Agenda and minutes

To elect a Chair for 2023-24.

RESOLVED:  That Councillor David Hare be elected Chair for the 2023-24 municipal year.

To appoint a Vice Chair for 2023-24.

RESOLVED:  That Dr Debbie Milligan be appointed Vice Chair for the 2023-24 municipal year.

To receive any apologies for absence

Apologies for absence were submitted from Sarah Deason, Graham Ebers, Dr Debbie Milligan and Sarah Webster.

To confirm the Minutes of the Meeting held on 9 February 2023.

The Minutes of the meeting of the Board held on 9 February 2023 were confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

To receive any declarations of interest

There were no declarations of interest.

To answer any public questions

A period of 30 minutes will be allowed for members of the public to ask questions submitted under notice.

The Council welcomes questions from members of the public about the work of this Board.

Subject to meeting certain timescales, questions can relate to general issues concerned with the work of the Board or an item which is on the Agenda for this meeting.  For full details of the procedure for submitting questions please contact the Democratic Services Section on the numbers given below or go to www.wokingham.gov.uk/publicquestions

There were no public questions.

To answer any member questions

There were no Member questions.

To consider and comment on the BOB Joint Forward Plan. (comment to follow)

Robert Bowen, Acting Director of Strategy and Partnerships, ICB, presented the BOB Joint Forward Plan.

During the discussion of this item, the following points were made:

·       The Wellbeing Board was required to provide an opinion on how the Joint Forward Plan aligned with the existing Health and Wellbeing Strategy for Berkshire West.

·       The Joint Forward Plan described how the NHS services would meet the needs of local residents.  It also reflected some of the longer term ambition detailed in the Integrated Care Strategy.  The ambitions set out in the Integrated Care Strategy, which in turn had been built on the foundations of the Health and Wellbeing Strategies across Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West, had been focused on in the development of the Plan.

·       The Plan explained how the NHS part of the system would deliver on the wider NHS commitments and the aspirations of ICS Strategy.

·       The Board was reminded how the Plan had been developed.

·       Partnership and prevention were key themes.  Over the course of the plan, it was hoped that partnerships would become further evolved and integrated.

·       Several challenges across the system had been identified including inequalities, keeping people healthy and well in the community, waiting times and access, and sustainability including financial and workforce stability.  For each of the challenge areas one priority action had been identified for focus in 2023/24.  It was recognised that further work was required to develop a longer term perspective. 

·       The Plan would become a rolling 5 year plan and in subsequent years would be heavily aligned with the rest of the NHS planning, at the end of the financial year to align with other operational and financial strategies. 

·       A version of the Plan had been published in April which had been open for public comment until the end of May.   A series of focus groups had also been held.  Feedback had been factored into the development of the Plan.

·       There was a duty to publish the Plan at the end of June.  The BOB Health and Wellbeing Boards were asked for an opinion as to how the Joint Forward Plan aligned with the relevant Health and Wellbeing Strategy.

·       Councillor Bray questioned what action would be taken if one of the Boards believed the Plan did not align with the Wellbeing Strategy.  Robert Bowen commented that there had been sufficient time to gather feedback and that feedback had been taken on board as it had been received. 

·       Ingrid Slade emphasised that the Joint Forward Plan priorities did align with those of the Berkshire West Health and Wellbeing Strategy and also the Wokingham Strategy into Action.  However, the work of the Board and its strategy focused on the wider determinants of health, and the Joint Forward Plan, whilst it had similar priorities, did not have the same focus in this area.  She went on to refer to the data led approach particularly maximising the use of population health management, referenced within the Joint Forward Plan.  Data approaches at a large footprint, by  ...  view the full minutes text for item 58.

To receive an update on the Better Care Fund end of year reporting.

Lewis Willing, Head of Health and Social Care Integration presented the Better Care Fund end of year reporting.

During the discussion of this item the following points were made:

·       Retrospective approval was sought.

·       All the National Conditions for receiving the Better Care Fund had been achieved. 

·       The Wokingham Integrated Partnership (WIP) continued to work on its key objectives and outcomes of the Better Care Fund, around health inequalities, hospital discharge and admission avoidance.

·       The Better Care Fund funded approximately 60 schemes across the Borough such as the Friendship Alliance, and the Mind Wellbeing Service.  It also helped to fund services such as the Hospital Liaison Team.

·       As part of the end of year reporting the WIP was required to indicate how the delivery of the Better Care Fund had gone, highlighting successes, challenges and if any targets had not been met.

