Agenda and minutes

To approve as a correct record the Minutes of the meeting of the Board held on 8 December 2022.

The Minutes of the meeting held on 8 December 2022 were approved as a true and correct record and signed by the Chairman.

To consider outstanding actions from previous meeting(s).

Progress on actions from the previous meetings was noted.

It was confirmed that an update on Action 213 would be provided for the next 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.

The following are considered to be standing declarations applicable to all Health and Wellbeing Board meetings:

·         Councillor Graham Bridgman – Governor of Royal Berkshire Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, and Governor of Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust

Councillor Graham Bridgman declared an interest in Agenda Item 8, but reported that, as his interest was a personal or an other registrable interest, but not a disclosable pecuniary interest, he determined to remain to take part in the debate.

Councillors Steve Masters and Martha Vickers, and Dr Heike Veldtman declared an interest in Item 12, but reported that, as their interest was a personal or an other registrable interest, but not a disclosable pecuniary interest, they determined to remain to take part in the debate and vote on the matter.

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.

A full transcription of the public and Member question and answer sessions is available from the following link: Transcription of Q&As.

There were no petitions presented to the Board.

To agree any changes to Health and Wellbeing Board membership.

It was noted that membership of the Health and Wellbeing Board was on an organisational basis. A standing item was retained on the agenda to note any changes in personnel. Changes since the last meeting included:

·         Paul Coe had been appointed as Interim Executive Director of People (DASS and DCS) and replaced Andy Sharp;

·         Fiona Worby had been appointed as Interim Lead Officer for Healthwatch West Berkshire and replaced Andrew Sharp.

It was noted that this would be the last meeting for Professor Tracy Daszkiewicz and Steve Welch. The Board thanked them for their contributions.

In addition to the changes published in the agenda papers, the Chairman asked the Board to note that April Peberdy had been appointed as Interim Strategic Director of Communities and Wellbeing and would replace Steve Welch.

RESOLVED to note the report.

Purpose: To present the Healthwatch report on the experience of asylum seekers in West Berkshire.

Councillor Steve Masters declared an interest in Agenda Item 12 by virtue of the fact that he had helped conduct interviews with the refugees, but reported that, as his interest was a personal or other registrable interest, but not a disclosable pecuniary interest, he determined to remain to take part in the debate and vote on the matter.

Councillor Martha Vickers declared an interest in Agenda Item 12 by virtue of the fact that she was a member of the Board of Healthwatch West Berkshire and she had helped conduct interviews with the refugees, but reported that, as her interest was a personal or other registrable interest, but not a disclosable pecuniary interest, she determined to remain to take part in the debate and vote on the matter.

Dr Heike Veltman declared an interest in Agenda Item 12 by virtue of the fact that she was employed by the GP practice that cared for guests in one of the refugee hotels, but reported that, as her interest was a personal or other registrable interest, but not a disclosable pecuniary interest, she determined to remain to take part in the debate and vote on the matter.

The Healthwatch Report on Asylum Seekers was presented by Sarah Deason (Business Development Manager, The Advocacy People).

The report made a number recommendations for Health and Wellbeing Board partners and other agencies. It was acknowledged that some issues related to national policy and Home Office responsibilities. The Board agreed that supporting asylum seekers was important, but stressed that the Home Office was the key agency.

Officers provided an update on the latest position in the hotels being used to accommodate the refugees. A recent visit had found everything to be working well. Food quality had improved and guests’ preferences and dietary needs were catered for. Guests appeared to be well-settled in the hotels - although some guests had been there a long time, there was a reasonable turnover as individual refugees were processed. They were respected in the community and were integrating well.

It was explained that the Council had a limited role, which was confined to statutory duties (i.e. safeguarding, education, environmental health and health and safety). A core group of officers had been set up to coordinate activity, with representation from the ICB, Public Health and Thames Valley Police. Individual cases were discussed, but there had been relatively few issues.

Public Protection had statutory responsibilities for health and safety and food safety. Incident logs were inspected as part of any visits. Issues previously raised in relation to food and access to toiletries had been addressed. Responsibilities between the Home Office and hotel owners had been clarified.

Thames Valley Police were reviewing social media posts in response to local newspaper articles. While there was evidence of low level hostility, no criminal offences had been committed and the situation would be monitored.

