

Berkshire-wide activity:

• Brighter Berkshire Campaign
• Berkshire Suicide Prevention Strategy

Berkshire West activity:

• Berkshire West Mental Health Strategy

West Berkshire activity:

• Mental Health Collaborative Action Plan
• West Berkshire Suicide Prevention Action Plan

Dr Bal Bahia opened discussion of the item by stating that the Board had planned to choose particular areas of interest on which to focus meetings of the Health and Wellbeing Board. It was timely that the Board should focus on mental health in this meeting, considering the launch of the Brighter Berkshire campaign. Richard Benyon MP was invited to make a statement to open the discussion.

Richard Benyon MP thanked the Board for the opportunity to speak about mental health and expressed the view that a step change was needed in the way the statutory, voluntary and community organisations worked together to improve the way that people with mental health issues were supported.

One in four people experience mental health issues at some point in their lives, demonstrating how common mental health disorders were. The predicted economic cost to society of mental health problems was £105 billion which was equivalent to the entire NHS budget. Mental health problems were more likely to effect young people and people on low to medium incomes.

In the workplace, one in five working adults is effected by mental health issues and nearly one in seven experience mental health problems in the workplace. In 2015 the estimated cost to employers was estimated to be around £9 billion.

2017 was the Year of Mental Health and Brighter Berkshire was a fantastic campaign looking to fund mental health projects and reduce duplication with its mantra ‘do once for Berkshire’.

‘Making Every Adult Matter’ was an ambitious campaign which sought to end rough sleeping and tackle homelessness. The connection between homelessness and mental health was somewhat obvious as mental health problems could be exacerbated or caused by homelessness and vice versa. Thanks were owed to Lindsey Finch from Thames Valley Police who had agreed to take forward the work to make every adult matter.

The Government had recently announced that £11.7 billion would be made available for preventing and treating mental health issues. The Prime Minister, in a speech to the Charity Commission on 9^th January 2017 had outlined plans to offer further support for mental health and Richard Benyon wanted to ensure that residents in West Berkshire would benefit from these plans. The government planned to pilot new approaches such as offering mental health first aid training for teachers and staff to help them identify and assist children experiencing mental health problems and ensure that schools and colleges worked closer together with local NHS services to provide dedicated children and young people’s mental health services. In the workplace, the government wanted to strengthen links with employers to support people with mental health problems back into work. In communities the government would make up to £15 million of extra funding available for community clinics, crisis cafes, and alternative places of safety. There would be investment in digital mental health services which would be of particular benefit to residents in West Berkshire who experienced rurality and isolation.

Locally, there were three particular issues which Richard Benyon asked  ...  view the full minutes text for item 35.

To inform the Health and Wellbeing Board about draft plans for the Better Care Fund.

The Board considered a report (Agenda Item 10) which provided an update on the status of the Better Care Fund plan for 2017/19. Tandra Forster advised that she had expected to be presenting the final plan for the Board’s approval but the guidance has not yet been published and the submission deadline had been delayed. The delay was in part due to the additional funding for adult social care which had been announced by the Government; it was not yet known how much there would be for West Berkshire but there were already many ideas on how it might be invested.

RESOLVED that the report be noted.

To inform the Health and Wellbeing Board of the outcome of the Hot Focus Session held on 23 February 2017 to refresh the Systems Resilience Dashboard and to seek approval of the new approach.

The Board considered a report (Agenda Item 10) which informed of the outcomes of the Hot Focus Session held on 23 February 2017 to refresh the Systems Resilience Dashboard.

Jo Reeves explained that a new performance reporting framework was in the process of being developed to help monitor the delivery of the Health and Wellbeing Strategy. This would include exception reports being provided to Board on issues with exceptional over or under performance. This performance data would be used to aid comparison with performance in other areas.

Future Hot Focus Sessions would be renamed ‘Problem Solving Sessions’ and the Community Conversations approach would be used to help identify and resolve system resilience issues.

Collaboration between partners would be a key aspect in taking forward and widening systems resilience.

RESOLVED that the new approach of performance monitoring and problem solving be approved:

·         Future Health and Wellbeing Development Sessions (private meetings in between Board meetings) would feature a standing item for members to share ‘good news’ stories and organisational resilience concerns.

·         A new performance reporting framework would be developed to report indicators linked to the Health and Wellbeing Strategy. The Steering Group would receive the information and ensure that exception reports were provided to the Board on issues with exceptional over or under performance.

·         The Board would consider the performance of the West Berkshire system in comparison with other areas annually as part of its Annual Report.

·         Future Hot Focus Sessions would be renamed ‘Problem Solving Sessions’ and would use the Community Conversations approach to identify and resolve system resilience issues.

To inform members of the Health and Wellbeing Board of the latest progress achieved by its sub-groups in delivering the Health and Wellbeing Strategy and to highlight any emerging issues which requires the Board members’ attention.