·       BCF funding had been used to support 25 project programme, including new services to support discharge, admission avoidance and health inequalities.  This year, it had supported the partnership to launch some PCN focused projects, further growing the relationship with Primary Care colleagues.

·       All ongoing schemes had been implemented as planned.  Of the 25 projects 2 had been paused whilst the others had been fully or partially completed.

·       WIP strongly agreed that the delivery of the BCF plan in 2022-23 had had a positive impact on the integration of health and social care in the locality.

·       Lewis Willing highlighted some of the successes achieved including the Collaborative Reablement Project and the Keeping in Touch pilot which had been nominated for an MJ award.

·       Challenges included electronic data sharing and pooled aligned resources.  It was noted that due to workforce pressures in Primary Care and also in Adult Social Care staff recruitment it had not been possible to launch some projects until much later in the project year.  As such, it had not been possible to get all of the projects fully implemented and/or maximum impact for these projects realised. 

·       Lewis Willing took the Board through the BCF targets which had been achieved.  The Chair commented that hitting all targets was very difficult and thanked the teams for their hard work.  Councillor Bray commented that work around the Better Care Fund had come a long way.

·       With regards to the percentage of people who are discharged from acute hospital to their normal place of residence, Susan Parsonage asked how many people the 91% achieved, represented.  Lewis Willing indicated that it was approximately 2,500 people.  He outlined the different pathways around discharge from hospital.

·       Councillor Conway emphasised the importance and benefits of effective partnership working.

·       Matt Pope stated that the hospital and system had been under even greater pressure than ever before, as the level of need and demand increased.

RESOLVED:  That the Better Care Fund end of year reporting be approved.

To consider the Wokingham Borough Wellbeing Board Annual Report 2022-23.

Lyndon Mead presented the Wokingham Borough Wellbeing Board Annual Report 2022-23.

During the discussion of this item, the following points were made:

·       The report referred to six Strategy into Action priorities, five of which mirrored the priorities of the Berkshire West Health and Wellbeing Strategy.  Each of these were mapped against an Action Group or Partnership Group that had produced action plans to map the interventions required to deliver against these priorities, and helped to ensure that the plans developed had a very local, Wokingham focus.

·       The format had changed from previous years and was simpler with a ‘we said, we did’ approach and a summary for each area.  It was hoped to make the report more outcome and impact focused, in future.

·       Key performance metrics for the priorities would be identified to provide benchmarking.

·       Some Action and Partnership Groups had progressed further than others.

·       The plan remained draft as some of the Group’s priorities might change slightly in line with national policy and guidance.

·       Matt Pope commented that the Steering Group reviewed the detailed reports from the Action and Partnership Groups every other month.

·       Helen Watson added that the Children and Young People’s Partnership was holding a planning session on 3 July to review the existing Children and Young People’s Plan at a partnership level and setting new priorities.  A refresh of the Special Educational Needs Strategy would also be taking place, as the current strategy did not sufficiently capture the significant work underway in terms of SEND improvement and the Safety Valve programme.

RESOLVED:  That the Wokingham Borough Wellbeing Board Annual Report 2022-23, be recommended to Council for approval.

To consider the Board’s work programme for the remainder of the municipal year.

The Committee discussed the forward programme for the remainder of the municipal year.

During the discussion of this item, the following points were made:

·       It was proposed that Andrew Statham, Director of Strategy, Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust, be appointed to the Wokingham Borough Wellbeing Board, representing the Trust, and that the Constitution be amended to reflect the addition of a Trust representative to the Board.

·       Councillor Hare referred to adult safeguarding training and emphasised the importance of this being taken up.

·       Ingrid Slade indicated that the Thames Valley Local Pharmaceutical Committee was merging with the Buckinghamshire Local Pharmaceutical Committee.  She suggested a presentation on the possible implications of this.

·       Councillor Margetts questioned whether it would be possible to receive an annual update on GP performance.  Belinda Seston agreed to look into who would provide such a report.  It was potentially the Chairs of the Primary Care Network Trusts or the Assistant Director of Primary Care for Berkshire West, or the Clinical Directors of the Primary Care Networks.

·       Councillor Bray commented that the forward programme was very health focused and requested a report on the impact of the Borough’s leisure offer on people’s wellbeing, including uptake of leisure facilities, the impact on people’s health and wellbeing, pricing and access.  Matt Pope suggested that information would be required from several areas and that the item should be added to the forward programme without a specific meeting date attached at present.

RESOLVED:  That

1)    The forward programme be noted;

2)    Andrew Statham be appointed to the Wokingham Borough Wellbeing Board, representing the Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust, and that the Constitution be amended to reflect the addition of a Trust representative to the Board.