The following points were made in relation to the report’s recommendations:

1.     Provision of Information – As part of the hotel induction process,  ...  view the full minutes text for item 74.

Purpose: To provide an update on the Integrated Care Partnership Strategy, including the results of the public consultation.

Sarah Webster (BOB ICB Executive Director for Berkshire West Place) presented the Integrated Care System Update (Agenda Item 8).

It was noted that public consultation on the Integrated Care Partnership (ICP) Strategy had closed at the end of January and responses were being analysed. It was proposed to take the final version of the Strategy to the ICP for approval on 1 March after which it would be published and shared with partners. The ICP Strategy was built on the Joint Local Health and Wellbeing Strategies and focused on areas where there was merit in working at the BOB level.

The Integrated Care Board (ICB) had a legal responsibility to prepare a five-year Joint Forward Plan – this would deliver the ICP Strategy and Joint Local Health and Wellbeing Strategies. There was a requirement to seek comment from affected Health and Wellbeing Boards. Dialogue would take place with officers in the development phase. It was proposed to bring the Joint Forward Plan to the next meeting on 20 April 2023. The Plan would be refreshed annually.

Work on development of the Place Based Partnership (PBP) was summarised. The Berkshire West Place comprised three local authorities of West Berkshire, Reading and Wokingham, which differed from many other Places that were coterminous with a single upper-tier local authority. Partners were seeking to identify where it would be appropriate for the three local authorities to work together and where work should remain at the individual local authority level. Work was ongoing to look a structures and governance arrangements. A more detailed update would be provided to the next meeting.

It was noted that Elected Members were involved at ICP and Health and Wellbeing Board levels. Conversations were underway about appropriate involvement in the PBP.

RESOLVED to note the report.

Purpose: To present the refreshed West Berkshire Vision 2036 document for approval.

Catalin Bogos (Performance, Research and Consultation Manager) presented the item on the West Berkshire Vision (Agenda Item 9).

The Chairman highlighted current variations in life expectancy within the district, which it was hoped could be minimised. Also, one of the aims of the Vision was to achieve a high healthy life expectancy, which would improve quality of life while reducing health and social care expenditure. Another key statistic was the expected reduction from 4 to 3 working aged people for every retired person in the district by 2036, which raised issues of affordability.

It was noted that some of the commitments set out in the Vision were adjustment of older commitments and it was suggested that new commitments could be highlighted in the document.

Action: Differentiate new and amended commitments in the Vision document.

The Board thanked officers for the work that had gone into updating the Vision.

It was noted that significant progress had been made, which had taken place in the context of the Covid pandemic. However, the importance of setting new ambitions was recognised and the Board welcomed how these were presented.

It was stressed that the Vision had been developed in consultation with residents and it responded to their concerns.

Members highlighted issues around the future housing mix in the context of an ageing population and stressed the need to think creatively about how and where older people will live in future. It was noted that other European countries had thought more about improving access to local facilities.

The Board praised the work of local voluntary sector organisations which would be essential to delivering the Vision.

It was suggested that a more innovative approach was needed with respect to housing, which would require more direct relationships with developers regarding the mix of properties that are built. Only a small proportion of dwellings built since 2020 were affordable homes and young people would move away if they could not afford to buy locally. It was suggested that strategies developed to deliver the vision needed to be honest about the scale of the challenge.

It was highlighted that health should be considered as part of all activities. The fundamentals were for people to have well-paid work and roof over their heads, and it was suggested that there needed to be partnership working with housing associations and private landlords to secure reasonable homes for reasonable rents and to ensure that home are well maintained.

It was noted that the Vision aligned well with Sovereign Housing’s Corporate Plan around delivering innovative solutions for young people and older people. Work was ongoing on developing affordable options for West Berkshire residents. It was also suggested that existing homes needed to be improved / maintained, particularly privately rented homes.

The Board noted that West Berkshire was a low-crime area, but there were still some issues (e.g. substance misuse). It was suggested that the Board might receive a report on tackling substance misuse at a future meeting.

The focus of the Vision on improving  ...  view the full minutes text for item 76.

Purpose: To report on the actions being taken in response to the Peer Review on Continuing Health Care Payments and the outcomes of the review of Joint Funding for Health and Social Care.

Sarah Webster presented the item on Continuing Health Care (CHC) and Joint Funding for Health and Social Care (Agenda Item 10).