The Board considered a report (Agenda Item 11) which informed members of the latest progress achieved by its sub-groups in delivering the Health and Wellbeing Strategy.

Jo Reeves explained that in order to clarify how the Strategy would be delivered, the Chairs of the sub-groups had been asked to develop strategic action plans. These plans would serve to clarify the sub-group’s objectives, intended impacts, key performance indicators and actions. This work involved holding partner organisations to account and helped to show the value being added by the work of the sub-groups.

Jo Reeves then drew attention to the report received at the Steering Group meeting on 2 March 2017 from the Special Education Needs and Disability (SEND) Reform Steering Group. This report identified a number of strengths and areas for improvement, and the Steering Group would be involved in developing an action plan for this area of activity. An area needing particular focus was identified as transitions for young people moving from children’s to adult’s services. This would be taken forward as part of a problem solving session, attended by Board members and other stakeholders, to find solutions to help improve the experiences of children when moving from one phase or service to another.

Councillor Lynne Doherty was pleased to note progress made to date and was hopeful that the action plan would soon be presented and the problem solving session would soon be arranged. She then made reference to a recent meeting of the Corporate Parenting Panel where there was also a focus on SEND transition. The Panel viewed a very informative DVD and she felt it would be useful if this was also available for the problem solving session.

RESOLVED that the report be noted.

To provide an update on progress against the Board's strategic focus to increase the number of community conversations through which local issues are identified and addressed.

The Board considered a report (Agenda Item 11a) which reviewed the success of community conversations. Susan Powell advised that as on Monday 3^rd March 2017 she would start her new role as the manager of the Building Communities Together Team which would inherit responsibility for coordinating community conversations. Susan stated that she was pleased to report that the team would be inheriting good work and future plans would go beyond geographical communities to encourage communities of interest to hold conversations.

Councillor Lynne Doherty stated that she was pleased to see attention afforded to children and young people’s issues in the conversations which had been undertaken so far, particularly noting the Peer Mentoring scheme. Councillor Doherty reported that she was pleased to see that understanding the outcomes and impacts of this way of working was part of the next steps for the new team. Susan Powell advised that there would be a peer mentoring conference on 23^rd June 2017 and a symposium later in the year.

Susan Powell made reference to a discussion which had been held regarding cyber crime and advised that the team was already looking into holding online conversations.

RESOLVED that the report be noted.

For the Alcohol Harm Reduction Partnership to provide an update on progress against the Board's strategic focus to reduce alcohol related harm across the district for all age groups.

The Board considered a report (Agenda Item 11b) regarding an update from the Alcohol Harm Reduction Partnership. Deborah Joyce reported that the Partnership had a broad membership and would be expended to include service users when appropriate. The Partnership had used Public Health England’s Alcohol CLeaR toolkit to conduct a self assessment and had identified that a strength in West Berkshire was the preventative initiatives undertaken in schools. Through the use of the tool, the Partnership had been able to identify two projects which would support areas for improvement.

Deborah Joyce advised that a Blue Light Project would be initiated with a focus on treatment-resistant drinkers, whose behaviour put pressure on public services. By working intensively with a small cohort of people, it was anticipated that there could be a benefit in reducing demand on the whole system.

A second project, Identification and Brief Advice, was already used widely in General Practice but was intended to be expanded into a number of health and social care roles. It would be a preventative approach to helping at-risk drinkers make an informed choice about their drinking by delivering structured information.

Dr Bal Bahia enquired whether there was a plan on how to deliver these projects; Deborah Joyce confirmed that she was working on the project briefs. Dr Bahia advised that as alcohol was the Board’s focus for 2017 he would like to see an update at each meeting of the Health and Wellbeing Board.

Councillor Quentin Webb asked whether it would be realistic to expect that the projects could be completed within 12 months. Deborah Joyce responded that the Identification and Brief Advice project was expected to be embedded in practice within 12 months but not to be withdrawn after that time.

Andrew Sharp noted that the night time economy was heavily regulated but the work of the Partnership had identified that many people were drinking in the home; it would be for the Health and Wellbeing Board to lobby the government on minimum pricing in order to impact home drinkers.

RESOLVED that the Board noted the report.

For the Board to receive the final Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West (BOB) NHS Sustainability and Transformation Plan (STP) Submission.

The Board noted the report.

To receive information on the Berkshire West Clinical Commissioning Groups  (CCGs) Operational Plan 2017-19.

The Board noted the report.

Members of the Health and Wellbeing Board to answer questions submitted by Councillors in accordance with the Executive Procedure Rules contained in the Council’s Constitution. (note: there were no questions submitted relating to topics not on the agenda)

There were no Member Questions submitted to the Board.

Thursday 25 May 2017, 9.30am at West Berkshire Community Hospital

The Health and Wellbeing Board noted that a Special meeting would be held at 9am on 4^th May 2017 in Committee Room 1. The next ordinary meeting would be on 25^th May 2017 at 9.30am in West Berkshire Community Hospital.