Members noted that CHC was high on the Council’s agenda by virtue of the fact that Berkshire West was at the bottom of the national league table in terms of payments awarded, and welcomed the aim of seeking of achieving consistency across the whole of the BOB Integrated Care System.

RESOLVED to note the report.

Purpose: To provide a report from the Mental Health Action Group as part of its work in addressing elements of the delivery plan for the West Berkshire Health and Wellbeing Strategy. This work involves the impact of personal financial problems on people’s mental health.

Adrian Barker (Chairman of the Mental Health Action Group) presented the item on Financial Problems and Mental Health (Agenda Item 11).

The Board expressed their thanks to Adrian Barker, Rachel Johnson and the other members of the Mental Health Action Group for their work on the report. It was noted that the Group had not shied away from ‘sticky issues’ (e.g. dealing with large corporations which were now starting to realise the links between mental health and money matters). It was noted that one High Street Bank was now working with schools on financial awareness initiatives.

The need for improved communications was highlighted – around £15 billion of benefits went unclaimed each year, which highlighted the need to reach those who were entitled to them.

It was noted that further work was needed to develop the actions and ensure that the right people were identified to progress them. It was suggested that the results be reported to a future meeting.

It was recognised that sharing information between agencies would help to identify people who were struggling and prevent further escalation, but data protection legislation made it difficult to do this.

The Board noted that Citizens Advice used to have a specialist adviser for people with mental health issues, but this was lost due to a lack of funding.

The work being undertaken with schools was welcomed and acknowledged as being important.

Concern was expressed about disabled people being able to access services and advice.

The proposal for a physical wellbeing hub was welcomed, since residents could be put off joining a gym by the cost.

A point was made about cultural pressures, particularly on young people, to aspire to certain lifestyles, which could result in financial pressures.

Members felt that the Mental Health Action Group needed to be ambitious in terms of converting aspirations into progress.

An observation was made that the report’s findings were consistent with issues raised through the Cost of Living Hub.

Digital exclusion was recognised as a particular issue that needed to be addressed in order to improve access to information, and it was suggested that this needed to be incorporated into the evaluation of the Cost of Living Hub and the Winter Outreach Programme.

The Board noted that some people were in financial difficulties because they were victims of fraud / scams. Work was ongoing with Thames Valley Police on a joint initiative to tackle this. It was suggested that something could be built into the report’s recommendations around fraud prevention.

The report highlighted potential to utilise the Better Care Fund to support initiatives and officers indicated that they would be happy to look at this.

Action: Consider how the Better Care Fund could be used to support initiatives to tackle financial problems and mental health.

The report was welcomed by Sovereign Housing – they indicated that they were happy to be involved and to support any future actions on tackling fraud.

The work of Recovery in Mind was praised and it was suggested that  ...  view the full minutes text for item 78.

Purpose: To review the West Berkshire Health and Wellbeing Board Conference that took place on 31 January 2023.

The Chairman presented the report on the Health and Wellbeing Board Conference (Agenda Item 14).

It was noted that a meeting had been arranged with officers to consider options for future events. It was suggested that attending both conferences on the same day was not ideal, so the Health and Wellbeing Board Conference and District Parish Conference would probably be held on separate days in future years when there was no election. The District Parish Conference would be held in March once the Council’s budget had been approved, and again in October. The Health and Wellbeing Board Conference could be held earlier in the year, but with sufficient lead time.

It was noted that although all spaces for the in-person event had been booked prior to the event, there were still empty seats on the day, which could potentially have been used by people on the Zoom call. It was confirmed that where seats had become available, they were offered to those on the waiting list, but some people had not turned up on the day. The online option was convenient for some people. There had been over 60 people in the room and 35 people attended online.

It was suggested that workshops would have been useful, but it was acknowledged that it took time to set these up and to bring delegates back, and attendees would have to choose one workshop and miss out on others that may be of interest.

Members recognised that the health landscape was complex and some delegates had struggled to understand the presentation that had been given.  Members were referred to the useful video on the ICB website .

It was highlighted that the first public meeting of the ICP had taken place recently, but colleagues had found it difficult to access the meeting. The importance of public engagement was stressed.

RESOLVED to note the report.

Purpose: To provide the performance dashboard for the delivery of the Health and Wellbeing Strategy Delivery Plan and to highlight any emerging issues.

April Peberdy (Programme Manager) presented the Health and Wellbeing Strategy Delivery Plan Progress Report for Quarter 3 of 2022/23 (Agenda Item 14).

It was requested that the RAG ratings be checked and updated to address any errors / inconsistencies.

The Board noted that the Delivery Plan would be imported into the InPhase project management software, which would allow external partners to enter updates directly.

It was proposed that a task group be set up to review the Delivery Plan and ensure that actions were still relevant and were allocated to the correct bodies. This would comprise the Sub-Group Chairmen and possibly Sarah Webster.

It was noted that the Action Plan was very large.

A question was asked about whether there were enough health visitor resources to deliver Action 2.27. Reassurance was provided that West Berkshire had a good number of health visitors. However, it was recognised that some of the actions in the Delivery Plan that related to children and young people needed to be updated with more comprehensive information. This would be picked up as part of the refresh.

Action: Officers to ensure that more detailed updates are provided for Delivery Plan actions.

In relation to Action 1.6, it was noted that feedback had been provided by a visually impaired customer who had struggled to communicate with the Council, and she had suggested a technology solution.

Action: Officers to confirm what assistive technology the Council used to support customers with sensory impairments.

The low numbers of rough sleepers was welcomed, but it was noted that there were people who were sleeping in their cars. Issues were raised about the need for separate facilities for people with and without complex needs and it was suggested that some people may be avoiding Two Saints due to difficult clients who were housed there.

The Board noted that the actions related to young carers were showing as red. It was highlighted that good progress had been made in this area in the past, but this no longer appeared to be the case. Members asked that this be addressed. It was explained that the Children’s Delivery Group had a new Chairman and they were going to look at their actions as part of the refresh. It was highlighted that it would be easier to keep the Delivery Plan up to date once it was imported to the InPhase project management system.

Action: Officers to follow up on indicators related to young carers and report progress to the next meeting.

RESOLVED to:

a)    Receive the report and note the changes to the Delivery Plan;

b)    Agree that the Delivery Plan be updated to reflect current priorities;

c)     Agree that a small task group be convened to review all actions and targets and ensure they are appropriately allocated to sub-groups of the Health and Wellbeing Board;

d)    Note that note the Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy Delivery Plan will be added to the Council’s InPhase management system and that this work should be complete in time  ...  view the full minutes text for item 80.

Purpose: To present the annual report from the Safeguarding Adults Board.

The Safeguarding Adults Board for Berkshire West’s Annual Report for 2021/22 (Agenda Item 15) was provided for information only and was not discussed at the meeting, except to note that the terms of reference for the Safeguarding Adults Board required them to present the report to the Health and Wellbeing Board. Members were encouraged to contact the Principal Policy Officer if they had particular concerns about anything in the report.

RESOLVED to note the report.

Purpose: To present the annual report from the Safeguarding Children Partnership.

The Berkshire West Safeguarding Children Partnership’s Annual Report for 2021/22 (Agenda Item 16) was provided for information only and was not discussed at the meeting, except to note that the terms of reference for the Safeguarding Children Partnership required them to present the report to the Health and Wellbeing Board. Members were encouraged to contact the Principal Policy Officer if they had particular concerns about anything in the report. It was noted that it had taken several months for this to come to Health and Wellbeing Board, since being published in September 2022.

Action: Officers to investigate why the report had been delayed in coming to the Health and Wellbeing Board.

RESOLVED to note the report.

Purpose: To present an update on the needs assessment and engagement work undertaken to date on Equity, Diversity and Inclusion.

The Equity Diversity and Inclusion Report (Agenda Item 17) was provided for information only and was not discussed at the meeting. Members were encouraged to contact the Principal Policy Officer if they had particular concerns about anything in the report.

RESOLVED to note the report.

Members of the Executive 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 items not included on this agenda.)

There were no questions submitted to the meeting.

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

Members were invited to comment on the Health and Wellbeing Board Forward Plan.

Suggested additional items included:

·       Better Care Fund - date to be determined on the back of new guidance which was expected in March.

·       Evaluations for the Cost of Living Hub and the Be Well This Winter Outreach Programme – to be considered at the July meeting.

·       Substance misuse services in West Berkshire – it was agreed that this would be discussed at the Health and Wellbeing Board Steering Group.

2022/23

·         20 April 2023

2023/24 (Provisional Dates)

·         13 July 2023

·         28 September 2023

·         7 December 2023

·         22 February 2024

·         2 May 2024

(All meetings to start at 09:30am)

The dates of future meetings were noted.